2011 Gold Cup Final - Remember the Alamo?

The last time that Mexico faced the USA in Los Angeles was in 2001. It was Landon Donovan’s debut and the score ended up being 2-0 in favor of the USA. I was there and it was a great day for American soccer. The US Men’s National team generally doesn’t like to play in Los Angeles, because of the large immigrant population who are mad about soccer and anyone but the US. If you go a Chile vs USA, there are more Chilenos. If you go to a Sweden vs USA, there are more Swedes. LA is a melting pot and soccer is still a niche sport in this country. Sure a lot of people support the LA Galaxy and such, but a lot of those Americans do not support the US Men’s National team. That’s just the way it is.

So knowing the fact that we were going to be in the minority sitting with 90,000 Mexico fans, was not going to be a problem for us. We wanted to support the red, white, and blue in hostile territory. Concacaf decided to for financial reasons to hold the final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, right in my back yard, and I was ready for this adventure. This would be my second time watching the USMNT live, up close and personal in June 2011. As an added benefit I was excited to see La Liga’s Andres Guardado (Deportivo La Coruña), Giovani Dos Santos (ex-Racing Santander), Hector Moreno (now at Espanyol), Rafa Marquez (ex-Barçelona), and Gerardo Torrado (ex-Sevilla & ex-Racing). While both Efrain Juarez and Pablo Barrera are rumored to being going to Real Zaragoza.

The tailgating was great. The atmosphere was intense and impressive. 95% Mexico fans versus 5% USA fans was my estimate. We did not encounter any problems for the most part. Both the Mexican players and fans were shocked that the USMNT pocketed two early goals. Both goals were very lucky opportunities to be fair. The small amount of USA fans went crazy in celebrations. The stadium was silent. But it was only matter of time that a huge comeback from Mexico was due. Guardado, Giovani and Barrera attacked the weak left side of the USA and were unrelenting and punishing in their methods. The Mexico fans were ecstatic and celebrated with a crazy frenzy. The Rose Bowl became a mini Azteca. The beer spilled on our heads. (At least it was not urine). We were taunted by the surrounding Mexican fans with jeers of “USA, I can’t hear you”, “USA, I can’t see you” and “Boring Boring USA football”. It really upset me and struck a chord during the game, but now I can look back and just laugh in hindsight and realize that’s football.

We felt humiliated, pissed off, and ready to fire Bob Bradley, but at the end of the day I realized that Mexico was and is the better team. The fruits of the U17 golden generation, has finally arrived. But at least I wasn’t afraid to come out and support my team in the good and the bad, fully aware that we are the underdog and the minority at the stadium. Unfortunately, I don’t think that we will be seeing the USMNT in SoCal in the near future.

See more photos from the pre-game atmosphere and training at our flickr page. or forza futbol facebook page.