Today the US plays Mexico at Azteca stadium.  

We are coming off a 5 - 0 loss to mexico earlier this summer that took place in the united states.  

While that loss was a result of playing our b team against them, todays game will be just as tough even though we are bringing our usual starters (who recently beat #1 Spain and lost a close match to world power brazil).  The reason is the US has never won a game at Azteca Stadium although they have gotten a draw there before.

Even though we should have an advantage in terms of player vs player matchups, we have to deal with the crowd, altitude, heat, pollution and the knowledge that we have never won in Azteca before.

Regardless of the outcome both teams are coming to play and due to world cup qualifying implications it should be a battle and a fun match to watch.

Im going to insert some soccer highlights here to get you pumped up, feel free to use this as a game thread and show your support for US Soccer or at least soccer in general.

The best goal of the year 2009 of Falcão (Brasil) (via bastimuku)

USA (2) Vs Brazil (3) all goals Final FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009 (via Nejjad)

Best Goals in History of Football (via s0at0downtown)

Hey Im sweating some games tonight, Im watching the Double header on ESPN but am also looking for the Denver/New orleans game link if somebody has it.

Also dont u guys wish that brandon roy took it took the rack to get fouled at the end of regulation on monday?  I mean he woulda got fouled or perhaps had a better look than a fade away contested jump shot.   Im really just saying this so I can have 75 words, Im not that busted up about it.

Most games we lose are lost in earlier stages of the game. In these losses I always feel like the team goes away from the hot hand or nate pulls guys/puts in lineups that are just not working. If we are not scoring we are not winning because our defense is bad.

We just played a team without 2 of their top 3 players, 2 players that are among the best in the world at their position. Greg Popovich is a good coach, he is probably a top 2 coach in the league at this moment. He takes guys like, well actually I cant remember any of their names but guys like that, and completely shuts down one of the most efficient offensive teams in the league. Its not like they have outstanding defensive players, it was the coaching that made them have outstanding team defense.

Portland repeatedly lets opposing teams shoot a very high percentage. You cannot tell me that the lineup the spurs put on the floor tonight has more talented defensive players than ours does. (Im not saying that we have the greatest defensive talents, but they should be better than the lineup the spurs had out there.) Yet they made us look pretty bad going against basically their second unit.

Now im not saying this game could have been won by just inserting bayless or playing parker a different way, but I think there could be some better coaching done for our team. I dont think Nate is a terrible coach, actually he could be considered one of the top 4th quarter coaches in the league. He could make better decisions early in games, come out with better gameplans, and make sure to recognize what is working and make the team realize and execute that.

You could chalk this game up to just a poor performance against a top team in the league. Problem is, we seem to have a lot of these and I think this has to do with the coaching too. A coach should be able to motivate his team, inspire them, set them up to be successful, and show them how they are going to win a game.

In half of our games Nates inability to do this is often covered up by the crowd at the Rose garden. On the road there seems to be a trend that we cannot get up to play with the top teams. We have the talent, albeit young, to do this, we just need our coach to step up our game.