Game: United States vs. México
Date: Monday, July 5th
Time: 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Central, 2:00 p.m. Pacific, 9:00 p.m. UTC
Venue: Pratt & Whitney Stadium (East Hartford, Conn.)
Television: United States - ESPN; Mexico - TUDN; Brazil - FOX Sports 1
Streaming: fuboTV (Subscription), Sling TV (Subscription), TUDN En Vivo, ESPN+, Vidgo (Subscription)
After a disappointing but not totally unexpected result, México will attempt to bounce back and apply the lessons learned from the 4-0 loss at the hands of their northern rivals on Thursday night. The heavy loss was México’s third straight defeat and 16th straight against the two-time defending World Cup champions.
While the scoreline was disheartening, México is still showing improvement in every match. For a program that lie dormant for almost an entire year, they’ve shown remarkable ambition and fortitude by taking on some of the world’s best programs since re-emerging from their hiatus.
But while these are definitely positive steps, at some point Mónica Vergara’s squad is going to have to be able to get past their archrivals. The final match of their “Send Off Series” before heading to the Tokyo Olympic Games would be the perfect opportunity, especially considering it was they who knocked México out of the Olympic qualifiers with a 4-0 loss.
The team is struggling to create chances, and the few they’re able to create aren’t being converted. Since their 3-1 win over Costa Rica in February, México has scored just one goal, an Alison González goal against Japan during a 5-1 loss. Despite the tough competition México has faced, this simply isn’t good enough to be competitive at a level that México aspires to be at.
México needs a good result from this match. Psychically a win would do wonders for the program, whose fans are starting to want more than moral victories even against top level competition like they’ve faced in their previous match as well as against Spain and Japan. While rebuilding the program is going to take time and fans are enthusiastic at the progress that has been made, the fans and the team could use a confidence boost like upsetting their biggest rivals as they head to a tournament they were kept out of.