Mexico aims for soccer redemption

When the United States beat Mexico's men's soccer team at the 2002 World Cup, for Mexican fans it was David slaying their Goliath, Buster Douglas knocking out their Mike Tyson, the archrival Red Sox toppling their Yankees.

In its long soccer history, Mexico has a robust 28-11-10 record against the US side. In 22 games played south of the border, the best the US could do was squeak out a lone tie.

But the 2002 loss in Seoul, South Korea - a heated affair that featured 10 yellow cards, controversial calls by the referees, and a 2-0 US victory - confirmed a turned tide. Over the past eight contests, the US is 6-1-1 vs. the Tricolores. In this soccer-mad nation, where a win over its northern neighbor can help soothe the injustices of a century and a half of US-Mexican history, that's more than a rough patch; it's an assault on the psyche.

Now it's payback time. On Sunday, Mexico hopes to restore its bruised soccer pride - and even a sense of national honor - when the US team arrives to play a 2006 World Cup qualifier at Azteca Stadium. Oscar Perez, goalie in the Seoul match that elim- inated the Mexican side, knows he can't undo what happened in South Korea. "But we are here to do it again now. And better," he said driving into the first day of practice earlier this week. "Our revenge is starting."

Azteca Stadium sits at7,300 feet above sea level, where the smog blankets the city. Mexico has rarely lost a match here; the last time it did, against Costa Rica in 2002, the coach resigned less than a week later. The US is 0-7-1 on this pitch. Some 110,000 screaming fans are expected to be on hand for the match, enduring the searing noontime sun. Based on recent history, it could make Yankees-Red Sox games look like a Waltons family reunion.

"The conditions are all right, and [Mexican coach Ricardo] Lavolpe has molded a fresh, young team," says sports commentator Salvador Aguilera. "We feel in our bones that this long awaited game is ours."

The origins of this intense rivalry, explains fan Gerardo Gonzales, are historical - and he is not talking soccer history.

"Every schoolboy knows about 1848," he says, settling in for a lazy afternoon of serious soccer talk at a local cantina. "When they robbed our territory," referring to when Texas, California, and New Mexico were annexed to the US at the as part of a peace treaty ending the war between the two countries, "that was the beginning."

Coupled with the fact that tens of thousands of Mexicans leave the country every day for the greener economic pastures north of the Rio Grande, and the game becomes about saving face. "Football is our only equal playing field where we can show 'em," Mr. Gonzales says.

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