The United States has long provided Mexico a place where its national team can play in front of a home-crowd atmosphere while filling Mexico’s coffers with U.S. dollars.
Mexican League clubs play scores of games in the north and even hold their pre-Libertadores Cup playoffs in the United States.
The Mexican federation showed just how thankful it is when it sent Pumas and a few guest players to the U.S. Cup.
That was a rude statement, not just to the organizers, but to the Mexican-Americans who so fervently support the Tricolores.
It undermined U.S. World Cup qualifying preparation and damaged the reputation of an excellent soccer rivalry.
U.S. Soccer may withhold Mexico’s $500,000 appearance fee – as it should. It should also suspend Mexican club games in the United States for at least a year.
Once this blows over, U.S. Soccer is still faced with reevaluating the future of the U.S. Cup, which was born in 1992 and for years brought excellent international soccer to the United States.
But in the future, who can come? South American teams have their marathon World Cup qualifying. It’s unlikely a decent European team will bring a full squad after a season’s worth of club competition and national team qualifying play. The schedule will only get tighter when FIFA’s harmonized international calendar goes into effect in 2002.
To keep U.S. Cup going by allowing other nations to test their second-string players, while marketing them as true national teams, is something American soccer fans should not put up with.
When the U.S. national team needs friendly games, U.S. Soccer should schedule individual games against worthy opponents.
The U.S. Cup, however attractive the tournament concept once was, no longer is feasible.