FC Barcelona and Mexican National Team defender Rafa Marquez has torn a calf muscle and will not be available for the August 12th qualifier against the United States. The injury is expected to keep him out for up to 15 days.

Marquez suffered the injury in training with Barcelona as they prepared for their friendly with MLS side Seattle Sounders FC.

This is good news for the Americans; it means that Mexico will be without one of their most experienced and highly accomplished defenders.

Marquez is also high on the list of Mexican players that USMNT fans love to hate, so his absence from the match will detract from the drama (if that's possible).

The US roster for the match is expected to be released tomorrow.

The countdown to Azteca officially begins today for me, as we're just over a week away from the biggest game on the USMNT's 2009 World Cup qualification schedule. While I'm supremely excited for the match, I'd be lying if I said I was certain of anything other than a full effort by Bob Bradley's boys.

It's going to take more than a full effort to get a good result from the game; not only is history against Bob Bradley and the Americans, there are plenty of reasons to worry that have nothing to do with history and everything to do with the team's current form.

2009 Road Results

"Not good" would be the best way to sum up the USMNT's Hexagonal results on the road halfway through the round; a comeback draw in El Salvador and an utter thrashing by Costa Rica in San Jose mean that the Yanks haven't proved that they can play well in a hostile environments this year. Although El Salvador and Costa Rica's home field advantages are significant and shouldn't be underrated, they're nothing compared to that of El Tri. Mental resolve will be supremely tested next week, and there's no evidence, yet, that the Americans have it when it truly counts.

Key Players Not In Top Form

The showdown at Azteca comes at a time when most European clubs are still in its pre-season; this means that several key American players won't exactly be on top of their games when match time comes around. While that's true for Euro-based Mexican players as well, they have the luxury of home-field advantage and comfortable surroundings. The Americans likely to see the field who will certainly come in rusty include Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley (although 'Gladbach has opened their German Cup campaign), and several others. It will be down to training and carry-over from June's play to keep the American as the proverbial "well-oiled machine" (and even with the Confederations Cup, it's debatable if they ever were that).

Inconsistency Reigns

For every good performance the US has put in this year, there has been an equally poor one; the victory over Mexico in February was followed up by disappointing results in Central America. The two good results and reasonably good finals performance at the Confederations Cup was preceded by two of the worst games they had played all year. Time after time, Bob Bradley has come up short when it comes to getting the Americans to string together strong performance after strong performance. With the exterior issues of environment, smog, altitude and history staring them in the face, it's difficult for me to believe that they'll be able to push all of those factors aside and play to the best of their ability. Stacking up well-played matches just doesn't seem to be in the American makeup, whether your put that on Bob Bradley or on some endemic problem with the USMNT program.

An optimistic outlook is a fan's refuge, and his absolute right; it's easy to fall into the dream of pulling out a victory at Azteca, and I'm certainly not going to let it go completely. But the issues surrounding the game and this American trip to Mexico City make it tough to be positive of success.

If they do manage to win, it will be all the sweeter because they really shouldn't.

The odds were always going to be against the American, no matter the results from the Confederations Cup or the Gold Cup. The fact that the US surprisingly made the final of the former and fell flat on their faces against a Mexico "B" squad in the latter means little for their chances at Azteca. "Throw the records out the window" goes the cliche, and it certainly applies in this circumstance. The two nations' relative places in the qualifying round table is a non-factor.

Just a little over a week to go now, and as I work on my get-out-of-work early excuse, I find myself disappointed that I'm even bothered by the things I mentioned here. It would be much better if I could just shut off my brain, watch the match when it happens, and live-and-die with the Yanks as I always do.

Stay tuned throughout the lead-up to the game; there's bound to be more coming out of my over-active brain, and I promise it won't all be as depressing as this.

