Fresh off earning his fourth cap for the United States, Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan will have a chance to participate in CONCACAF’s biggest rivalry.
Roldan and the U.S. will take on Mexico in a friendly at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday evening (5:30 p.m. PT; ESPN, UniMás, Univision Deportes), and for many on a youthful U.S. team, it will be their first match against El Tri.
“It’s a huge rivalry,” said Roldan. “What comes with this rivalry is the amount of passion people have for the game…You’ll see a team that’s motivated and a team that’s willing to sacrifice everything to get a victory.”
Roldan entered as a substitute in the 83rd minute in the U.S.’ 2-0 loss to Brazil last Friday, with goals coming from Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino and PSG’s Neymar. Roldan has been a consistent call-up since he made his international debut last summer in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and a good performance against Mexico will go a long way for him and the entire U.S. squad.
“It was obviously a disappointing result,” said Roldan. “We knew what kind of team we were facing in Brazil. Now we have to shift our focus to another really good side, a very young, youthful, energetic side that is hungry for a win as well coming off a loss [to Uruguay]. We have to get our tactics right and implement them into the game.”
