There may well be a little extra sense of satisfaction for Mexico fans should El Tri earn a victory Wednesday in Amsterdam against a good Dutch side that has struggled under Guus Hiddink since the World Cup.
It will have been 137 days since that afternoon of June 29 in Fortaleza, Brazil, when the Netherlands stormed back from 1-0 down to win 2-1 and send Mexico crashing out of the World Cup. And the sense of injustice still holds strong for Mexico's legion of fans.
At all of El Tri's games since, there have been banners, T-shirts, homemade flags and a host of other paraphernalia emblazoned with "No era penal" (It wasn't a penalty). That's in reference to Arjen Robben falling a little easily under a challenge from Rafa Marquez to earn a late penalty, which Klaas-Jan Huntelaar smashed in. "No era penal" has almost become a brand.
The incident in second-half injury time is etched forever onto the consciousness of Mexican soccer, with the psychological barrier of not reaching the quarterfinal stage of a World Cup outside of Mexico still casting a shadow over the country's national team. But it would be no use getting caught up in any sense of "revenge" in Wednesday's game against the Netherlands.
Or, as Robben told members of the Mexican media Monday: "It was a penalty . . . we won, you have to get over it." Mexico coach Miguel Herrera has also said it is time to move on.
Far from being a matter of revenge, Wednesday's match is an opportunity for Mexico to pit its wits against one of Europe's finest in a rare away game on the Old Continent. This is Mexico's first friendly in Europe since Sept. 2, 2011.
Forward Carlos Vela, who will start against the Netherlands, has not been in international play in three years. In the time since, El Tri has played 25 consecutive friendlies in the United States or Mexico that were either officially home games or can be considered so due to Mexico having a majority of the crowd's support.
There is debate over whether the sporting side of the Mexico national team is best served by playing with such regularity under advantageous conditions, but there is no doubt these opportunities to really excel in Europe come up rarely for El Tri. And with the Netherlands going through a rough patch under Hiddink, whose job could be at risk with a loss, Herrera will be looking for this team to make a statement.
He'll want to prove that while his team may not appear very often on European shores, its goal is to mix it with the very best the continent has to offer come the next World Cup.
This time, if Mexico does take the lead, Herrera will want his team to not sit back and concede 58 percent of possession in the final 15 minutes. He'd also like to see his side complete more than 19 passes in that time and have more than just one real attack. And, of course, defenders shouldn't be sticking their legs out if Robben is looking for that penalty when he is running into a dead end inside the penalty area.
The World Cup exit was a lesson that Herrera -- inexperienced on the international stage compared to the likes of Hiddink and former Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal -- needs to take on board and learn from.
Games since the World Cup have been largely positive, with El Tri not having conceded a single goal. Keeping that record up while netting at least one at the other end in Amsterdam would be a sign of progress, which is much more important at this stage than any sense of revenge.