Pope strikes late

U.S. defeats rival Mexico 1-0 in Dallas on injury-time strike

DALLAS (AP) -- Eddie Pope scored in injury time to give the United States a 1-0 victory over Mexico on Wednesday night in a friendly.

Pope knocked in the rebound of a missed shot by Taylor Twellman from about 5 yards out to give the United States its sixth win in eight meetings with Mexico, including a 2-0 victory in the second round of the 2002 World Cup. The two countries played to a scoreless tie the last time they met, last May at Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Pope's goal was set up by a free kick by Bobby Convey after U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan had been fouled. Convey's free kick was headed by Twellman and deflected by Mexico goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez.

"I felt like we got to every corner kick and free kick out wide, pretty much the whole game," Pope said. "Finally Taylor Twellman got a good head on goal and we were able to finally finish one off."

The U.S. defense held Mexico without a shot on goal as goalkeeper Jonny Walker registered his first career shutout in international play. Mexico has failed to score in the last 434 minutes against the Americans.

"I think the better team won," U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena said. "I think the U.S had the best chances in the game and deserved to win"

U.S. defender Frankie Hejduk wins a header over Mexico's Luis Perez. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

The crowd of about 45,000 at the Cotton Bowl was predominantly Mexican fans.

The United States, which was missing most of its European-based players, squandered numerous chances to score throughout the game before Pope's goal. Twellman's header from 5 yards out in the 75th minute was barely deflected by Sanchez for a save.

Donovan had two excellent chances to score in the first half. Donovan's shot in the 33rd minute from outside the left corner of the penalty area hit the crossbar. In the 37th minute, Sanchez made a leaping save on another shot by Donovan.

"We're just persistent and we knew it would come, we just didn't want it to come that late," Convey said.

The U.S. national team has a final tuneup June 2 against Honduras in Foxboro, Mass. It begins CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches with the opener of a home-and-home series against Grenada on June 13 in Columbus, Ohio. Mexico opens the same weekend at home against Dominica.

Should the United States advance through its preliminary qualifying round, the six-game, four-team semifinal round competition will begin in August.

Summary

United States 1 Mexico 0 -- result

International friendly

Scorer:

United States: Eddie Pope, 90+2

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 45,048

Teams:

United States: 1-Jonny Walker; 2-Frankie Hejduk, 23-Eddie Pope, 25-Pablo Mastroeni, 15-Bobby Convey; 5-Kerry Zavagnin, 10-Landon Donovan, 14-Chris Armas, 7-DaMarcus Beasley; 11-Conor Casey (9-Jovan Kirovski 84), 16-Josh Wolff (20-Taylor Twellman 66).

Mexico: 1-Oswaldo Sanchez; 5-Duilio Davino, 14-Francisco Rodriguez, 20-Ricardo Osorio, 2-Dieo Martinez; 7-Octavio Valdez (11-Emilio Mora 67), 8-Pavel Pardo (19-Isreal Lopez 46), 21-Hector Altamirano (6-Mario Perez 61), 23-Luis Perez; 9-Jared Borgetti (3-Omar Briceno 80), 10-Omar Bravo.

Referee: Mauricio Navarro (Canada)

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.