Lewis: US faces formidable foe in Mexico
Elevation, climate make Estadio Azteca challenging venue
Take a stadium some 7,350 feet high. Add some of the worst smog this planet has known. Mix in mid-afternoon summer heat and you have a near impossible task -- beating Mexico at Estadio Azteca.
It has been done once in a while by other countries but never by the USA.
"If you walk around Mexico City for a few minutes, you'll get tired," U.S. standout Landon Donovan recently said.
Now, imagine if you have to run around a cauldron of 105,000 partisan supporters for 90 minutes.
There are two theories of thought on how to combat the rarefied air. One is to fly in as close to the game as possible. The other is to train at altitude for about two weeks prior to the game.
U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley felt he had no other choice for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against archrival Mexico. He chose the former.
He decided to fly into Mexico City less than 24 hours before his team's World Cup qualifier against Mexico in the USA's usually futile battle in the team's latest attempt to overcome the rarefied air.
The numbers aren't very pretty. Over 72 years, the U.S. is 0-18-1 there in qualifying and 0-22-1 overall.
So, after talking to an army of experts, including the U.S. Olympic Committee, former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena and U.S. strength and conditioning coach Pierre Barrieu, Bradley decided to fly in the night before and leave immediately after the game.
"The research that we have stuck with is if you don't have enough time to acclimatize, which can take 10 days or so, then you going in late is your best bet," Bradley said on Monday.
With the way MLS and European schedules are, Bradley and the U.S. national team has but a handful of days. The USA actually had the luxury of extra training time in 1997 and pulled off their lone point in Azteca, a 1-1 draw.
Playing that high certainly is no walk in the park, especially when most of your team is accustomed to playing at sea level.
"You're not playing at a level playing field in that game," said Arena, who enjoyed considerable success against Mexico on U.S. soil and neutral venues during his eight-year tenure. "Actually, a level playing field at sea level, I would favor the United States."
Arena twice coached the U.S. at Azteca -- a 1-0 loss in 2001 and a 2-1 defeat in 2005. So, he already knows about the smog, the heat -- the game will be played in the middle of the afternoon, 3 p.m. local time.
"The attitude gets to your head," Arena said. "The physiology is difficult. It's very difficult."
It turns into a game of survival. Arena remembered games where players needed oxygen at halftime.
"It's an awesome home-field advantage," he said. "Believe me, it's not because Bolivia is six goals better than Argentina," said Arena, referring to the Bolivians' surprising qualifying win against their South American rivals. "The altitude is a factor. That's certainly a challenge. I'm sure the U.S. players will understand that. Because of the conditions, it doesn't allow the U.S. to bring the kind of game that they typically play. That's the challenge. Man-for-man, the U.S. is probably better. But the great equalizer in that the matchup is the altitude."
During the recent FIFA Confederations Cup, the U.S. played at altitude in South Africa. But they gave themselves a week to get acclimated as did many of their competitors.
This U.S. side has only four players with experience at Azteca -- Carlos Bocanegra, Onyewu Oguchi and Steve Cherundolo and Donovan.
So it will be a challenge, in what has turned into a quadrennial challenge for the USA.
Given the U.S.'s horrendous record in Mexico City, a tie can be considered a victory.
The U.S. pulled that rare feat in the rarefied air, despite playing a man down for the final 48 minutes on Nov. 2, 1997. The MLS season finished in late October in those days, allowing the domestic players to train.
Actually, the U.S. had the added help of 16 days of training twice a day at Big Bear Lake, a ski resort 6,800 feet above sea level northeast of Los Angeles. A typical day consisted of a 7 a.m. wake-up call, cross training (bicycling or running) at 8 a.m., lunch at noon, field training at 2 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m.
"There is an urgency," said Steve Sampson, the U.S. head coach at the time. "Our backs are against the wall and this team has performed well when our backs are against the wall."
Some 32 minutes into the match, the U.S. backs were about to go through the walls at Azteca. Playing without four starters, including Tab Ramos and Claudio Reyna, they found themselves playing a man down after defender Jeff Agoos was sent off for elbowing Pavel Pardo.
Instead of allowing Mexico to take control, the U.S. became more determined. The red card forced Sampson to shuffle his lineup. He moved John Harkes, the team captain, to Agoos' spot on the left side. Forwards Joe-Max Moore and Roy Wegerle were brought back closer to the midfield and Eric Wynalda, the U.S.'s all-time leading scorer who started the game on the wing instead of his central forward spot, was called on to play much more defense than he had originally anticipated.
It worked as the U.S. held off the Mexicans.
"The players responded exceptionally well," Sampson said. "We consider this a golden point."
In fact, as the game wore on, the U.S.'s performance started to sway the heavily partisan crowd. It began with boos and whistles at halftime for the heavily favored Mexicans and it continued midway through the second half as the crowd sarcastically chanted "Ole!" every time the USA knocked the ball around to take some time off the clock.
"It was a great feeling," Moore said. "When [114,000] fans switch to cheer you on, it doesn't happen too many times in your career."
A week later, the U.S. booked a spot at France '98 with a 3-0 win in Canada. The Mexicans also qualified for the World Cup, but the tie cost then Mexican coach Bora Milutinovic his job.
So, in their only attempt of using a long-range planning, the U.S. showed it can be done.
Whether the USA can pull off a win with a quick round-trip to Azteca, it remains to be seen.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
