Notre Dame will host the Mexico Under-20 team in an international friendly today in its third match of the 2013 spring season. Notre Dame will also entertain Iowa, IPFW and Grand Valley State in a four-team event Saturday.
Earlier this spring, the Irish faced Michigan State in a charity match March 23 in Fort Wayne, Ind., and lost to the Chicago Red Stars 4-1 on Wednesday in Alumni Stadium.
The Red Stars, members of the newly formed National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), scored twice in the first half off the foot of former Irish midfielder and All-American Lauren Fowlkes.
Notre Dame has history on its side today. The Irish have played various permutations of the Mexican national team eight times since 2001 but lost only twice. In their most recent match, however, Mexico prevailed 4-1 on April 23, 2010. In that game, over 2,700 fans crowded Alumni Stadium to watch the Irish take on their international neighbors.
Irish coach Randy Waldrum will have a nearly full roster to use against Mexico. Though the Irish were one of the youngest teams in the nation last season, Notre Dame loses only two seniors from last year's squad.
Before the Irish faced the Red Stars on Wednesday, Mexico played Haiti's national team in Alumni Stadium and beat them 1-0. The same Mexican squadlost to Nigeria 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan last summer. The United States beat Germany in the title game to earn the Cup.
Today's action against Mexico begins at 7 p.m. in Alumni Stadium and Saturday's games begin at 10 a.m. on the Notre Dame practice field.
Contact Cory Bernard at cbernard@nd.edu
