USA-Mexico tonight

[MrBug708]

There's No Love Lost in Rivalry
U.S., Mexico bring years of soccer animosity to tonight's game with an Olympic berth at stake.


By Grahame L. Jones, Times Staff Writer


GUADALAJARA — "We don't like them, and they don't like us," DaMarcus Beasley was saying here the other day. "It's no secret. That's how it is."

Landon Donovan readily agreed.


"They hate us," he said. "I could have told you that before we got here."

Beasley is only 21 and Donovan is 22, but they already are veterans of the United States-Mexico soccer wars. They were there two years ago when the U.S., en route to a place in the quarterfinals, knocked Mexico out of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

They will be there again tonight, in the boiling caldron of Estadio Jalisco, when Mexico tries to return the favor by denying the U.S. a trip to the Athens Olympics.

The match has captured Mexico's attention. The stadium is almost certain to be sold out. The game will be televised live throughout the country. The newspapers are filled with analyses and commentaries.

One television station is conducting a poll, asking which team will win. The public is split, 3-2 in favor of Mexico.

Mexico's coach, Ricardo Lavolpe, already has been warned by commentators that if his team doesn't win, he probably will be fired.

Lavolpe's predecessor, Javier Aguirre, was ousted after goals by Brian McBride and Donovan had given the U.S. a 2-0 victory in Jeonju, South Korea. Mexican fans expect Lavolpe to avenge that defeat tonight, in the first meaningful encounter since 2002 between the North American neighbors and rivals.

"They don't forget that kind of stuff," Beasley said. "They know that we beat them in the World Cup and we've pretty much beat them the last couple of times, so they've got to come out and win for their country. It's going to be a tough game.

"They're a good team. They've played the best soccer in this tournament. They've defended pretty well. They've got a lot of guys attacking. We're going to look at the tapes and look at their weaknesses, and hopefully we can exploit those."

Mexico, naturally, will have the crowd of 60,000 on its side. During the U.S. team's three victories so far in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, fans have done all they can to upset the American players.

During at least two games, fans chanted "Osama! Osama!" in a derisive reference to the U.S. government's hunt for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

"What do we have to do with politics around the world?" Donovan asked. "It's not our fault. If they really care about that, they should be outside the White House chanting, not yelling at some kids."

Donovan, who speaks Spanish and has been surrounded by Mexican reporters after every game, has received abuse.

"It's one thing when you cheer for your team or boo the other team or even whistle at them," he said. "But they make blatant derogatory comments that are just crude. They make it personal, and that's just ignorant. It says a lot about who they are.

"You just get used to it, and you deal with it. We've got bigger things to focus on. That's part of their mentality, to try to get inside our heads….

"I think, psychologically, we have an edge right now. Mexico desperately wants to beat us. Sometimes when you want to win that hard, it's difficult. There's a lot of pressure on them. What do we have to lose? We want to go to Athens, believe me, but are we favored here? Of course not."

American players and coaches have been trying to get the American public to understand the magnitude of the game. Their task has been made more difficult because it's not being televised in the U.S.

"I don't know how to describe it or compare it to something in America," Donovan said. "Maybe Yankees-Red Sox, I don't know."

But he knows how seriously Mexico's players take the game.

"They're dirty, they're nasty, they'll spit on you, they'll cough on you, they'll grab you where they shouldn't. They want to get any little advantage that they can that's not soccer-related."

In 2002, the U.S. tried countering those tactics with a little motivation from the White House. President Bush called U.S. Coach Bruce Arena on the morning of the game to wish the team well.

Whether he will call current Coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick today remains to be seen.

Ralph Perez, one of Myernick's assistants, compares tonight's game to Duke-North Carolina in basketball or UCLA-USC in football.

Perez ran into a Mexican baseball player the other day, and they got to talking about tonight's game.

"I said to him in Spanish, 'I hope we can reciprocate,' " Perez said.

"He said, 'What do you mean by that?' "

"I said, 'Well, you knocked us out of the Olympics in baseball. Now maybe we can return the favor by knocking you out in soccer."


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[MrBug708]

Not sure how many of you guys know how heated the rivalry here is in SoCal, but there is a hell of a lot of still angry Mexican soccer fans that I know.

[Celeval]

This isn't televised??!! I figured it would be, and didn't bother to check...

[GoldenEagle]

It is BS is not being televised. I have to follow the play by play over at bigsoccer.com

[kingfc22]

Yea, I too am very disappointed that I can't watch this game. Soccer fans do exist in America, too bad TV companies fail to recognize this.

Today's game is going to be very heated seeing how we knocked them out of the WC.

[kingfc22]

dola

With US baseball already failing to make the Olympics and the basketball team getting spanked at the world championships, I hope that the soccer team is able to make a showing in Athens.

[Blade6119]

this should be an awsome game...i wish i could see it, but damn the TV Producers who decided not to.

