Mexico takes it seriously
Tired of being pushed around on the soccer field by the United States for the past six or seven years, Mexico is more than ready to reestablish its regional dominance in the sport.
You could see it in Coach Hugo Sanchez’s eyes this week. You could hear it in forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s voice. You could sense it in the focus and ferocity of the Tricolor’s training sessions here Monday and Tuesday.
Tonight, in front of an expected sellout crowd of 60,000-plus at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., Mexico plays the U.S. for the first time in more than 17 months -- long enough for an always-simmering rivalry to have heated by a few degrees.
It’s a friendly, sure, but as Blanco put it recently: “I don’t play friendly games.”
Mexico’s fans, who will make up the vast majority of the crowd, believe this is the beginning of a new era because Sanchez, widely viewed as the country’s greatest-ever player, is making his debut as coach of the national team.
They are counting on the former Real Madrid striker to reverse a troublesome trend.
After decades of failure against Mexico -- the U.S. was a woeful 5-27-9 in the series between 1934 and 1999 -- the Americans have dominated over the past seven years, going 7-2-1, with a shutout victory over Mexico in the 2002 World Cup marking the high point.
In fact, Mexico has not beaten its rival in the U.S. in the last seven games and has not scored a goal on American turf since 1999.
“Our players are certainly aware of the record,” said U.S. Coach Bob Bradley, whose interim status hangs somewhat in the balance tonight. “Hugo Sanchez has used those statistics as motivation for his team, so I think that just puts more on the line as we go into this game... That shows some of his competitiveness, which has always marked his career.”
Bradley said whether or not he gets the U.S. job on a full-time basis has not affected his work with the team. “I’ve not allowed this interim thing to factor into any part of it,” he said.
What Bradley has done is to bolster his roster by bringing in four England-based players: goalkeeper Tim Howard of Everton, defender Carlos Bocanegra and midfielder Clint Dempsey of Fulham and winger Bobby Convey of Reading. “I think they mix in well with the players who have been in camp,” Bradley said.
In addition to the above four, the U.S. starting lineup also is likely to include Chris Albright, Jimmy Conrad, Landon Donovan, Pablo Mastroeni and Ricardo Clark, with the other two starting spots a little more problematic. Eddie Johnson, Chris Rolfe, Justin Mapp, Jonathan Bornstein and Bobby Boswell all could get playing time.
Mexico, meanwhile, has called in virtually all of its top stars, but the player receiving the most attention after training at Arizona State on Monday night was newcomer Nery Castillo, who had flown in from Greece that afternoon.
Castillo, 22, was born in Mexico but raised in Uruguay, where he made his professional debut at 15 before playing for the last six years with Greek powerhouse Olympiakos.
Sanchez, who labored hard to persuade Castillo to choose Mexico’s national team over those of Uruguay and Greece, called Castillo someone who “fits in well because he’s fast and he’s a player with a goal-scoring instinct.”
The coach also called in defender Carlos Salcido from PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and defender Ricardo Osorio and midfielder Pavel Pardo from Stuttgart in Germany. “I won’t say if they’re going to start or not, but they will play,” Sanchez said.
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TONIGHT
United States vs. Mexico
University of Phoenix Stadium,
Glendale, Ariz., 6 PST,
ESPN2 and Univision
Records -- Mexico leads the all-time series, 29-12-10.
Update -- The match could be a preview of the 2007 Gold Cup final in June in Chicago, the winner of which will qualify for the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa in 2009, one year before the next World Cup.
