Members of the U.S. men's soccer team have a pretty good idea of what to expect in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier at Azteca Stadium, even if only four of them have played there.
"Any top professional will tell you they're not afraid to go into big atmospheres like that, because that's why you work so hard, you want to get the highest level," goalkeeper Tim Howard said yesterday. "You can play in front of 10,000 if you want, but if you want to get to where it really counts, it's going to be hostile. That's part of the whole test that's going to present itself to us."
More than 100,000 fans are expected to be in the stands at Azteca, a stadium at 7,200 feet altitude where smog is likely, for the 4 p.m. EDT kickoff. The U.S. will have 17 players from the team that finished second to Brazil in the Confederations Cup earlier this summer.
After the team trained in Miami yesterday morning, Coach Bob Bradley said that the single-fixture date made it challenging to train and assemble a squad. Twelve of his 20 players came in from Europe.
"There's always many factors, and again, single-fixture dates make everything extra difficult because you don't have that full week of training to really look at everybody," Bradley said. "We do our homework, we're constantly checking on players, watching games. The fact that this has been preseason for some of them makes it a little bit more difficult, but I think that we have a good group."
Six players were absent from yesterday's session, including 19-year-old striker Jozy Altidore, who was being granted a British work permit and completing his loan move to Hull. When the six rejoin the team, they will look to break a dismal skid in Mexico City, where the U.S. has never won.
"It takes a real team effort," Bradley said of playing at Azteca. "Certainly the crowd, the altitude, the air quality, those are things that the players understand are not perfect. But nonetheless, when the team mentality is strong, when the focus is right, then you have a chance."
Costa Rica (4-1) leads the finals of North and Central American and the Caribbean qualifying with 12 points, followed by the U.S. (3-1-1) with 10, Honduras (2-2-1) with seven, Mexico (2-3) with six, El Salvador (1-2-2) with five and Trinidad and Tobago (0-3-2) with two. The top three teams will qualify for next year's World Cup, and the No. 4 team will go to a playoff against the No. 5 team from South America. Fifteen members of the U.S. team have previously played against the Mexican team.
"There's no bigger game for an American player than to play Mexico," Howard said. "It's a fantastic rivalry. What can you say about Mexico? They're an amazing team. We have a lot of respect for them. I think it goes both ways, as I've always said before, respect shows itself in different ways sometimes -- passion, hatred. But at the end of the day, they respect us and we respect them."
Wednesday's qualifier will come less than a month after Mexico beat the United States 5-0 to win the CONCACAF Gold Cup on July 26, but nearly all the players in that match were reserves. The Americans proved they could be formidable opponents in the Confederations Cup in June, upsetting top-ranked Spain and taking a two-goal lead against Brazil in the final before losing 3-2.
"We're definitely confident," U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra said. "We showed we could play with the best teams in the world and beat them as well.... We know we still have a lot of work to do, and it's not easy, whoever you're playing."
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