[Chubby]

even tho I can' stand soccer I wouldn't mind watching this game, I can't believe that out of the 986876 sports channels we have that this game isn't on YET ManU games are always on FoxSports.

[tucker342]

I don't believe it's not on TV

[Vince]

US vs. Mexico in the World Cup happened the morning of June 17, 2002. How do I remember this? I turned 21 that night, and was in a sports bar celebrating for both US goals...still one of my greatest sports memories ever

[GoldenEagle]

i ran around the house with just my boxers on when we scored those two goals. i did a belly flop on to the hard kitchen floor.

my fav. sports memory is when US beat portugal. i was real sleepy when the first goal was scored, then i woke up when we scored, then we score again and again - it was like christmas. After the third goal i jumped into the swimming pool in the backyard.

It was early in the morning so my parents were mad but who cared? I remember jack edwards like of "traffic around europue is at a stand still."

ah, great memories.

[Kam]

US Soccer.com

will have live matchtracker...

and someone on Big Soccer will find a radio station where it will be broadcast

[kingfc22]

3-0 Mexico with 14 minutes left. That's 2 team sport particpants that the US will not have in the Olympics.

[Blade6119]

ouch...there goes my happiness tonight

[Dutch]

Thankfully this wasn't televised.

[GoldenEagle]

Final 4-0. Quite an embarrasment. The lack of quality defenders really hurt. European clubs refused to release our top, young defenders.

[daedalus]

Ummm, as far as I know, they cannot legally not release players for international call-ups.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Ummm, as far as I know, they cannot legally not release players for international call-ups.

FIFA does not recoginize the Olypmics as a FIFA sanctioned event, therefore, clubs are allowed to keep the players if they want to.

[rkmsuf]

What a sport...reportedly the crowd booed the US national anthem for starters.

During the game and at the end the fans starting chanting "OH-SA-MA, OH-SA-MA"

Nice...

[KevinNU7]

And to think we give that country so much support, and it is still a complete shit hole.

[Ksyrup]

Bah...that has more to do with the people than the game. Have you ever watched a Davis Cup tennis match held in another country? People scream, yell, and heckle during serves and do whatever else they can to get under the skin of the opponent. This sounds like the same thing.

Blame the people, not the game...soccer's got enough strikes against it in this country to hang that on it as well!

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Bah...that has more to do with the people than the game. Have you ever watched a Davis Cup tennis match held in another country? People scream, yell, and heckle during serves and do whatever else they can to get under the skin of the opponent. This sounds like the same thing.

Blame the people, not the game...soccer's got enough strikes against it in this country to hang that on it as well!

But chanting OH-SA-MA?

Imagine if some of the US guys made a beef. They would have razed the whole stadium and trampled the US team.

The fact that so many of those people like soccer, showed up and did that condems the whole sport. BAN PROFESSIONAL SOCCER!!!

[Ksyrup]

There are drunk, classless people everywhere.

And I don't think soccer needs to be banned. Or at least, I wouldn't know the difference in my sports-watching habits if it was - would you?

[BreizhManu]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

But chanting OH-SA-MA?

Imagine if some of the US guys made a beef. They would have razed the whole stadium and trampled the US team.

The fact that so many of those people like soccer, showed up and did that condems the whole sport. BAN PROFESSIONAL SOCCER!!!

looking at a soccer game played in turkey you'd say : ban professional soccer ! (yes it can be worse than in mexico)

looking at a basketball game played in greece you'd say : ban professional basketball !

looking at a davis cup match played in argentina : ban professional tennis !

and going to any F1 grand prix held in Europe : Ban Germans !

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

There are drunk, classless people everywhere.

And I don't think soccer needs to be banned. Or at least, I wouldn't know the difference in my sports-watching habits if it was - would you?

Good point...but the next candidate to include "Banning Professional Soccer" on his platform goes up in my book.

To quote a great movie


"I don't like any sport where you can't use your hands."

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by BreizhManu

looking at a soccer game played in turkey you'd say : ban professional soccer ! (yes it can be worse than in mexico)

looking at a basketball game played in greece you'd say : ban professional basketball !

looking at a davis cup match played in argentina : ban professional tennis !

and going to any F1 grand prix held in Europe : Ban Germans !

Ban them all!!! Is there anyway I can ban you?

[Bubba Wheels]

Maybe U.S crowds should start chanting "Sam Houston", "Sam Houston"

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

BAN PROFESSIONAL SOCCER!!!

Typical.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Typical.

It's a joke mr. self important soccer elitist...






It think soccer is fine for kids...

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

It's a joke mr. self important soccer elitist...

Thank you.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by BreizhManu

looking at a soccer game played in turkey you'd say : ban professional soccer ! (yes it can be worse than in mexico)

Hey they only killed those people because they were insulting Attaturk (The Turks version of George Washington). It was well within the boundaries of patriotism....surely.