Mexico is taking Wednesday night’s friendly at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., very seriously, says Grahame L. Jones of the Los Angeles Times, reporting from Mexico’s training camp. Why? Because for the past six or seven years, the U.S. national team has had the Tricolores’ number, and they know it. As veteran forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco says, “I don’t play friendly games.”
Although the game is being held in the U.S., the majority of the expected 60,000-plus sellout crowd will be behind the Mexicans. Jones says the team is focused and determined to lay the specter of U.S. dominance to rest, and they believe Hugo Sanchez, the man regarded by many in Mexico to be the country’s greatest-ever player, will be able to lead them back to continental dominance. The rekindling of a fierce rivalry is to be Sanchez’s first match in charge of the national team. The Americans are 7-2-1 (won-lost-tied record) against Mexico in the last seven years, a statistic Sanchez is using as motivation to win.