US awaits derby in 2010 World Cup Qualifying

In baseball, you have cross-town rivals like the New York Yankees and Mets; In college sports, you have long-time conference rivals like Duke and North Carolina in basketball or Michigan and Ohio State in football. In England, these kind of matches that pit bitter rivals that live in close proximity are called a 'derby' (pronounced dar-bee).

For US soccer fans, our derby is CONCACAF rival Mexico. Since qualification for the 1990 World Cup almost 20 years ago, the two countries have had a stranglehold on qualification for the North & Central American countries, as well as the Caribbean nations. Only three teams from this region of the world will qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which makes every match in qualification a playoff game. This chapter of the US-Mexico rivalry is perhaps the most anticipated match on US soil in four years. The match will mark the 55th meeting between the two long-time rivals, and kicks off the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Where the neighboring country might be civil to each other in most cases, this is clearly a classic grudge match of two footballing nations that do not like each other.

"This is the game all the guys look forward to," says US midfielder Sacha Kljestan. "It's probably been on our calendars for a long time."

Just as they were 2 ½ years ago when these nations last met in a qualifier, the Americans are favored. By beating Mexico, 2-0, at Columbus Crew Stadium in September, 2005, the Americans clinched their World Cup 2006 place with three qualifiers still to play.This time, the qualifying starts against Mexico in Columbus, and on the U.S. team are veterans of the rivalry as well as several players projected to play important roles at the 2010 World Cup - assuming the USA gets there - yet still untested in a Hexagonal.

"The qualifiers are a different beast," says Kljestan, whose busy schedule in 2008 included starts in all three Olympic matches as well as eight games with the senior team, six of which were qualifiers. But he's never played in a Hexagonal nor against Mexico.

"I see just in meetings the older guys, how serious they are, and on the field the effort you have to put in for the whole 90 minutes. We want to dictate the way the game is played, we want to play the game on our terms."

The match will be played at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio at 7 p.m. ET, and will be televised live on ESPN2 & Univision). Tune in to watch our US team represent the Stars and Stripes on the way to qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.