The U.S. men’s national team renews its rivalry with Concacaf opponents Mexico later this month in Cincinnati and TQL Stadium will be sold out with fans of both teams.
U.S. Soccer announced Monday that all 26,000 seats will be occupied for the November 12th qualifier in Ohio as the top-two teams in the octagonal round table square off. It will be the third sellout for the USMNT during its home qualifying schedule, which will see fans from all 50 states attend.
The USMNT sit second in the octagonal round standings, three points behind El Tri for the top spot. Ohio will play host for a USMNT-Mexico World Cup Qualifier for the sixth time and overall the Americans hold an 15-9-6 record against its biggest rivals since 2000 in competitive play.
Gregg Berhalter’s side will meet Mexico for the first time this qualifying cycle and their third time overall in 2021. The USMNT downed Mexico 3-2 in the Concacaf Nations League Final in June before also capturing the Gold Cup crown after a 1-0 triumph in Las Vegas in August.
The Americans will face Mexico in Cincinnati on Nov. 12 before concluding its November schedule with a trip to Jamaica on Nov. 16.
Wow! Who’s flying in from Alaska and Hawai’i?!
It’s our biggest rival, but the most important game in this series of fixtures might be the Honduras v Panama game. This is the halfway point and after these series of games, we will have a real firm sense of what will be needed for qualification. Canada v Costa Rica is another game, and we could most benefit from the Ticos sharing the points up in Canada. Honduras handles Panama at home and USA will continue to have a cushion, regardless of the Mexico result. Ideally, we are sitting on 14 points at the midway point, with 4th at 8 or 9 points. The most daunting outcome for these fixtures could see us on 11 points along with 2 other teams.
After these series of games we can better deduce what 4th place will end up with, and if we understand that, we can understand what is needed to come in 3rd place. If 4th is on 8 points at the midway, we can say 16 is a reasonable number for 4th at the end, meaning 17 points will be needed for 3rd. If 4th is sitting at 11, that magic number for 3rd jumps to 23.
17-23 for third place, and we could in the best scenario be one win away from qualifying, after a win against Mexico, of course.
The most impressive part of this for me is that there will be people from all 50 states!