New location for USA-Mexico honors rivalry's traditions — but with a twist
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
On Friday, a United States soccer tradition will both come to an end and keep on going at the same time.
For each of the previous five World Cup qualifying cycles, the marquee matchup between the U.S. and Mexico has taken place in Columbus, Ohio, spawning four 2-0 home victories that will live long in the hearts of American fans and one solitary defeat they want to forget.
This time, the match finally moves away from what has been known as Columbus Crew Stadium, MAPFRE Stadium and Historic Crew Stadium, but it remains in the state of Ohio, shifting down I-71 to Cincinnati’s new and gleaming TQL Stadium.
If it seems like we are talking more about where the match will be played than the contest itself — between the top two teams in the CONCACAF qualifying standings, no less — that's because location factors have played a major part in the way the rivalry’s mystique has evolved in the region’s modern soccer history.
"Venue and location are crucial to this rivalry and crucial to World Cup qualifying," FOX Sports soccer analyst and former U.S. national team star Alexi Lalas told me via telephone. "Some people will scream at me for this, but to me, this is the greatest rivalry in international soccer. The two countries are intersected and connected by culture and history and politics, and it makes the games truly special."
The "Dos a Cero" chant that U.S. supporters carry as a point of pride came on the back of that Columbus dominance, which began in February 2001 and the buildup to the 2002 World Cup.
USMNT vs. Mexico preview: The greatest international rivalry
Back then, faced with the possibility of staging the matchup in a giant stadium in one of the country’s biggest metropolitan areas, U.S. Soccer instead chose Columbus, based on three factors.
First, the demographic makeup of central Ohio would make it difficult for Mexico fans to attend in great numbers, vastly different from, say, Los Angeles, where games in other competitions have seen an overwhelming proliferation of El Tri fans.
Furthermore, the relative size of the venue, America’s first soccer-specific stadium, meant U.S. Soccer could ensure most tickets would go to hard-core U.S. followers.
Finally, with CONCACAF games often held in winter, the chilly climes of the area conferred more of an advantage to the U.S., just as Mexico’s routine staging of home games at the sweltering Azteca in Mexico City has long been one of the sport’s great home-field advantages.
The move to Columbus came about as a result of the home qualifier that preceded the 2002 campaign. In April 1999, Lalas was on a U.S. squad that needed a late equalizer to tie 2-2 with Mexico in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
"New England was a good location for us, and it certainly wasn’t as pro-Mexico as if we’d played in, say, the Rose Bowl," Lalas said. "But the American soccer fan was finding their voice and coming above ground. The identity was rising, and we felt there was something we could harness, a true home advantage."
Columbus provided it, and Cincinnati shapes up as being a worthy successor. Adequate home support won’t be an issue Friday. Cincinnati is one of the country’s most passionate soccer cities, despite having a Major League Soccer team, FC Cincinnati, that has been woeful since entering the league in 2019.
"All the qualifiers that we play at home are amazing, but this takes it to another level," U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "It’s like amazing-plus. Because of the attention around the game, because of the amped-up crowd, all of this just turns it into a really special event. For us as a group, we’re relishing this opportunity."
With the U.S., Mexico and Canada cohosting the 2026 World Cup, there will be no qualifying matchups next time around; hosts are given an automatic place. Consideration is also being given to how the CONCACAF region qualifiers are organized, meaning it can no longer be assumed that the U.S. and Mexico will meet with such regularity. Those factors are part of the reason Lalas is flying to the game from his Los Angeles home — as a fan.
Cincinnati has some of the same advantages as Columbus, including the weather, the location, the guaranteed home noise and the ability to control ticket sales. However, if not for the home result against Mexico in the doomed 2018 World Cup campaign, there might have been no reason to leave Columbus.
Just days after the 2016 presidential election, with tensions heightened, Mexico won 2-1, an outcome that led to coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s firing and ultimately set the tone for the unthinkable: the Americans missing out on the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
One defeat does not, however, change the Ohio appeal, which is why the recent qualifying game against Costa Rica was at the Columbus Crew’s new Lower.com Field and why Cincinnati made a lot of sense.
After a shaky start to the 2022 campaign, Berhalter’s group has started to feel good about its qualifying stability. Three wins from the past four games have placed the team in second in the eight-team final group that will send three teams directly to the tournament in Qatar next year and a fourth into a playoff.
A notable newcomer to the squad is 18-year-old Joe Scally, who has impressed with German Bundesliga team Borussia Moengladbach and is expected to start in place of the injured Sergiño Dest.
Scally wasn’t even born when the Ohio connection began, and there are many others on the squad who aren’t even close to being old enough to recollect its origins. Regardless, it is a tradition of home dominance that the U.S. hopes can start up again, albeit in new surroundings.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
