Bummer: U.S.-Mexico match in February looking doubtful

Planning that early-season vacation around the long-talked about U.S.-Mexico match, the one U.S. Soccer has been working on for months, the one most likely headed to Houston?

Uh, better put those plans on hold for now.

In fact, maybe you’d better start looking for alternate get-away locales. My travel agent says the Caribbean is nice in February. Or, don’t forget that it’s summer in South America.

I spent a little time last week around Bob Bradley’s training camp, the annual January get-together that’s going on right now at the Home Depot Center.

And whispers around the camp are that the U.S.-Mexico match is off for now, and that it looks somewhat unlikely to happen at all. I didn’t get a good reason, but I’d bet a top-shelf margarita that it has something to do with Mexico asking a little too much to participate. When word leaks out that the match is imminent, as it did in this case, Mexico gains extra leverage in the negotiations.

That means the United States will have just two matches between now and a series of World Cup warm-ups, which commence in May and stretch into June. The first of the two will be the Jan. 23 contest against Honduras at the Home Depot Center. That one will wrap up the January camp, where 30 players are now training. The second is the March 3 match in Amsterdam against the Netherlands, one of the favorites to take the whole banana in South Africa.