High-stakes showdown means the world to Mexico

DERBY DAYS: SOCCER 2010 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER Mexico v USA Today – 3pm (local time), 9pm (Irish time) Estadio Azteca, Mexico City: FROM THE Mexican-American War in the 1840s (when Mexico lost the war and the USA won Texas) to the ongoing issues concerning illegal border-crossings, simmering tensions have always existed across the 2,000-mile North American border.

However, apart from perhaps radio talk shows, outlets for expressing the rivalry have not been easy to find. The most popular professional sports in the United States are American football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey. In Mexico, soccer comes first, second and third. Bullfighting comes fourth.

If it wasn’t for soccer, the two nations would have to settle their differences in a wrestling ring. The rise in popularity of soccer in America – and the subsequent improvement in the national side’s fortunes – has changed matters.

Still, the sides have met only once in a World Cup finals – in South Korea in 2002, when, in the first knockout round, goals by Brian McBride and Landon Donovan, underlined by Rafa Marquez’s red card, sent the Mexicans home to face the wrath of their supporters, provoking media comparisons with another humiliation almost 70 years earlier in Rome.

The first international between Mexico and the USA remarkably took place in Europe in 1934.

With 32 entrants, and 16 places available, it was the first time a country had to qualify for a World Cup finals, and the USA and Mexico met in Mussolini’s land in May, 1934, with one last slot up for grabs. Because the USA submitted their entry to the competition so late it was decided to stage the match in Rome three days before the start of the finals tournament so the winning team could stay for the tournament.

The Mexican squad, confident the match was a mere formality, spent the three-week voyage taking it easy, while the disciplined Americans arrived in Rome in strong physical shape.

Regardless, the 4-2 victory by the USA was a massive shock, and left the stunned Mexican players devoid of a World Cup ticket.

Ireland barely missed out on qualification for the same finals. After a 4-4 draw at Dalymount Park against Belgium (Paddy Moore becoming the first player to score four goals in a World Cup tie) the Irish Free State missed out on a place in Italy due to losing to the Netherlands by more than Belgium did. The Irish going down 5-2, while Belgium lost 4-2 a few weeks later, thereby booking their golden ticket to Italy.

Mexico learned their lesson, and three years later hosted their neighbours in three friendlies – the home side, still smarting, winning by a combined score of 19-6. In fact, Mexico have never lost to the USA on home soil, and no Mexican team wants to be the first to spoil that record.

The rivalry took a new twist a couple of weeks ago when the final of the biennial Gold Cup took place in front of 80,000 fans in the Giants Stadium, in New Jersey. Ending their 58-game unbeaten streak against CONCACAF teams, the visitors humiliated the home side 5-0 – and in so doing claimed their first victory on American soil in the 21st century.

But the stakes are much higher tonight. There are only three automatic spots for the 35 teams that occupy the CONCACAF section of the Fifa world, with the team finishing fourth getting the chance of a play-off with the fifth-place team from South America – currently Ecuador.

A convoluted format involved a first qualifying round reducing the 35 entrants to 24, a second bringing the number to 12, with the third, which involved three groups of four, leaving only six.

In this, the final, round of qualifying, the US and Mexico met already in Columbus, Ohio, last February, with Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Michael Bradley – whose father Bob is the coach of the national side – scoring in each half to put the USA in a prime position to qualify for South Africa.

The result provoked a furious reaction in Mexico, with mounting calls for the sacking of Sven-Göran Eriksson. A few weeks later, after a 3-1 loss in Honduras, Eriksson was gone – the main fans association celebrating with a “victory rally” attended by 30,000 supporters.

Currently one slot below the last automatic qualification position, the pressure on Mexico is huge. Not only is a home record against their rivals on the line again – but so too is the fear of missing out on a World Cup finals for the first time since 1990.

Mexico have turned to former manager Javier Aguirre to push the team to South Africa, as he did for the 2002 tournament. His most recent tenure has already been marked by several incidents – not least during Mexico’s recent Gold Cup tie with Panama during which the manager kicked Panama player Ricardo Phillips.

The game was delayed for 10 minutes and the former Atletico Madrid boss ejected.

If Mexico are to keep their qualification hopes alive, Aguirre will need players such as Nery Castillo, Tottenham’s Giovani Dos Santos and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who actually plays his club football in Chicago, to have their kicking boots on tonight.

Team USA, however, are currently riding high in the world of international football. Currently ranked 12th in the Fifa world rankings, the Landon Donovan-inspired team that lost 3-2 to Brazil in the final of the recent Confederations Cup – and who were missing a host of first-team players for the recent Gold Cup decider – will walk on to the Estadio Azteca pitch tonight, in front of 100,000 partisan spectators, confident of getting the result that will all but seal their World Cup ticket.

And, if they do win, they’ll cross back over the Mexico-US border with the biggest victory over their neighbours for more than 160 years.