By Favian Renkel
Wow, where do I start? I have never felt so confident in a USA side ever. Even with the 2014 World Cup, behind us. I have never seen a USA dominate Mexico so many times in one year. Now I can’t make the judgement, maybe all of you can help me. Is this USA team that good already, or is this Mexico team that bad? Either way, Mexico is not in good shape. We may see Tata Martino on the hot seat one more time.
Growing up a Uruguayan-American, I despised El Tri on pure jealousy alone. I was jealous of all the buzz around the team, when they truly haven’t accomplished anything in recent years. “YA SE ARMO” will be stuck in my head forever. Uruguay is a small country under Brazil and next to Argentina. One would say we are the red-headed stepchild of South America. Uruguay has 2 official World Cups under their belt, as well as 2 Olympic titles when it was treated the same as the World Cup. Mexico has never won a World Cup, but every single time the World Cup came around, everyone was crazy for Mexico. You would throw on Univision or Telemundo, everyone that speaks Spanish understands soccer presentations and games are just better in Spanish, and you would see Mexico Coca-Cola ads, Mexican Allstate ads, Mexico Beer ads and many more. Every single pundit would always talk about Mexico. If it wasn’t a Mexico’s game, they would find a way to tie it in. I believe a lot of Latin-American soccer fans that aren’t Mexican feel this same Sentiment. They didn’t like Mexico. Being force-fed to watch Mexico this, Mexico that, and knowing that they were always completely overrated, made me not like the team even more. When I started falling in love with the USMNT and MLS. This made it easier for me to understand the rivalry a lot easier. Given all of that, I knew a lot about of Mexico and their players. I sat there watching ever show and every report because I was obsessed, I loved soccer.
I’m having a hard time believing this Mexico team is not that good. They have players like Raul Jimenez, Diego Lainez, Hector Herrera, Chucky Lozano, and they still have Memo Ochoa. If it’s not Mexico being bad, then it’s this USA group is something special. This extremely young group of men that the United States field every international break should be extremely proud of themselves. They are already becoming the kings of CONCACAF before they even reach their peaks. If you are a USMNT supporter, hold on, this team is going to be in their prime during the 2026 World Cup in the United States. This USMNT team is also starting to pick up an identity and swagger. Christian Pulisic is quickly becoming a hated man in El Tri camps, a great villain to El Tri. Pulisic is the real deal, if you guys don’t know,w this young man has it all. I don’t think anyone had him down for the game-winning goal on a header. Whoever had that bet in Vegas won a bunch of money.
Players that stood out to me in this Mexico game were Musah, Pulisic and Weah. This team is dangerous even without their second best attacking option in Gio Reyna. I will leave you with this quote that Gregg Berhalter said during his postgame press conference, “Mexico didn’t respect us, we had to go out there and earn (it). We did that today.” The new kings of CONCACAF have arrived, and it’s just the start of the journey.