Mexico went hard after Nery Castillo. The Mexican-born, Uruguayan-bred Castillo was the target of three national teams but Mexico won out. Castillo appeared certain to play meaningful games for Mexico because of his talent and pedigree.
Instead, Castillo was not even on the bench against Guadeloupe. Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune said there were reports of Castillo threatening to return to Greece, where he plays for Olympiakos, because he was angry over the exclusion.
On mediotiempo.com, the report says that Castillo is upset over not playing much in recent games given the battle Mexico waged to get Castillo to wear the Mexico jersey. For the record, Castillo went the full 90 against Cuba (which was really made up mostly of Mexico's second-string side), did not play against Honduras, played 80 minutes against Panama, was suspended because of two yellows for Costa Rica and was not on the bench against Guadeloupe.
4 comments:
This guys comes off as "high-maintenence." Then again, Hugo Sanchez did say "Nery y 10 mas." I'm sure there are some exceptions, but it seems that Mexico has a lot of a-holes on this team and staff.
I've been perplexed by Nery's lack of playing time in this tournament. To a certain extent, I think the Mexican players are behind his lack of time, probably pressuring Sanchez to have him "earn" his spot on the team. I wouldn't doubt if Blanco and Co. might be a bit annoyed at the thought that Castillo might get preference over them. Personally I'd bench Blanco and put Castillo in his place, he has a lot more mobility and creativity on the ball than Blanco does. But fat chance that will happen.
oh well, isn't he stuck with the mexican team now? he probably should have tried playing with Greece instead.
Nery is indeed cap-tied to Mexico now. If he's frustrated with the lack of playing time, well, he has nobody to blame but himself and there really is nothing he can do to force Hugo's hand other than train hard and play hard.
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