There is no more difficult place to play for the US national team than Estadio Azteca, Mexico’s iconic fortress home and the largest football stadium in Latin America.
If the heat, the height and the passionate Mexican fans don’t get you, then Smog will.
“The last time we played, we got players very sick after the game,” said Bruce Arena, who trained the United States in three World Cup qualifiers at Azteca without winning a game. “I remember going out in the tunnel and Kellyn Acosta was doubled over Puking.
“It’s, uh, challenging.”
It’s also why US-Mexico rivalry is among the most intense in international sports, one that gets particularly bitter when players are high, as they are on a Thursday when teams in Azteca end up with a World Cup.
The duel could soon lose some of its luster if this match proves to be the last that teams in Mexico City play during the World Cup qualifiers.
Both countries, along with Canada, are expected to automatically qualify for the 2026 tournament as they host it, excluding a qualifying tournament. And by 2030, with the World Cup on 48 teams and the number of guaranteed CONCACAF participants doubling to six, the current qualifying format will have to change.
Nobody knows what form this will take.
“At this time,” said a U.S. football spokesman, “the World Cup qualifying process after 2026 has not been determined.”
But it will be different, with a possible scenario requiring separate qualification groups similar to the format currently in place in Europe. And as long as Mexico and the United States remain the top two teams in the region in the FIFA world rankings, they will lead different groups to the final round, meaning they will not play each other.
“It will certainly affect the rivalry,” said Landon Donovan, who has played in 40 World Cup qualifiers, including two in Mexico, where he was once beaten by the Coca-Cola Cup, which … well, let’s just say it was kee Softdrink. “Mostly it hurts the fans on both sides their ability to talk about who is the best team in CONCACAF. When you play against each other, there is a barometer. If you do not, [it’s] more subjective.
“It’s too bad because these games are, on both sides, some of the most memorable games, moments, etc. It’s disappointing.”
Mexico’s Jose Antonio Castro slips and throws the ball away from American Landon Donovan during a World Cup qualifier at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on August 12, 2009.
(Andy Mead / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
A change in the qualifying format would not stop the US and Mexico from playing in other circumstances. The rivalry would continue in the biennial CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Nations League and regular friendlies. But the players in those games are much lower than a World Cup qualifier. And most, if not all, of them would be played in the US, where Mexico has a lucrative promotional deal with Soccer United Marketing.
Therefore, the USA only played one match in Mexico, which has not been a qualifying match in the last 22 years.
“It’s special because it’s unique,” said Gerardo Torrado, sports director for the Mexican Football Federation and a veteran of three World Cups, about the four-year Mexico City qualifier.
“Qualifying for a World Cup always, it’s something special. But the chance to qualify against your rivals makes it more special.
If Thursday’s game proves to be the last qualifier in Azteca, at least the series will kick off with a bang. Both teams come into the match with 21 points and follow Canada to stay in the table of 8 teams with three players. Only three CONCACAF teams have been promised places in this autumn’s World Cup in Qatar, and with Panama and Costa Rica still on the hunt, this game is one neither Mexico nor the USA can afford to lose.
The pressure may be greatest on Mexico. El Tri will play in front of a limited audience of around 47,000, a little over half of the stadium’s listed capacity, and reassures some of its home field advantage. Capacity was limited because Mexico implemented a FAN ID system after FIFA imposed sanctions on repeat fans of an anti-gay slime.
Mexico also lost three times to the United States in 2021, something that has never happened before in the same calendar year. With the Americans missing four starters for injury, another Mexican loss – this time in Azteca, more than 1.3 miles above sea level and a place where the United States has won only once in its history – could cost coach Tata Martino his work, said Telemundo football analyst Miguel Gurwitz, who has covered the national team for two decades.
“Mexico, they can not lose,” Gurwitz said. “It’s not right to lose every single game they play with the USA. Those 90 minutes will be very important for Martino.”
It was not always so. US versus Mexico was once as one-sided as Hammer versus Nol. The Americans won the first meeting in 1934, then won only four of 40 matches in the next 64 years.
The USA have had the advantage since 2000 however, with 17-9-6, including a victory in the round 16 at the 2002 World Cup. And that has increased the importance of cross-border competition by being as much about national pride as about Soccer.
“The U.S.-Mexico football rivalry is, in my opinion, the only rivalry in international sports,” said Jon Weinbach, president of Skydance Sports, which is producing a documentary series about the U.S.-Mexico rivalry. “There is nothing like it where you have these issues of identity and belonging and race and culture and politics between two geographical neighbors who are so present on the ground.
“I can think of no other place in the world where you have authentic frontier competitors.”
The Mexican sports daily record posted a full page image of Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic, the two U.S. goal scorers, under a bold headline in Spanish that reads, “They’re better. Say hello to the New Giant.
Keeping that alive is something CONCACAF and FIFA are likely to pursue when they work on the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. They could, for example, decide on a single-table tournament, similar to the one used by the South American Confederation. This would guarantee that the US and Mexico qualify twice in qualifying every four years.
But the CONMEBOL competition, in which the 10 South American member states compete for four World Cup places, requires 90 matches to be played over two years. CONCACAF has 41 members who will be playing for six places, so it will need an additional play-in tournament and probably a bigger field for the final round. This could make a CONMEBOL-like format uncomfortable.
Will rivalry suffer if World Cup qualification is no longer a part of it? Weinbach does not think so.
“World Cups always mean something. But it’s not the only thing,” he said. “The rivalry in some ways is calculated just by these World Cup qualifiers. Every time the USA and Mexico play in this sport, it means something. It could be a youth exhibition game. If it plays the USA and Mexico, it has that Advantage and it has that cultural context.
Michael Orozco, a former national team defender who scored the goal in the only game the USA and Azteca have won, does not agree.
“They should not let go of a massive game that catches the eye of the whole world,” he said. “Everyone is watching this [game]. You have the whole political side, you have the whole football side. Everyone wants to watch this game. Everyone wants to be involved in this game.
“It doesn’t just happen in those 90 minutes. It’s a bit about building, the conversation, the emotions. That’s what football should be, the Super Bowl. The USA against Mexico at the Azteca is practically that.
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