The U.S. men's national team will take on Mexico on Aug. 10th at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, U.S. Soccer revealed on Friday.
The match-up is a rematch of the 2011 Gold Cup Final, won by Mexico, 4-2, in June.
The "friendly" is the third friendly scheduled by U.S. Soccer since the Gold Cup, with the Americans taking on Costa Rica and Belgium.
The friendly could give us the return to national team action of midfielder Stuart Holden and defender/midfielder Timmy Chandler, who both missed the Gold Cup.Holden's inclusion is probably less likely given the fact he's still recovering from the serious knee injury that has kept him out of U.S. national team action all year.
Mexico has won the past three meetings between the countries, including the past two Gold Cup Finals. The sides haven't met in a friendly since 2008, when the teams tied, 2-2, in Houston.
What do you think of the USA playing Mexico? Excited? Not a fan of the idea? Plan to be there?
Share your thoughts below.
If you can’t stay up past midnight on the weekends, then you’re too old.
This is all and only about $$$. Maybe and I have hope that this will be Bradley’s sayonara or adieu. I hope the USSF is using these friendlies to get $$$ for the new international and well known coach who can come and get this ship somehwat straight. I’m hoping. :roll eyes:
+1000…. cheap way to earn some cash. Another bad Gulati move. Mexico just kicked our @$$ when it counted most. No benefit to this game. Fans should boycott and send a message to the USSF.
Why not play this game in Mexico in another stadium other than Azteca. It’s all a cash grab, plain and simple. Not interested in supporting or watching it either.
who was booing the US national anthem?
Actually, the US U17 advanced from their group, but lost to Germany in the elimination round.
I also would love to see Gyau dress up for the senior team. I am not sure if he is ready yet, but he is a very exciting prospect. His dad actually coaches in Bethesda, Maryland, and (recognizing the shortcomings of the US youth development system) he used to send his son to spend summers to play soccer in Brazil at Zico’s academy, among other places.
What do you think of 7:30 weekend kickoffs in MLS on the West Coast when the opposing team is from the East Coast? 10:30PM starts are rubbish for those of us back east.
Actually, you have proven a good point…people need to start appreciating the country they live, and that has given them the opportunity to increase their standard of living. They should really think hard about that fact before they throw plastic bottles, with god knows what in them, towards U.S. players on the pitch.
Mr. Gulati: This would be fun to look foward to if we had a new, international-level coach. Bob Bradley has killed all of my passion for the team.
Ok short passes. Boycott if you want to.
The 70,000 Mexican fans surely won’t, which means it will be a rousing success for the US soccer coffers. I’ll go to the game and have fun pulling for my team.
And yes, I pull for my team whether they win or lose. That doesn’t mean that I “accept” poor performance, but unless you are the owner, or GM, your asinine notion of “boycotting will change US soccer” will only hurt you.
Let me pose a question. Who do you think hates losing to Mexico more: The players and coaches who are actually on the field, or us, the fans.
For most professional athletes, what got them where they are is their competitive spirit, a lot of skill, and a lot of hard work. To think that US soccer doesn’t abhor losing to Mexico is simply a laughable theory.
Why don’t you go to their website and read their annual report? Too mug work? USSF is a non-profit, 501 (c)3. Their tax return and annual report are in the public domain.
There’s also Olympic qualifying, which will be at least one more match.
Still, it’s not like there are dozens of friendlies every year and we can just afford to waste Int’l dates on teams we play several times every world cup cycle anyway.
Nitpick all you want…6 games or 3 games against Mexico in a half dozen years is a heck of a lot more than we’ve played against:
Any African team other than Ghana, Egypt or South Africa
Any Asian team, excluding Australia
The vast majority of European teams (I personally want a friendly with Russia)
My bad. I just realized it’s at the Philly NFL stadium, rather than the Union’s band box. That will generate lots of money.
As I said, though, this permits all of the teams’ Euro-based players to attend.
Oh great, another “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” patriot. Just wondering, do you have the same attitude toward your local NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL teams. Accepting poor performance from your national team doesn’t make you a patriot. Boycott USSoccer and the US — Mexico game!!
If this was a pure money grab, it wouldn’t be in Philadelphia. It would be in a city with a larger Mexican population in a stadium with a much larger capacity. They can almost always fill the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum in LA for a US-Mexico game. The fact that they are playing this in Philly probably allows them to bring over some European players.
You and Jeff assume that most El Tri fans are undocumented, I hate to burst your bubble, but most fans El Tri fans that attend games are in fact US Citizens.
The American racial melting pot is very similar to Brazil, I believe it could play in the Brazilian style.
I got interviewed by ABC7 at the game and made a note to point out every mexico fan who jumped into the camera screaming “MEXICO!” and said “He’s from Gardena” “She’s from Palmdale” “Oh I know that guy, he’s from Glendale” “Palo Alto that one” “He’s from Reseda” “He’s from Riverside”.
She said I got off topic, but I made the evening news.
SSC who do you have in mind to liven things up?
Why? Americans clearly opted for European-style. The Japanese preferred the South American.
Well said, abc. It’s nice to see some posters here with a sense of perspective.
Busted.
This is why I don’t get the vitriol of fan-sites. On or off the pitch, players are still people.
