The U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry returns to center stage in Saturday’s friendly
The first meeting between the neighbor nations in 15 months will rekindle a flame that was overlooked in a World Cup year.
TEMPE, Ariz. — It’s understandable that the U.S. men’s soccer team had other things to think about for a while as it built toward the privilege of a World Cup on home soil.
Now that the summer has passed, the program can turn its attention back to things it traditionally has focused on.
The Americans will return to the Concacaf Nations League in next month’s quarterfinals and hope to reach March’s final four. Next summer brings the biennial Gold Cup, the official crowning of the continent’s top team.
Along with renewing old acquaintances, the U.S. is returning to tournaments it failed to win last year. The Nations League was an especially bad failure: losses to Panama in the semifinals and Canada in the third-place game led to manager Mauricio Pochettino tearing down a complacent squad.
But before those competitions, there will be what Pochettino likes to call “nonofficial” matchups with the U.S.’s two biggest rivals: Mexico on Saturday in Glendale, Ariz. (10 p.m., TNT, Telemundo 62), and Canada on Tuesday in St. Paul, Minn. (8 p.m., TNT, Universo).
The first matchup is the bigger of the two, with all due respect to the Canucks and fiery Wisconsin-born manager Jesse Marsch. Even he knows that U.S.-Mexico is the continent’s most famous clash.
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El Tri is also the most common opponent the U.S. has faced, with 92 previous meetings dating back to 1934. But it’s been 15 months since the last meeting, matching the longest gap in a decade and a half.
The absence hasn’t really made hearts grow fonder. It has been evident, though, since a new generation of American players is set for an initiation.
“Every young player that’s coming to camp has watched these games growing up, I’m sure of it,” said veteran midfielder Tyler Adams, who this week regained the U.S. team’s captaincy. “They understand what these games are like and what they need to do to be able to have an impact on it. But at the same time, it’s an opportunity for them to get thrown into the deep end as well and really get their feet wet.”
That will include facing a pro-Mexico crowd, as typically is the case when the teams meet in friendlies. Over 60,000 tickets have been sold at the 63,400-seat State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals.
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“It’s about [helping] to build our character, if we have some adversity — for that group, it’s going to be good,” Pochettino said. “I celebrate this, to have this type of game to play in a difficult atmosphere, and I think that for sure is going to help for the future.”
Right-flank playmaker Sergiño Dest was introduced to the rivalry in a 2019 friendly in which the U.S. was blown out in the Meadowlands. Two years later, he helped the Americans win an epic Nations League final, the first of three straight titles in the tournament.
“These games, I feel like it’s the real culture and the real passion of football,” he said. “Playing with America against Mexico is one of the best games here, and it’s going to be a tough game.”
Mexico snapped the U.S.’s streak last year, though the Americans did it to themselves just as much. Four months later, El Tri won the Gold Cup final against an American squad that lacked many top players but was full of controversy: Christian Pulisic’s withdrawal, the Club World Cup running consecutively, and Pochettino’s benchings.
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Since then, Mexico has stood alone atop the podium, owning all five Concacaf men’s titles: the Nations League, the Gold Cup, and the under-20, under-17, and under-15 championships.
Adams admitted that the team hasn’t talked about the big picture much, as there’s enough on the collective plate during this busy window of friendlies. But he said it is worth discussing.
“Football swings back and forth and [has] different momentum, and you go through phases and rebuilding periods and all these different periods — but that doesn’t take away from the rivalry of what this game is and how important it is for us to win,” Adams said. “We obviously want it to swing back in our favor, but that starts without performance. We know that if we perform at a high level, and we do the things that we’re supposed to in the right way, that we obviously can, but it’s a difficult game, and we need to make sure that we go out there and compete.”
So while Saturday’s game is just a friendly, it’s a chance to make an opening statement in the 2030 World Cup cycle.
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And if there’s a little brimstone along the way, it will be nothing new.
“There was a glimpse of the fire that teams like that can bring at the end of the Chile game,” left back Antonee Robinson said, referring to a benches-clearing brawl on Thursday that sparked when La Roja’s Leandro Hernández prodded U.S. goalkeeper Brian Schwake after he had claimed the ball. “So we’ve just been saying to the young boys that you’re going to expect that and a lot more when we play against Mexico.”
