See you in Germany

Let me get one thing out of the way at the beginning of this post: I don't like Mexico. That is to say, I don't like anything associated with Mexico's national team. I don't like their tactless fans, whom I will never forgive for chanting "Osama!" at the U.S. team or booing the U.S. anthem during Olympic qualifying last year; I don't like their players, who hand out cheap shots like they think they're at auditions for another remake of The Longest Yard; and I really don't like their coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, whose name is, I think, Spanish for "sour grapes." After yesterday's game he commented that the U.S. played like certain female members of his family, which I guess means that he spent a lot of time as a child getting scored on by his aunt while his defense stood stone-footed.

I can at least understand why Mexico is so angry - in recent years, they've been eclipsed. They used to dominate CONCACAF and the U.S., but in the last ten matches, the U.S. is 7-2-1 against the team to the south. What really must anger Mexican fans, however, is the fact that the U.S. doesn't care nearly as much about the rivalry as Mexico does. When Mexico reached the round of 16 in the 2002 World Cup and played the U.S., it was the farthest either team had ever gotten in the expanded tournament, making it a national event in Mexico and... well, I'm sure some people in the U.S. noticed. When the U.S. beat Mexico 2-0, it hardly registered in the American consciousness. Had Mexico won, they probably would have had a national holiday (as Senegal did after their group defeat of France to open the tournament).

It's that inferiority complex that drives the Mexican fans to boo the U.S. anthem, throw batteries, burn U.S. flags outside Azteca Stadium. Maybe they just want to agitate the U.S. into taking them seriously, but I think they're starting in the wrong place. If there's anyone who does take Mexico seriously, it's the U.S. national team, which still has never won at Azteca and pretty much always has to go through Mexico to some degree if it wants to qualify for the World Cup or the Olympics. (The 2004 game in Guadalajara at which "Osama" was chanted ended up a 4-0 Mexico win that knocked the U.S. under-23 team out of Athens.)

Yesterday's game was, as it turned out, broadcast live on ESPN Classic (still, it says a lot that a game that could qualify the U.S. for the most popular sporting event in the world was shown on ESPN's third option while the two major networks showed a couple of relatively insignificant college football games). I missed that showing because I didn't know about it until it had already started, though, so instead I sat down at 1:30 in the morning expecting to see the game. What was there? Drag racing. Was the game late? Had it not been played? Because none of the sports tickers had a listing for "Soccer," I began to wonder if the game had been played at all. So I went online - where of course I found out that it had been played and exactly what happened, the very thing I had been trying to avoid all day. It figures.

I actually fell asleep for the last 20 minutes of the game (played around 3:30 in the morning, so can you blame me?), but what I saw spoke for itself. The first half was pretty bland; neither team seemed willing to go on the attack early. But even in this conservative milieu, it was obvious who the better team was. The U.S. was faster, crisper with its passes, and spent more time in the attacking half; Mexico, by contrast, looked like most of their players were wearing cast-iron boots. Still, the U.S. wasn't perfect; they made too many awkward back-passes to Kasey Keller, and they gave up arguably the two best chances of the half - one in the 31st minute which Naelson squandered with a bad first touch, and one in the 45th when Keller had to make a diving save on a free kick. Mexico looked like they were playing for a 0-0 draw, though (which would have sent them through).

So when the U.S. scored first (a Brian Ralston header after the ball had come off the post in the 52nd minute), Mexico got a bit skittish, and so it was that DaMarcus Beasley put the game away just five minutes later with a beautiful goal off a short corner that caught the Mexican defense napping. Really, on both goals, Mexico seemed unsure of what to do, like they hadn't expected the U.S. to penetrate this far into their territory.

I fell asleep less than ten minutes after Beasley's goal, so I can't speak much towards Mexico's performance in the final half-hour. Did they finally develop an attack? Well, all I can say is if they did, it didn't help matters. Keller now has a clean-sheet streak extending to over 500 minutes in World Cup qualifying (five straight shutouts).

The early qualification means the regulars can have some rest in the next three games, against Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. The Panama game - in Foxboro - should be a win regardless, but the other two are both road games and will be tossups. I wouldn't be terribly surprised by a loss or tie in either one, especially against Costa Rica, which is solidly in third place right now. (If a win in their game against us in October would clinch them a berth, and it likely will if current trends hold, you can bet they'll be ready to go, especially at home.)

The U.S. finishing in the top three of CONCACAF qualifying always seemed like something of a given, but I'm glad to have seen it through so comfortably. It's always more fun following the World Cup when your team is there (although 1998 was pretty painful), though I do like watching all the games at that stage. Anyway, as I said before: see you in Germany!