Despite a slight slump for Mexico's national soccer team, El Tri, in recent months, the team still has a strong fan base in two countries -- Mexico and the U.S. -- going into the summer's World Cup tournament.

"The Mexican soccer team is unique having two markets: the 'natural' one in Mexico, and in the U.S. with Mexican migrants," said Jose Samuel Martinez Lopez, a Universidad Iberoamericana professor in Mexico City. "The consumer market for soccer among Mexican migrants is strong and growing, and the MLS has seen this as a good place to do business."

According to Al Jazeera America, El Tri's annual schedule of games played on U.S. soil generates millions of dollars. Last week, several hundred people attended the final pre-World Cup friendly between El Tri and Portugal Boston and on May 31, 84,876 fans filled the seats at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to watch Mexico's 3-1 victory over Ecuador.

Rachel Cohen, along with her husband Abraham, visited the U.S. to watch the World Cup friendly at Foxboro.

"America has baseball and basketball and football," she told Al Jazeera while riding the train to Boston's Gillette Stadium. "But soccer is all we Mexicans have."

Because the Mexican national team is so popular in the U.S., the team requires two slates of corporate sponsors. The Mexican soccer federation Femexfut handles the Mexican sponsorships while MLS's commercial department, Soccer United Marketing, which has been in charge of scheduling the team's annual five-game swing in America since 2003, arranges the U.S. sponsors.

After defeating U.S. 4-2 in the 2011 Gold Cup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Mexico went on to earn the Olympic Gold by taking down Brazil in the 2012 games. But 2013 brought a slump for the team, which saw three coaching changes in just one month.

El Tri began to lose some steam as the team only won two of its 10 games during the World Cup qualifying campaign. The Mexican national team still made it into the tournament by defeating New Zealand in a playoff last year.

Although El Tri has shown some improvements during its seven World Cup-friendly games in the last five months, the U.S., which is considered the underdog going into the summer's tournament, may prove to be a sleeping giant just waking up. In that last 24 games, the U.S. has won 19 and lost three, Al Jazeera reported.

Mexico's World Cup opener is scheduled for Friday when they will take on Cameroon. The U.S. team will debut against Ghana on Monday.