Jason and Zach are back; time for another Match Fit USA Soccer Show. This week, it's more mun2 USA-Mexico talk, Gold Cup fan fallout, MLS All-Star game discussion, American transfers abroad, and we finish up with a lighting round of Jimmy Conrad's Twitter travails, the Mexican roster for the World Cup qualifier, and DC United's continued efforts to find a site for a new stadium.

The Match Fit USA Soccer Show, part of the Champions Soccer Radio Network.

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*UPDATE I've had someone tell me that they've had issues getting the new show from iTunes; if you are having similar problems, please let me know.

First, an apology. I was selfish. I took the news that the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier taking place August 12th in Mexico City would not be on a widely-available English-language outlet with entirely too much calm. I get Telemundo, and I could briefly subscribe to mun2 if I so choose, and I let those facts color my reaction. Obviously not everyone is as "lucky" as I am.

Many of you have commented that you don't get either Telemundo or mun2, and will be left to hunt down a soccer bar or internet feed. Even if you do receive Telemundo, it's maddening that the English feed of the match will be on a niche channel that most of us had never heard of until yesterday.

More than maddening. It's inexcusable.

First, let's properly direct our anger: Is ESPN to blame for not stepping up and paying Telmundo (and by extension, NBC Universal, Telemundo's parent company) what they wanted for the US English-language rights? Maybe, but as long as the ESPN ship has sailed, it's a pointless exercise to focus our attention there. It should all go back to the source, to the entity that holds the rights and ultimately decided to keep them for themselves, spitting in the face of USMNT fans everywhere by planning to air the match on a channel with an extremely small cable footprint. Add in the fact that mun2 is often only available through the purchase of an additional tier of channels (as is the case with me), and NBC Universal's actions are even more disgusting.

Other outlets exist. Outlets with widespread availability. Here's the list of NBC Universal's television properties:

NBC
USA
CNBC
MSNBC
Bravo

At least one of those makes sense as a home for USA-Mexico. The USA Network has hosted sports programming fairly regularly over the years, and I simply can't imagine that their 4-6pm ET schedule on August 12th can't be rearranged for a highly anticipated soccer match. In fact, the network is running an NCIS marathon on that day (according to their online listings), and while that show may be somewhat popular, I seriously doubt that the umpteenth episode in a row would get better ratings than USA-Mexico.

As fans, what do we do? Now that we not only know who should receive the lion's share of our anger, and have in mind an alternative that would clearly makes sense, what actions should we take?

That's the easy part.

Not only should you email NBC to voice your displeasure and demand that the game be broadcast elsewhere (preferably the USA Network or a channel with similar distribution), each and every soccer-friendly media figure in the country should be made aware of the issue.

Colin Cowherd recently stated that the USA-Mexico qualifier at Azteca is the most important game in the history of American soccer, a potential tipping point in the popularity of the game here. Cowherd has a voice, a national profile, and the means to make a stink; while I wonder if his ESPN affiliation means he won't comment (I hope not), there's always a chance. It seems worth the effort to barrage him with emails (theherd@espnradio.com) and tweets (herdonespnradio).

Email Bill Simmons. Email Michael Wilbon. Email anyone you can think of that might care. Email your congeressman if you want to. Let everyone know that this issue matters to you; it's the only way it might possibly change. Let everyone know here in this thread or elsewhere around the Internet soccer community who might make a good target.

This match at Azteca is the highlight of the USMNT year. The FMF has already made it difficult enough to see by setting kickoff for 3pm CT; we shouldn't be forced to hunt and scrounge to see it as well. There are enough of us to make a difference, and a collective campaign is the only way to do so.

I'll be sending emails and doing my part, whether this campaign gets off the ground or not. Selfishly ignoring the problem before, I've now see the light; come on Telemundo/NBC Universal..

GIVE US OUR YANKS!

Per Jason Gatties' suggestion, there is now an online petition for the effort:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/usamexicotv

Sign it, send it to everyone you know, tweet it, post it on message boards-do whatever it takes to make this a campaign that actually carries some weight.

