sorry alex, but they very much are. look at the lineups from the last two games. 2 players in the gold cup for usa played in azteca: ching and holden. mexico had almost half their team in both games. mexico's team wasn't full strength in gold cup, but it was much closer to full strength than ours. we are above mexico in both fifa rankings and qualifying standings. believe me, if you analyze both the teams without biased the usa is better. i know i'm biased for the usa, but the only way you could argue that mexico is a better team is to be biased for them. also, usa have played their toughest games in qualifying now, so they will probably win the group. they have played in both costa rica and mexico. those are the only games that one may expect usa to lose. mexico very likely will lose in the chaotic atmosphere of costa rica. there isn't much i've seen of mexico to make them the better overall team. on the day maybe, but overall absolutely not. neither game was mexico completely dominant. gold cup the usa was better up to the penalty call. the penalty was bullshit to begin with, and that changed the game. in azteca, mexico was slightly better the usa, but never seemed dominant. its normal for an away team to be less aggressive. it took a late goal for mexico to win, because they didn't overwhelm us. we made a defensive error allowing the player to dribble past and that was the difference. remember these are basically the same teams that played in columbus in february. there is no way you could say we have gotten worse or mexico has got better since then. usa was genuinely dominant against them there. we don't even need to have an extreme climate. it was not cold that night, and the fans were probably pro-mexico as usual even in the usa. mexico is shit, and i really hope that honduras and costa rica can keep their form. forcing mexico to a playoff with south america would be hilarious.
