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Mexico, USA to meet at Azteca in August

BocanegraChicharito (Getty Images)

The summer friendly that Jurgen Klinsmann has been hinting at for months is official.

The Mexican soccer federation announced that El Tri will host the U.S. men's national team at Estadio Azteca on Aug. 15 in a friendly between the two CONCACAF powerhouses.

The meeting will be the second United States-Mexico match of the Klinsmann era, with last August's 1-1 draw in Philadelphia being his first match after replacing Bob Bradley as national team coach. It will also provide a chance for the U.S. men to notch their first-ever win on Mexican soil, something that has not been accomplished in 24 tries.

Mexico currently owns the bragging rights in the heated rivalry after capturing the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup at the United States' expense, coming from two goals down to win 4-2 and claim a spot in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. The match will be the final U.S. friendly before World Cup qualifying resumes in full force in September, with the United States facing Jamaica in consecutive fixture dates on Sept. 7 and 11, in Kingston, Jamaica, and Columbus, Ohio, respectively.

Are you excited for the friendly? How do you see the U.S. men faring in the match? Will they finally get that elusive win in Mexico?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What bothers me about the USA/Mexico games is all the “Mexicans” that were born in the USA and support Mexico. It is so weak.

    These are national teams not ethnic teams. I have Mexican ancestry, but since I was born and raised in the US and I would never consider supporting Mexico.

    Even more dumb are the Americans that show up and support Brazil against their own boys.

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  2. since its a friendly, US needs to go all out to get the butterflies in the stomach feeling they usually experience in a real game held there. Its a friendly, so no harm in being dirty or intensely disrespectful. LD should actually piss there, as he was widely rumored to have done before, only it turned out to be in jalisco or morelia or somewhere else but not azteca

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  3. I’m tired of the altitude and smog excuse for losing at the Azteca.

    Many of the Mexican First XI don’t play at altitude regularly.

    Several US players play in horrible smoggy atmospheres (LA, Houston, etc.)

    The U.S. team needs to bust their balls in Denver or Colorado Springs for a couple weeks before the Hex and the only advantage the Azteca will offer is the hostile crowd.

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  4. This is a win-win for the US. We lose and it’s just another loss at Azteca, a stadium where we have never one and few teams do, especially in the heat of the summer and the smog and altitude. We tie and it’s still a victory as we held them away. If we win, the whole Azteca mystique is gone and Mexico will have something to think about until the Hexagonal.

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  5. It was mostly a reserve squad. They had 6 players called into mnt for the world cup. They even used their 4th string keepet bc of injuries. Check the rosters. Monterey. Juguares. San,luis are other teams that didn’t tasker it seriously. If you don’t know. The toP teams go to the concacaf and the 2nd tier teams go to the libertadores

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  6. Also keep in mind that many of the Mexican players are not used to this conditions. Even the ones in the Mexican league usually only play there once a year.

    So to me, it makes sense that other factors influence more the performance of the USMNT.

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  7. what are all these haters talking about? Mexico is the best team in our region and is a top 15 team globally. We don’t play them enough in Mexico as it is-getting a dry runs year ahead of the game that counts is well wroth it. Otherwise, we only play there once every four years and players don’t know how to adjust…

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  8. I was going on the thought that players are more affected by the towering and tight stadium filled by loud(deafening whistling) and hostile Mexico fans rather than the altitude and smog. I think that’s what most of the US players relayed before or after previous qualifiers played there. Even if the altitude hampers the US, you’d be wrong to think they wouldn’t benefit from playing at Azteca regularly. Mexico have seemed to become comfortable playing and beating the US on US soil after a decade of “friendies”.

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  9. No major arguments with your points although I maintain that the Copa L is not a big focus for Mexican teams. But even so, their poor performance doesn’t change the fact that their league is only behind Argentina (and corrupt Brazil – league not country) in the West.

    In general we agree that the FML is NOT dreadful.

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  10. I was mexico city last year durin august for a few weeks, mostly 70f.weather witj random tstroms, which helps with smog. Thought the smog isnt.any worst that other dumps like nj or la

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  11. Most Mexican squads do take the Libertadores seriously Chivas didn’t use a U20 squad to make the libertadores final they used their full squad took it very seriously and it was a big deal. Tigres is the only squad that sends a b squad and that is because their coach is an idiot that only cares about league games unlike real clubs that care about both.

    Brazil is by far the best league in the Americas even with the corruption Argentina is 2nd and Mexico, Chile and others being below that.

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  12. Why surprised ? The USA already knows what it’s in for. They will be sucking air by the 25th minute. Unless the USA finds a way to discover how to adjust to the altitude in 48 hrs it doesn’t matter if they play their 25 times.

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  13. We can disagree on this one, then. As Ted mentions in response, they do not send their best squads.

    And yeah, I meant in the western hemisphere, of course. 🙂

    Cheers,

    Reply

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