*UPDATE* Apparently I should have researched this particular petition site a little; it seems that ipetitions makes it appear you have to pay to sign. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. THERE IS NO CHARGE TO SIGN THE PETITION.

Online petitions are nice, and they're certainly easy, but clogging up email in-boxes and fax machines are even better. I realize that the effort needed can often be a deterrent, and so I'm making it easy for you:

First, copy and paste these email addresses into your email's recipient box.

brian.walker@nbcuni.com, adam.freifeld@nbcuni.com, Lyndsay.Iorio@nbcuni.com, dick.ebersol@nbcuni.com, Perkins.Miller@nbcuni.com, Jeff.Zucker@nbcuni.com

Make the subject "USA-Mexico on USA Network" or something similar.

Next, copy and paste this text into the body of your email:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am an American soccer fan. Yes, we do in fact exist, and we are likely more numerous than you might believe.

As an American soccer fan, I was distressed to learn that the United States Men's National Team's upcoming World Cup qualifier with arch-rival Mexico will not be broadcast on a widely-available English-language network.

This is unacceptable. Soccer, and in particular the USMNT, are growing in popularity at a rapid clip. The team's recent strong showing in a tournament last month has drastically increased their profile, and more Americans than ever are following them. USA-Mexico is not only a crucial game for World Cup qualification, it's also the most compelling, intriguing, and attention-worthy game on the 2009 calendar. The soccer community is anxiously awaiting the match, and will watch in larger numbers.

Broadcasting the game on a network few of us receive or would be forced to pay added cost for is not only unfair, it's bad business. Cutting the potential audience for the game off at the knees does not seem the best way to maximize it's potential worth to NBC Universal.

Therefore, I respectfully request that you move this match to one of your other more widely-available networks. USA Network would seem to make the most sense, though I am not picky. Please allow us, the American soccer community, see the game that we are so looking forward to. I'm convinced that this move makes sense for your company as well; aside from the millions of eyes tuned to your one of your networks, the PR ramifications are obvious.

Sincerely,
(your name)
An American Soccer Fan

Hit send.

I'm spent. Between live blogging, watching my son, watching the game, and having way too much adrenaline flowing to fall asleep at a proper time, my body wants to kick my ass. Still, the show must go on, and here I am with a few day-after thoughts.

1. Apparently, Frankie pissed some people off last night. I am sure this will be EVERYWHERE today, but just in case you haven't come across it yet, here is a link to a video of Hejduk getting slapped by a Mexican assistant in the tunnel after the game.

While we're talking about Frankie, I think it's clear that Bob's decision to start the vet in place of the injured Cherundolo was the right move. Hejduk never looks over matched, consistently made the right decision with the ball, looked dangerous up the wing on occasion, and had some crucial open-field tackles.

2. I'm still angry with ESPN this morning. It just doesn't appear as though they want to give American soccer a fair shake. Other than the once-an-hour commercial that ran for about a week before the game, there was absolutely no push. They also continue to insist on breaking into the action to go to those ridiculous "Sportscenter In Game" updates, relegating the game itself to a small inset box. God forbid something that matters happens while the idiot in Bristol tells us for the 6,000th time that A-Rod admitted to steroid use. The one good thing I'll say about ESPN is that they appear to have at least one anchor that gets it. I was able to catch the highlights on the late night Sportscenter, and Scott Van Pelt did a reasonably good job with them.

3. I was happy to see Jozy get his feet wet in a Mexico game. He didn't have time to do much, but you could tell that given the chance, he's up for a big spot like that. Now, Marquez was out of the game at that point, so it's hard to tell how he would have looked against Mexico's best.

4. I don't think I'll ever be completely comfortable with our central defense. That's probably just a function of being a fan rather than an indictment of Onweyu and Bocanegra, although the decisions they make don't help sometimes.

I'll probably be back later, either with more fallout from USA-Mexico, or with some other thoughts that have bouncing around my head.