Are you a Mexican? Or a Mexican't?

Scene Reset: World Cup 2002, South Korea, Round of 16, USA v. Mexico

Result: 2-0 USA

Eat it.

Saturday night, Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH will be the stage for the World Cup Qualifying match between USA and FC 2-0. Columbus has seen this before: February 28, 2001. Qualifying for World Cup 2002. 24,624 witness the USA triumph 2-0 (notice a trend?). What's at stake tonight? If the USA wins, they officially punch their ticket to World Cup 2006 in Germany - officially because, well, they have 4 games left in which to qualify... it's pretty much a foregone conclusion, but it would be sweet to do it against Mexico.

When the USA travelled to Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and fell 2-1 earlier in qualifying, a banner reading "El gigante no es muerte" (The giant is not dead") was displayed in the stands. Insecure much? For years Mexico has been the "class" (a word loosely used here) of the region, long dominating all of the teams from Panama north to Canada. When the USA (note: Mexico call themselves the "Tricolores" [as in green white and red] but it seems to me that the premier three color combination on the soccer field is red white and blue) was dominating FC 2-0 in South Korea 3 years ago, the "class" of the region showed no class at all and began playing dirty, violently fouling Cobi Jones (as they've done for years) and generally being sore losers. I'll be firmly planted in front of the TV on Saturday night watching the best team in the region take on Mexico. I have a funny feeling what the score will be...