Once upon a time, the United States was the laughingstock of the regional soccer landscape. Once upon a time, Americans couldn't care less.
And once upon a time, Mexico didn't give its soccer-playing neighbors to the north a second look.
Oh, how times have changed.
Tonight's 54th meeting between the United States and Mexico at Reliant Stadium is being billed as a friendly for competition purposes. But when the teams step onto the field, they will renew a rivalry that transcends players and statistics.
Everything, from the expected sellout crowd — less than 3,000 tickets remained as of Tuesday evening — to the electric atmosphere that is a staple of international matches to the insane amount of media on the sidelines, points to the event's significance.
"These games are special," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said Tuesday.
So special, these days the rivalry has a poster child — American Landon Donovan — as the United States has asserted dominance over its southerly neighbors as far back as its newest generation of players can remember.
Even Mexico coach Hugo Sánchez, known for playing down the rivalry against what he considers a lesser opponent despite the results, seems to be coming around.
"Yeah, you can call it a clásico," Sánchez said. "Call it the Northern Classic."
Mexico leads the all-time series 29-14-10 dating to 1934. But the Americans have had the upper hand of late, compiling a 9-2-1 record since 2000 that includes being undefeated at home, a statistic that burns in the minds of fans of El Tri.
It is the reason, after nearly 60 years of dominance by Mexico, a rivalry has been born. Americans love a winning team; Mexicans hate losing to the United States.
Edgar Torres stood outside the Texans' training facility around midday Tuesday hoping to catch a glimpse and an autograph of his favorite Mexican players. Gathered around him were about 30 other El Tri fans, some of whom had traveled from as far away as Clear Lake, Galveston and Atlanta. Most of them were on an extended lunch break; all of them were hoping for victory by Mexico.
"For a change, let's see if the guys really give it all this time and win," said Torres, an electrician and native of Tampico, Tamaulipas. "It's about pride; it's about giving us Mexicans something to be proud of."
Because this is a family newspaper, we'll leave it at that.
U.S. fans once had the oft-controversial Cuauhtémoc Blanco to pick a bone with, but with his departure from El Tri all but official and with Mexico undergoing a major changing of the guard, they're left with no true instigator.
But Mexico fans look to have Donovan a while longer as the U.S. player they most love to hate. Donovan has had no reservations in the past when talking about how much he enjoys beating El Tri.
"I think there would be other words some of the Mexican people would use other than poster child for me," said Donovan with a shy smile as his team wrapped up practice Tuesday. "But it's fun for me. For a friendly game that in reality means nothing, it's a lot of fun."
Somewhere in their complicated relationship with Donovan, many Mexico fans say they respect one of the few American players who takes the time to communicate in Spanish.
"I've had some probably bad moments (against Mexico), and I've had some good games against them, too, so that's difficult," Donovan said. "I see it as a form of respect, whether it comes that way from their mouths, probably not.
"In some ways, it'd be nice to have them say, hey we respect you, instead of cursing at me."
Perhaps it's no coincidence that the United States turned the tide against Mexico right about the time Donovan became a team regular in 2000.
And perhaps that's why Donovan embodies everything that is right with the American side and, in the eyes of Mexico fans, everything that's wrong with El Tri.
These days, Donovan, 25, the all-time U.S. leading scorer with 35 goals, takes a more tactful approach when referring to the archival, but not without making it clear Mexico is the one with its back against the wall in the rivalry.
"The mentality is 100 percent win the game, because the reality of it is this matters when we play them in qualifiers," Donovan said. "The more we win the more they remember and the more they know, and that's what matters."
But while some admit to the Americans having a mental edge on El Tri, as Mexican defender Carlos Salcido did, telling the media in Mexico that Mexico starts the game down 1-0 when playing the United States, others play down the significance of the recent results and the need to end the slide.
"Winning will always be important, whether it's a friendly or what not," Mexico midfielder Pavel Pardo said. "But to say we're obsessed about it, nah."
