US-Mex

I thought about writing, but I think the prolific SoccerScribe says it all.

From the Soccerscribe -

Crew Stadium isn’t exactly Camp Nou or Old Trafford, and 24,000 isn’t the same as 120,000, yet compared to 1985, this is the 23rd century.
As one who suffered through the “Dark Times,” Saturday night’s 2-0 victory over Mexico was gratifying vengeance.
Beating “El Tri” was just the start. Mexico doesn’t have much to look down upon us, but soccer was a BIG one. And they let us know it. They still think they’re vastly superior, facts and results not withstanding.
More comprehensively, though, beating Mexico 2-0, rather comfortably, before a capacity crowd, in a Midwestern city, to qualify for a fifth straight World Cup, with three games to play, and as the first team from CONCACAF, gives someone like me enough gumption to say to the American-bashing foreigners and soccer-sneering Americans: NYAH! (Or: Go stick it in your ear!)
The feeling will fade, and because of sportsmanship, it should quickly.
But for a brief moment, let me bathe in the emotion.
Having watched the Nats played, or more accurately described, struggled against the likes from Brazil to the Netherlands Antilles, and having to endure the derisive attitudes of everyone from FIFA presidents to immigrant kids from Central America, I finally can act just arrogant as they. Well, not as arrogant as the Brazilians, but most of the others.
I won’t _ for too long, because I realize that except for Gold Cup titles, the United States hasn’t won a whole lot in soccer, including a World Cup. But neither have the Dutch, the Spanish, the Mexicans, the Belgians, the Costa Ricans…
We have come a loooong way. Trust me. From places like Torrance, New Britain and Fenton to Columbus, Carson and Frisco. From a 40-year absence from the World Cup to a 16-year continuous appearance streak. From qualification on the last day _ or elimination in an early round, to clinching it with three games to spare.
We are gaining on the world, rapidly, whether or not they like that, accept it or grudgingly acknowledge it.
To many, foreigners and American soccer snobs alike, qualifying from CONCACAF is akin to granting the host a place in the final. Someone has to.
That attitude will only change AFTER the United States wins a World Cup. And that’s not likely in Germany. But today, the smile is more of a smirk, the walk more of a strut. And to the self-proclaimed soccer-superior nations, and the soccer-ignorant locals (especially self-appointed experts in the media), UP YOURS, BABY!