Just curious if anyone else out there cares about this or plans to watch it. Game is on Easter Sunday. The USA is 0-21-1 lifetime at Azteca stadium, IIRC. A lot of people think this is the one where we finally break through to beat them on the road after the 2-0 victory in Korea.
Anyone?
:: sits back and waits for the deafening sound of silence ::
I definitely will be watching (although if Wisconsin is playing North Carolina at the same time I may have a dilemma)
I was just checking, and unless I misread, it will be shown on ESPN2 from 1-3 pm Eastern Time. There’s also a special by Bob Ley on “Outside the Lines” that will highlight the intensity of the rivalry. This airs Saturday morning from 9:30-10:00 am.
Should have mentioned the Outside the Lines special is on the regular ESPN.
[sub]Also, as an extra added bonus (contains recent international match results):[/sub]
The USA U-20 side beat Argentina on a late goal, 2-1 in Suwon, Korea today. The winning goal came in stoppage time. Both sides are missing key players, though, so this shouldn’t be much of an indicator of what to expect in the Netherlands this summer.
I’ll be watching. We’ve got to win in Azteca sometime. Or do we?
I love the rivalry, but both sides keep talking about how important this game is, but it really isn’t. A loss by either team won’t be a huge setback (both countries should have no problem qualifying for '06).
One betting line I found has Mexico winning at -115, a draw a +215, and a US win at +260.
Kazahstan is +1850 to win at Denmark
How exactly is this a big game? No matter who loses, they will still qualify for the World Cup due to the extraordinary easy group that both Mexico and the US are in. It will affect seedings but that’s about it. Bah, watch Ireland v. Israel on Saturday which will be a real match.
This is the final round for CONCACAF. Top three make it to Germany and the fourth place team goes into a playoff against Asia.
It’s mostly bragging rights and the US-Mexico game will be a lot easier to see.
Yes :).
We’ll qualify even without this win, but it’d be nice to kick their asses in their home stadium where they have their feeling of invincibility (having it at such a freaking high altitude is definetly a factor in their favor in every game there).
Apparently Mexico REALLY wants this win. They’ve been training hard for it and want to avenge the 2-0 loss they suffered in the second round of World Cup 2002 to the US.
Hopefully Arena destroys the attempted vindication.
They’re on different days; watch them both. I think the Mexico v USA game is the only qualifier being played on Sunday, but there are loads of qualifiers on Saturday.
The reason it’s a big game has nothing to do with qualification. It has to do with pride, regional dominance, revenge and rivalry. This is Tech vs State. This is Florida v Georgia, OSU vs Michigan, the Cowboys and Redskins. Actually a better analogy would be the Yankees and Red Sox first game of this season in Yankee stadium. Fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it sets the tone. There will be 100,000 angry Mexicans in Azteca, and maybe 1,000 to 5,000 crazy Americans. Batteries, bags of urine, firecrackers and what not will be thrown. Ugly things will be chanted.
Ireland and Israel may be much more important, but it will lack the vitriol.
Big game? JA!!
I wish Argentina were in another hemisphere. Win or loose you won’t have any trouble to qualify for the world cup. Changes should be made, perhaps reducing the number of places Oceania and North America have for the WC and giving one more to South America or Europe.
C’mon, be serious. How many times in the last forty years has Argentina failed to qualify? You and Brazil are the big fish there. Everybody else should just be playing for 3rd through 5th.
I’d be okay with 8 spots for the Americas and a north and south division, maybe include Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and the Guyana’s with the current CONCACAF, have the top 3 from North and South go through with the bottom 3 from both ends in a playoff for the final two spots. Better than having a playoff game with Asia or Oceania.
BTW, Estilicon, did you look at the result in the spoiler box? Did you know our B-side hammered Colombia last week? Granted it was probably Colombia’s B-side as well, but we’re getting a lot better up here. Someday is not here yet, but it’s getting closer every year.
Changes were made. North America (or CONCACAF to be exact) have been given a half spot, which means that an extra team goes into a playoff. And take a place from Oceania? They don’t have a guaranteed spot to begin with. There is an ongoing debate about the merits of awarding the winner of Oceania, i.e. Australia, a playoff with another division’s playoff team. On one hand, it’s not fair to give the whole confederation a spot when it would likely mean automatic qualification each time for Australia with little effort. However, it isn’t terribly fair to the winner of the group - usually Australia - to have to play a two-leg do-or-die playoff with a well-conditioned team from South America, Asia, or Europe who have played a good long schedule of competitive games while all they’ve had to chew on for two years are the likes of Fiji and Guam. This year, I believe they go against fifth-place from South America. If you’re a middle of the table South American team, you have plenty of chances to make up for a few mistakes here and there. And if you make the play-off, you get one more chance in the playoff. But for Australia, that play-off is their first and last chance. It’s an interesting dilemma.
Probably the fair thing to do would be to put the top one or two from Oceania into the final round group of Asia.
I agree with most of the responses here. I’m interested in the game, but realize that it’s not important in the greater picture. The analogy of the Yankees-Red Sox game in the early season is a good one. However, I would assume, as far as pride is concerned, a lot more pressure rests on the Mexicans’ shoulders, considering some demons they have to address. If they lose, that would be a disaster (although not as far as Germany '06 is concerned). On the other hand, these pressures might not even come close to what the Yanks have to face - 100,000 peed-off Mexicans giving them hell.
So is there serious rivalry between the yanks and the mexicans? It would make sense that there is, what with them being neighbours etc.
Sure, there is. What is funny is that there really hadn’t been one until the last 10 years or so. Mexico ruled the roost in CONCACAF (the North and Central American and Caribbean soccer federation) up until after the '94 World Cup, when the US decided to get serious about the sport and founded a bona fide first division, MLS.
So the rivalry is currently lopsided, in Mexico’s favor. We’ve tied them once in Mexico and have lost 21 times.
And up until recently, the US was essentially a visiting team whenever playing Mexico in the US. Heck, just a couple of weeks ago the US played Columbia in an exhibition in Fullerton, CA (a suburb of Los Angeles) and drew about 7,000; the same night, the Mexican national team also played a friendly in the LA Coliseum against Argentina and drew 51,000.
But three years ago, in South Korea, the two teams actually met in the World Cup. What was easily the most meaningful game ever between the two countries ended up in a 2-0 victory for the United States.
And the Mexicans are PISSED about that. Still are. (“Pissed” in an American sense, that they’re hugely angry about it; not the British sense of the word, that they’re really drunk.)
So ShibbOleth is right when he says:
Frankly, I think playing this game would be unlike anything that any European side ever has to face: 100,000 people who hate your country, at an uncomfortable altitude (7,200 feet ASL).
This oughta be awesome.
Seems pretty fair to me. If you can’t beat the 5th best South American team, you have no room to complain.
While CONCACAF has too many spots, there’s no way South American deserves another spot.
Mexico hasn’t beaten us in a few years IIRC. All games have been outside of Mexico though. It can be argued that most of the games in the U.S. are really home games for Mexico…at least those that have been played in the southwest. We can’t win in Azteca though. Will we break through this weekend? Personally, I doubt it, but I will be watching and screaming for my guys!
If I recall the last time we lost to Mexico was for 2004 Olympic qualtifying.