It is the first time the Americans have reached this stage since 1930 and surely provided the shock of these constantly surprising finals.

They did it with a display of heart, discipline and bravery against a talented Mexican side who were slowly torn to shreds by their own frustrations and ended with skipper Rafael Marquez sent off for a late clash of heads with Cobi Jones in the dying minutes.

Fulham’s midfielder Eddie Lewis, in his first appearance in the tournament, produced an exceptional display and then explained the impact of President Bush’s morning call: ‘‘We were all brought together in the hotel and the call was put on the loudspeakers.

‘‘The President wished us luck, said he had just rung the president of Mexico and told him we would win and it gave us all real boost.

‘‘He said he wasn’t really a soccer fan but had been watching our games. For him to take the time to call meant a lot to us all.’’

For coach Bruce Arena it is little short of a miracle to see the unsung Americans now in the last eight, even if the prospect of a quarter final with Germany in Ulsan on Friday is a fearful one.

‘‘Nobody believed in our team," said Arena.

"We do not have the best players in the world but we have enough good players to give anyone a game on our day.

‘‘This is terrific for our region. It’s the first time any country from CONCACAF has reached this stage when not appearing in the finals as hosts. Our region is underestimated throughout the world, but the performances of ourselves, Mexico and Costa Rica here should now gain us a lot more respect.

‘‘We know it’s Germany next, and they have an outstanding team. We played them last March in a friendly and they soundly beat us and we know they are now overwhelming favourites.

‘‘On paper it looks no match. But we will enjoy this result first and then get our heads together, regroup and get a game plan we hope will produce another result like this.’’

The USA got off to a great start with a seventh minute drive from Brian McBride after great work by

Sunderland’s Claudio Reyna.

Mexico built up the pressure to a crescendo but just couldn’t find a way past Brad Friedel and his battling defenders, with Eddie Pope, Tony Sanneh and Crystal Palace’s Gregg Berhalter outstanding.

And then with America on the ropes in the second half, Lewis relieved the tension and raced clear on the left before crossing for Landon Donovan to dive to head the second just after the hour.

The Mexicans were broken now and the game deteriorated into a nasty, sometimes spiteful clash of 10 bookings and Marquez’s red card. Mexico coach Javier Aguirre fumed afterwards after a handball in the box by John O’Brien that was missed by overworked Portuguese referee Vitor Melo

Pereira, claiming: ‘‘The referee made a decision that made the game difficult and changed it.

‘‘Everybody saw O’Brien handle the ball on the big screen, but the referee didn’t catch it. But since football is judged by humans, these things can happen.’’

Goalkeeper Oscar Perez refused to accept any blame for the goals, saying: ‘‘I tried my best, they weren’t my fault, the ball came at me so fast.’’

Striker Jared Borgetti struggled to explain the disaster which has hit Mexican football, adding: ‘‘We had a good start but wasted everything. However, I still feel we have played to a high standard in

this tournament.’’

But the bottom line is that the Mexicans did not create enough and failed to match the USA’s sheer determination to make history.

Arena added: ‘‘Our guys executed our game plan beautifully. I don’t know if we were lucky. We have beaten the winners of a group which included Italy, then we took a point from the hosts Korea, and nobody has done that.

‘‘We’ve had some impressive results in this World Cup, I wouldn’t call them lucky, I think we are a good team and we will prove we have a great team against Germany.’’

Blackburn goalkeeper Friedel, who had another excellent game, added: ‘‘We decided that if we were going to go out, we’d go out swinging.

‘‘We have great spirit, it’s something we’ve always had and I think Americans are born with it. The effort from our heart was never lacking.’’

MEXICO: Perez, Marquez, Carmona, Vidrio (Mercado 46), Torrado (Garcia Aspe 78), Morales (Hernandez 28), Luna, Johan Rodriguez, Arellano, Borguetti, Blanco.

USA: Friedel, Berhalter, Sanneh, Pope, Mastroeni (Llamosa 90), O’Brien, Lewis, Reyna, Wolff (Stewart 59), McBride (Jones 79), Donovan.