Friday, March 2, 2007

Missing pieces






Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Guillermo Ochoa and Jose Antonio "Gringo" Castro played important roles for Mexico on Wednesday. Thursday, their collective absences played as much of a role for America as anything after Libertad of Paraguay hammered America 4-1.

My first reaction when I saw that Blanco, Ochoa and Castro were called up for El Tri's meaningless game was America's game on March 1. I figured that none of America's players would be called up and then Hugo Sanchez took three of their most important players. America sacrificed a lot for Mexico's game against Venezuela.

It's funny because if you look at the comparison of Chivas and America players on the national team, Chivas forfeited a pair of players while America gave up three. Chivas' players missed out on a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal game while America's lost out on a Copa Libertadores group match game. Chivas had to deal with a lightly-regarded Trini side while America had to face a semifinalist from last year's tournament. Chivas, by the way, won 3-0.

1 comment:

A.C. said...

All those issues will go away just as soon as Mexico's league conforms to the schedule the rest of the world follows.