USA! USA! USA!

The new US shirt drives the cougars wild

Tonight, the US Men's National Team plays host to El Tri at Houston's Reliant stadium. Is the US going to continue its recent run of domination over the Mexicans? Or will Hugo Sanchez's boys actually beat the Americans for the first time in seven tries? Pointless nationalism after the jump.

Tonight's friendly, which is rapidly becoming an annual tradition (and excellent money spinner for US Soccer), features CONCACAF's two best teams for what seems like the 1,000 time in the past couple of years. Then again, beating Mexico never gets old. The big story is the debut of a new generation of players on both sides. The Mexicans called in Dos Santos from Barcelona and Carlos Vela from Osasuna (he's Arsenal property). The US counters with Michael Bradley, who has been out of his mind at Herenveen, Freddy Adu, and Jozy Altidore, the Haitian sensation. Sadly Bob Bradley did not leave Landon back home in California to work on his tan. This should be a really exciting game, as both teams have more or less a first choice starting XI. The crowd will likely be overwhelmingly pro-Mexico, but I think the US continues its domination with a 3-1 win.

Oh, and the best news of the night by far is that the moronic tandem of Dave O'Brien and Eric Wynadla have apparently been replaced by J.P. Dellacamera and John Harkes. So hopefully there won't be any comparisons of corner kicks to Manny Ramirez home runs over the Monster tonight.

For more pregame hype, check out these links.