The U.S. women’s national team has been dominant against Mexico over the years, winning 39 of 41 total games including the last 15 in a row.
But all 15 of those games in the current streak have come on American soil. The next time the USWNT faces Mexico it will be on Mexican turf, where things haven’t always gone according to plan for the Americans.
Most notably, the USWNT’s only loss to Mexico came in 2010 in front of a packed house at the Estadio Beto Ávila in Cancún, where Mexico stunned the U.S. 2-1 in the Women’s CONCACAF Championship semifinals.
The win qualified Mexico for the 2011 World Cup and required the U.S. to win the CONCACAF third-place match followed by an intercontinental playoff against Italy to qualify for the World Cup.
The USWNT is set to face off against Mexico on Mexican soil for the first time since 2010 when the rivals meet at Estadio Universitario on July 11 in the final group-stage match of the CONCACAF W Championship.
In an interview with FIFA’s official website, U.S. head coach Vlatko Andonovski said he was relishing the chance to face off against his team’s rivals in front of a hostile crowd at the 42,000-seat stadium.
“The fact that it’s in Mexico makes it a lot harder for us,” Andonovski said. “But that’s what makes it exciting too because I feel this young group needs to go through adversity as soon as possible.
“We can’t go into the World Cup with that being the first competition where they face that adversity, so to have Mexico in our group, playing in front of a full stadium that will be chanting against us, really excites me. I don’t think the majority of the group we’re taking there will have faced something like that and it will be a good learning opportunity. I just hope we come out at the end with some success.”
The top two teams in both groups of the CONCACAF W Championship will automatically qualify for the 2023 World Cup, while the winner of the tournament will automatically reach the 2024 Olympics.
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