Yes, Bornstein seems like a good guy. Moreover, kudos to him for answering his national team’s call; can’t fault him for that. We can fault BB for calling him in, but after that GC fiasco, I imagine Bob’s finally learned his lesson in that regard.
Just post INS/ICE trucks outside and INS/ICE agents at the gate …..
I don’t know why people are complaining about this friendly. I would watch the USA if they fielded the B team, C team, doesn’t matter. STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER.
Let’s see if we can give some young kids some experience. I know its in the middle of getting ready for the European seasons, but it would be nice to see Diskeruud.
I see no value in facing Mexico in a friendly. We need to beat them when it counts and work on developing our roster so we can beat them when it matters. Did you see what the Mexican U-17s did? Did you see what the American U-17s did? I am afraid Mexico is in a position to dominate the US again for years to come. A friendly won’t change that. I guess it may make money for Ussoccer.
What, we don’t have valid reasons to fire Bob Bradley who has been coach for only 5 years? We have to wait unless and until he calls up Bornstein again? Who made you king? Bradley has made some right roster decisions after YEARS of people like me correctly pointing out that he was making wrong ones, such as playing Bornstein, Rogers, Onyewu, Kljestan, Clark while underplaying Edu and Adu.
Bob has had his chances, and we did ok at the World Cup but could have done better. History shows that the 2nd time around is tougher. Bob and US Soccer said not to judge them on the Spain debacle, as the Gold Cup was more important. And now you tell us that we can’t judge him on the Gold Cup whipping by Mexico? I would submit that people like you are the problem–you are the reason Gulati doesn’t make a change and why unless a coaching change is made the US will be mired in mediocrity. I want the US to win, and with the right coach I think we can do a lot better. Our defense is a joke and the players seem to have tuned out Bob. A coach like Marcello Lippi can almost certainly do better with the same player pool.
If DmB can find his form there is no reason to think he can’t contribute to another qualifying campaign. But that is as big an if as Adu finding his way back to camp, something many gave incredibly long odds on.
Replace Donovan with Shea and insert Castillo and you’re on to something…
Great post that is well put. What open letter?
It IS a free country, which is why your post is here are the post calling you a whiny b$tch is here to.
Preach. It.
Scouting, mostly. Look at the number of dual nationals brought in recently. The development and cultivation of the Latin and European aspects of American culture seems to be a priority. Look at the youth system. Certainly, a portion of the money earned by the federation goes to pay the people employed by the USSF… but it seems to me they are not standing idle or catering only to those rich parents who want their kids to be soccer stars.
I don’t understand this comment thread at all. 90% (arbitrary number, meant to suggest “most of the ___”) of the comments are irrational and barely intelligible. I can pick out the obvious trolls, but there can’t really be THIS many!
The wording is fine. We only share a border with 2 countries, and Canada can’t compete with us. Mexico is our only true rival. You need to make your meaning clearer too.
That’s exactly what I said….
It just happened a couple weeks ago…overkill and money-grab. The World Cup is a long ways away…
???? You understand that teams around the world play friendlies right? why not play against a good team that’s close, and will attract fans? If they weren’t playing, or were playing some crappy team that nobody cares about, you would be complaining about how inept the US program is that they aren’t getting valuable minutes for player… Jesus, people on this site complain over EVERYTHING…. I sometimes feel like I’m watching a never ending segment on FOX about Obama, no matter what happens, it’s a catastrophe. US soccer can do no good, even if we would’ve beaten Mexico in the GC, the fact that we lost to Panama would be what everyone would be talking about
At this friendly, the national team will both be making money AND… representing the US!
Athletes and teams get better by facing better competition. You want to play Belize instead of Mexico?
Yeah that’s right, because you’re ignorant, USSF are spending all our cash on hookers and blow.
I don’t think Brian Ching, with 45 caps and 11 international goals to his name, deserves a farewell game.
Right on brotha!
To be clear, I’m not saying the USSF will squander all the money. I’m not really sure what they are doing with it. That’s the problem — the communication failure. Maybe they’re also squandering the money, but I just don’t know.
That’s all very nice; I think no one would be complaining if there were any indication that USSF would use the money to hire a high-profile coach. Or if there was some kind of plan about how the youth system is being improved (or more accurately, if USSF did a better job of communicating what the plan was).
In other words, earning money is great and I’m sure fans could deal with the potential trauma of facing Mexico again if something good seemed likely to come of it, but USSF has done nothing to convince fans that they recognize things aren’t going well and something is being done. Instead we get Sunil’s (umpteenth) PR flop of suggesting that an announcement on Bradley would be coming and then giving us his brilliant “open letter” last week.
Actually, if this is going to be a North American-only roster, I think Bornstein is on the team, right?
IMO, the more friendlies against solid competition the better, especially if those friendlies pump a lot of cash into our soccer federation. Some people on here need to relax…
Best post award.
Agree…most Mexico fans I talked to at the match were actual So Cal residents.
Playing Mexico promises a sold out, 70k stadium and literally millions of dollars for the US Soccer Federation. Are USMNT fans the only people left in the world that don’t realize that money makes the world go around? Want a higher profile coach? Need money. Want to improve the youth system? Need money. And on and on. What does it matter if Mexico and US field B teams if the gate is huge? The US is very lucky to have this revenue stream anytime they need it. We do not have a rich federation, so these games are essential. The bonus is that we get to see some young players. Most will struggle, but usually there’s one or two a game that are intriguing.