EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mexico is the measuring stick. The United States men’s soccer team can try new things against Ecuador and Chile and learn lessons against Panama and Jamaica. But the true tests of where the team is, and where it wants to go, always come in matches against Mexico.

Before Friday’s latest meeting, an exhibition at MetLife Stadium, the teams’ most recent collision had come in July, when Mexico defeated the Americans in the final of the Gold Cup, the region’s b iennial championship. The result then, a 1-0 United States loss in a match that had offered the chance for a young American team to announce itself, stung for those who took part in it. But it also lent an air of revenge — at least in the United States camp — to Friday’s rematch , the latest chance to lay down a marker in a rivalry that is never far from the players’ minds.

“We’re working on changing the way America views soccer,” defender Reggie Cannon told reporters this week. “And every step, every game, is an opportunity to do that.”

Friday night won’t do much to change anyone’s view of the current state of either team. The United States struggled with both possession and initiative and was calmly and completely taken apart, 3-0. Javier Hernández, Érick Gutiérrez and Uriel Antuna scored for Mexico, with Hernández (21st minute) and Antuna (82nd) converting after defensive blunders and Gutiérrez capping a ruthless counterattack in the 78th minute. The victory was the most lopsided result in the rivalry since the 2009 Gold Cup final — a 5-0 Mexico win — and it gave El Tri, as the Mexican team is known, four wins and a draw in the six meetings between the countries since 2015.