IRVINE, Calif. – If it seems there's extraordinary buzz in the US, and especially Southern California, ahead of Saturday's USA-Mexico CONCACAF Cup showdown at a sold-out Rose Bowl, consider the vibe south of the border.
The Mexicans haven't beaten the US in six meetings since their last Rose Bowl encounter, in the 2011 Gold Cup final. And with so much at stake this time – the winner heads to the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia – the thought of another failure is, well, unthinkable.
USMNT defenders Ventura Alvarado and Michael Orozco, who play in Mexico's Liga MX, have witnessed the mood of El Tri's supporters during the countdown toward this clash that began with Mexico's triumph nearly two-and-a-half months ago in the Gold Cup.
The Americans' success against Mexico over the past decade and a half, El Tri's recent struggles and the volatile coaching situation – with Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti in charge on an interim basis following Miguel Herrera's dismissal, and former Chicago Fire/New York Red Bulls boss Juan Carlos Osorio apparently leaving São Paulo to take the reins after Saturday's game – have left Mexicans somewhat anxious.
“There's, obviously, a lot of talk about how big this game is and that they can't lose,” Orozco, who plays for Club Tijuana, noted before Wednesday morning's US training session at UC Irvine. “Since we're always fighting for the No. 1 spot in CONCACAF and them trying to change coaches, they just don't want to lose this game.
“We don't either, and it will be a tough one. We're mentally ready for all of this.”
Orozco, 29, left Orange, California, for Mexico when he was 19, and he played for San Luis, Puebla and Chiapas before joining Tijuana this year. He was an Olympian in 2008, made his full national team debut a few months later, and has since amassed 18 caps. One of the most meaningful was in August 2012, when he scored a goal off the bench to lift the Yanks to their first and only victory at Estadio Azteca.
Alvarado, 23, plays with Club America, whose youth academy he joined in 2008. Like Orozco, he was eligible to play for both the Yanks and Mexico, and he's made a dozen appearances for the US since debuting in a loss last March to Denmark.
He says the CONCACAF Cup clash has been on everyone's minds.
“I've been seeing the past two weeks a lot of commercials, about Mexico-US. All kinds of weird commercials,” Alvarado said. “And my teammates, we're betting a couple things.”
Orozco said the tension is more pronounced in Mexico.
“It's more intense for them. They have a lot of pressure,” he said. “Obviously, their first squad hasn't been doing all that great, and they're just going to come out here and try to tear things off in the first 10 minutes, and we've just got to be ready to contain them.
“They have more pressure than us. We're at home, and we just have to contain those first minutes.”
The USMNT are at home, but Southern California's massive Mexican community has turned previous encounters here into away games, for all intents, for the US side. CONCACAF's ticketing process for Saturday's game was designed to balance the support somewhat equally.
Alvarado, who is from Phoenix, says a lot of the Mexican supporters will root for the US, too.
“I think there's a lot of fans that have, like, the [US] white and the [Mexico] green shirt on,” he said. “Their background is Hispanic and they were born here.”
Alvarado says he's gotten some stick from fans in Mexico City, “that we're going to lose and whatever,” but Orozco mostly tunes such talk out.
“I try to stay away from what all the fans are saying,” he said.
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