Clint Dempsey is one of the oldest veterans in camp ahead of the titanic CONCACAF Cup showdown between the U.S. national team and Mexico on Saturday (6:30 pm PT; FOX Sports 1), and his roots in the region’s best rivalry run deep.
Now staring down his 10th career appearance against Mexico, Dempsey said this week that the rivalry has been part of his life – in some form or other – since his early playing days in Nacogdoches, Texas.
“Growing up, I played with a lot of kids from Mexico that went to my high school,” Dempsey said on Thursday. “You’re always talking trash. That competitive rivalry and being so close to Mexico, it’s exciting to have big games like this and want to win so bad. Both countries want to be able to flex their muscles and have bragging rights.”
The US have certainly done that in recent years, posting a 3-0-3 record since Jurgen Klinsmann took over as head coach in August 2011. None of those results have come in a match as critical as the one that will play out Saturday at the Rose Bowl, however, with a shot in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia on the line.
The USMNT missed out on the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil, but Dempsey and a few other players in this week’s camp date back to 2009, when the Americans stunned Spain in the Confederations Cup in South Africa and ultimately reached the tournament final.
“The year before going to the World Cup, I think it helped us in South Africa,” said Dempsey, who scored three goals in the 2009 tournament. “It gave us confidence. You get used to the facilities and to the environment and the atmosphere, and we were able to win the group [in 2010], and we were in a tough group.”
Dempsey and the rest of the veteran players are already accustomed the environment they’ll face on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, with a booming crowd of around 90,000 fans, most of them likely rooting for Mexico.
The same happened during the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup final, when El Tri rallied from a 2-0 hole to win 4-2 and book their spot in the Confederations Cup two years later.
Not many holdovers are left from that day’s squad – Dempsey, Tim Howard, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones and Alejandro Bedoya are the only ones who played then and could play Saturday – but the experience of the US-Mexico rivalry is something each player discovers on his own terms, in due time.
“It’s on the field, off the field, it’s everywhere,” said Dempsey, who has never scored against El Tri. “Whether you’re playing pick-up with your friends … we were always talking trash in high school playing against each other, it was like USA vs. Mexico. It was about bragging rights.”
