The road to South Africa

During the 2006 World Cup, I created a blog for friends and family to read my commentary on the games, the US team, and other soccer related news. (I'm using a different blog program b/c I wasn't crazy about Yahoo's tool.)

As the US starts gearing up the final round of qualification for the 2010 World Cup, I've decided to start a new blog to follow the team along its journey.

The road to South Africa and World Cup 2010 starts next week as the US takes on Mexico in the final round of qualifying matches.

Now, some say Duke vs. UNC.

Others prefer Yankees vs. Red Sox.

Still others will offer Cowboys vs. Redskins.

But for my money, the single best rivalry in all of sport is in soccer: US vs. Mexico. There is palpable hatred present at all of these matches. And there are no butt slaps before the games, no hugging or praying afterward. Just two teams that openly despise each other.

And the latest battle is coming up in less than a week on Wednesday, February 11 at 7 pm ET on ESPN2. If you're a sports fan, there's not reason not to watch this. NFL season is over. Baseball hasn't started yet. The NBA is stuck in the middle if its Bataan-Death March of a regular season (which will be followed by a nearly-as-long post-season). March Madness is still weeks away.

For a little background, the US was the whipping boy of Mexico for decades. Then, things started to turn in the 1990s. Perhaps the most significant game came in 2001 as the US and Mexico played in a World Cup qualifying match in Columbus, Ohio.

Mexico entered the typically confident -- even arrogant. But the temperature at kick-off was in the 20s and the Mexican players didn't come out for pre-game warm ups.

Typically, the game was pretty rough and two US vets (Brian McBride and Claudio Reyna) went out with injuries in the first half. But the two subs, Josh Wolff and Clint Mathis, rallied the US 2-0 past a shocked Mexico team.

That game, of course, let do the US qualifying for the 2002 World Cup where they met Mexico again in the elimination round in S. Korea. More about that game later.