With the Olympics on the horizon — and an opportunity to redeem itself from last summer’s World Cup fiasco — the U.S. women’s national soccer team took a jarring step backward late Monday with a 2-0 defeat to Mexico at the Concacaf W Gold Cup in Carson, Calif.
Consider this:
- The Americans had lost to Mexico once before, more than 13 years ago, in 42 previous meetings.
- They had not lost at home against a team from Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) since 2000 against rival Canada, breaking a 78-0-2 streak.