Sports of The Times

A Line Was Drawn at Estadio Azteca

Published: August 12, 2009
They would not give up their domination of their region, not in their home, not to the Americans. To a sports fan, sitting back and watching, it was admirable, the way the Mexican team regrouped, facing the disaster of a loss in Estadio Azteca.

Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press

Cuauhtémoc Blanco has been the spirit of the Mexican team.

No matter what comes later in the struggle to get back to the next World Cup, Mexico has salvaged its considerable pride in never, ever losing at home to the team from up north.

This was not a matter of good guys and bad guys — although maybe some in Azteca thought it was, remembering old injustices. In sheer soccer sense, it was a matter of Mexico’s professionals remembering how to come back against the United States’ professionals, how to use all the advantages of their home field, giving up the first goal and resolutely coming back to win, 2-1, on Wednesday in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup.

This was how it looked via good old Telemundo and good old mun2, two cable stations benevolently supplied by good old Cablevision and the good old Dolans. (Anybody who furnishes soccer to my household deserves the good old treatment.) And there on Telemundo was good old Andres Cantor. Gol!!! Indeed.

From virtual sea level, I knew all about the thin and stinging air of Azteca, having covered the World Cup of 1986 when I ran in Chapultepec Park and wheezed for weeks. It’s a hard place — 105,000 fans, over 7,000 feet above sea level, but nothing is tougher than Mexican resolve to stand up to the Americans.

Don’t lose here. That counted more than the environment or even a few dubious calls by the referee who let Mexico’s aggression pay off and penalized America’s aggression early enough to make a difference. Not that the calls were intentional, but the yellow cards on Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit within the first half hour had to inhibit them to some slight degree for the next hour.

And really, what is soccer, but slight degrees, paying off in one joyous surge? As it turned out, the United States had already played its best game of the year in beating a weary and perhaps uninspired Spain, 2-0, in the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June. In that epic victory, the Yanks made dozens and dozens of minute interventions to stop the highest-rated team in the world. This time form prevailed. Mexico was home.

The United States stunned Mexico early in the match. Coach Bob Bradley had made precisely the right decision, starting Charlie Davies instead of Jozy Altidore. Davies’s energy and will are infectious; he took a perfect diagonal pass from Landon Donovan and outran and outmuscled two defenders to put the Americans ahead in the ninth minute.

Some fans stopped blowing those infernal horns (that really ought to be banned for the World Cup, for the sanity of millions of viewers). Suddenly, the air was getting thinner in Azteca. But Mexico was saved by a man who bears the name of Mexican resistance.

Cuauhtémoc Blanco is named for the nephew of Montezuma, who stood up to the Spanish invaders when they came to take over the land. Cuauhtémoc was ultimately hanged by Cortes in Honduras, but his name has been given to a lumpy but fierce old warrior with almost no neck, whose head seems to droop somewhere down around his chest.

Blanco, 36, has been the spirit of the El Tri, the tricolored national team, for many years, sometimes discarded by one coach or another in one youth movement or another. Now he plays in the Mexican stronghold of Chicago, probably the most productive and motivated foreign elder ever imported by Major League Soccer. He played 90 minutes for the Fire on Sunday night and flew south, to the place of the thin air.

Don’t give in. That’s the message Cuauhtémoc exuded after the Conquistadors arrived in 1519, and that is the message Blanco provided Wednesday. Seeing himself surrounded by American defenders, he reasoned, with the wisdom of his age, that somebody else was free. He issued a subtle toe-poke pass to his right, to Israel Castro, who blasted a long-range goal over Tim Howard in the 19th minute. Oddly enough, the fans regained their wind and the horns came back.

Blanco gave them 56 minutes in the afternoon sun, and then retired for the day. In the 82nd minute, Efraín Juárez whirled past Donovan and centered the ball toward Miguel Sabah, a late sub, who put it past Howard. Mexico has now won 23 times against the Yanks at home, with one draw.

The United States still has a good chance of qualifying, but is now only 1 point ahead of Mexico, tied with Honduras and 2 points behind Costa Rica. (Only the top three teams automatically advance.)

The Americans did not play badly, at all. The decision to train at sea level was not a factor. Davies had to be replaced by Altidore, apparently because of cramps, five minutes before the decisive goal. Howard made several excellent saves but did not get high enough for Castro’s shot, which dipped and hit the underside of the bar.

The United States was not outclassed, as it used to be in Azteca. It merely lost, in a brutally tough place, to a team with enough pride to hold on. The order has held. Mexico still owns Azteca.

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com