U.S. vs. Mexico: ‘War’ that ends at final whistle in Glendale

Alejandro Rivera

Submitted photo/ Alejandro Rivera

People are driving in for this game from Mexicali, Hermosillo, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For one evening, Glendale turns into a border crossing of a much friendlier kind. So, here is my invitation to those who don't care about soccer. Come anyway. Nobody will test you on the offside rule. Just sit there and listen to a full stadium sing two anthems back to back, then tell me it did nothing to you.”

OPINION — At 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, the United States’ men’s soccer team will play Mexico at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. On paper, it’s friendly. Nobody in my family has ever used that word for this game.

Mexico can lose to the U.S. in almost any sport and take it well. Basketball, baseball, a bad night in the ring. We shake hands and go to dinner. Soccer is different. It is closer to a religion, with its own saints and its own grudges.

The rivalry I grew up with started in 2002 with the famous “Dos a Cero.” American supporters had already been chanting it after a 2-0 win in Columbus, Ohio, and then they sealed it in the round of 16 at the World Cup in Korea-Japan.

Mexico arrived thinking the match was a formality. Brian McBride scored in the eighth minute. Landon Donovan got the second. And Rafael Marquez, the Mexican captain and the man who coaches Mexico today, was sent off at the end for a challenge that had nothing to do with soccer and everything to do with humiliation.

The game kicked off in the middle of the night in Mexico City. I was 13, alone in my bedroom, and I did not stop crying until 7 in the morning. If someone had told me that one day I would carry two passports and cheer for both of those teams, I would have thrown something at them. Life has a sense of humor.

Here is the part I think people miss. That rivalry is the reason both teams are better than they used to be. For most of the last century, Mexico ran this region without breaking a sweat. Then, the Americans got serious, and suddenly Mexico could not just show up and collect the trophy.

Mexico fans gather March 24, 2024, at the Concacaf Nations League final between the U.S. and Mexico at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The U.S. won 2-0.

Submitted photo/Alejandro Rivera

Nothing pushed Mexican soccer forward faster. Comfort never did anything for anyone. Two neighbors have spent 25 years talking each other into getting better. That happens to people, too. Nobody I know got smaller by belonging to two places.

We in Arizona know how this works. Half the families I know in the Valley see their cousins in Sonora more often than relatives in California. We may not share a language, we have a border between us — and we both carry a long memory. Somehow, we still ended up as family.

Our Mexican-American community is the proof. I know people who pay taxes in Phoenix and wire money to Hermosillo in the same week. They play in a local soccer league on Sunday with their compadres. Ask them who they want to win, and most will change the subject. They will wear one jersey and cheer for a cousin wearing the other.

People are driving in for this game from Mexicali, Hermosillo, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. For one evening, Glendale turns into a border crossing of a much friendlier kind.

So, here is my invitation to those who don’t care about soccer. Come anyway. Nobody will test you on the offside rule. Just sit there and listen to a full stadium sing two anthems back to back, then tell me it did nothing to you. Ninety minutes of war, a lot of shouting and by Monday morning everything is back to normal.

Call it a truce if you want.

I call it soccer.

Alejandro Rivera is president of Goals for Life, an Arizona nonprofit that uses soccer to strengthen communities across the Valley. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.