The United States shut out Mexico 2-0 to clinch a spot in next year’s World Cup competition in Germany, the first team to secure a spot in the championship games.

It is the United State’s fifth straight trip to the World Cup finals, this time with them ranked sixth in the world — just behind Mexico for some strange reason. The Mexicans are pretty mouthy for a losing team:

Mexico (5-1-1) still needs another point in its final three games to get one of the region’s three berths at Germany 2006. Its coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, was not impressed by the winners.

“The U.S. is a small team,” he said. “They play like my sister, my aunt and my grandmother.”

Tough talk, considering this:

The United States has not lost to Mexico on American soil in seven games since 1999, and has not yielded any goals in that span, either.

Signifying Nothing notes:

This is the fifth consecutive World Cup that the U.S. has qualified for, suggesting that the American squad is rapidly becoming a serious contender on the international scene.

Too true, and Right Thinking from the Left Coast takes a certain satisfaction in this particular win:

This is going to be the latest reason for the rest of the world to hate America. As the popularity of soccer grows in this country, we’re eventually going to dominate this sport like we do pretty much all the others. And Mexico? They get their entire sense of national identity from this game. It’s nice to remind those pricks just who the master is.

I would just like to note that the United States still does not dominate in the time-honored game of Cricket, but I think that’s because no one except a Brit (or a former colony thereof) has the patience to understand the rules.