Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Lessons learned

Already the excuses are starting. Mediotiempo.com is trying to explain away Argentina's 3-0 rout of Mexico. The site said that Oswaldo Sanchez made a bad charge off his line and called the penalty extremely doubtful. Still, the site did plead for Hugo Sanchez to one day let them celebrate.

I didn't come down too hard on Mexico in my final Tri reaction piece of the summer, but maybe that's because I understand that Argentina is clearly superior to Mexico. Any way you spin it, from results to players to whatever, Argentina's a world power and Mexico is not.

But that doesn't mean Mexico is garbage. Far from it, actually. Mexico showed well during this tournament and is headed in the right direction.

Anyway, Argentina moves on to face another titan in Brazil while Mexico will play Uruguay in the pointless finale otherwise known as the third-place match. Maybe it could serve as a send-off game for Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Oswaldo Sanchez, bring back a hobbled Jared Borgetti, throw in Ramon Morales. Thank them for their time and bid those guys farewell.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

LB. Come on, that sounds very harsh. Mexico is more than on the right track. Clearly there are few teams that can beat Brazil on any given day and or beat Argentina or give them a good game, they are that good.

First these are not excuses, this is just analyzing critically some in game decisions and performances, because yes, in order to beat Argentina you have to play a perfect game and Mexico did not do that. Does that mean we have to delineate hierarchies and so forth, that is debatable, we know Mexico can play. They did not get the job done tonight for 90 minutes. End of story.

Digging beneath the surface, look, Oswaldo was terrible tonight, clearly he was slow off his line on that first goal and reacted poorly in no mans land. The second goal was arguably Oswaldo's mistake was well, he was 5-6 feet off of his line. This is controversial because Hugo skipped the rotation that belonged to Memo who some said all along was playing better. That said, Oswaldo did not play perfect and yes he had to because Argentina has firepower.

The squad was a good team but lacked the definition they had showed. That said if Guardado and Nery don't hit the post...different game. That is not sour grapes, that's just football. The worst possible thing to happen to Mexico was getting scored on in such a ridiculous way before the halftime whistle. Hugo jumped the gun and his subs were horrible, advantage Argentina and Basile.

All along I said that Mexico's subs had to provide some spark and they dissapointed to say the least, in my opinion, Bravo and Medina can play in that farewell game as far as I am concerned as well.

If you look at the big picture, Mexico is right there on track, but you know hats off to Argentina. By the way the 3rd PK/goal was a BS call, that's a fact. Nontheless, looking ahead, I feel confident in whats in the pipeline and facing these guys again, the talent gap is closing slowly. These games have drama and intensity, it's a treat to watch them play.


BBSC

PurpleTerp said...

As a US fan, Mexico scared the hell out of me in this tournament. They were awesome, especially against Brasil, and I even found myself rooting for them. Castillo is a beast. I wish we had someone like that. I have to give them credit where it is due, they have a very talented group of young players. I am not looking forward to playing these guys for the next 10 years, or the new keeper and much-hyped teenagers coming in. Keep your head up, no shame in losing to Argentina when they have been playing like a machine. PK was legit though. Unnecessary foul by Rafa, looked like they probably had it covered, but I thought it was a foul.

Anonymous said...

your dislike for México is very hard for you to hide. They certainly couldn't compete with Argentina last night, but Mexico is better than their aging goalkeeper would indicate, a situation not unknown to Americans in Kasey Keller. Mexico and Mexicans are one of the reasons that we have improved, Landon himself played with Mexicans his entire youth and it hasn't been bad for him. We are also beginning to be teammates in Europe, it was strange seeing keller speaking german league rival-mexicans! we can hate rafa and cuahtemoc for their style but we have had our share of thugs and idiots over the years as well. I hope Mexico keeps improving so that this silent dialogue, this exchange and continuous challenge will always be there for the U.S., this rivalry is, for us, technically very beneficial. Thanks. Adam in Mexico

BaldEagle said...

Excuses????

What do you mean?

When the game ended there were handshakes and hugs between players and coaches. During the post game comments, Hugo Sanchez stated that they were beaten by a superior team, gave Argentina all the credit and said there were no excuses for the loss. He said they were beaten, plain and simple. Furthermore, he stated that this loss reflects the big gulf that there exists between Argentine and Mexican soccer. The gap is closing and they're on the right track, but it's still very big and there's much work to do, according to him.

Does this sound like a sore loser and an excuse-maker? Sounds pretty graceful to me. Perhaps it's time to recognize that other teams just can't bear losing to us (look at Uruguay yetsterday versus US U-20). It extends beyond Mexico.

Lastly, our USMNT always talks about how Mexico doesn't shake hands, are sore losers and excuse makers, etc. but when the day comes that we lose to Guatemala (a team some USMNT players have been derogatory towards) will our players shake their hands and exchange jerseys?

Let's be honest...

L.B. said...

I meant excuses from fans and the media. I didn't expect for Hugo Sanchez to disrespect Argentina after a game like that.

Look at the fallout from the US-Mexico Gold Cup final and what was said about the penalty kick.

BaldEagle said...

OK L.B., I'll give you that. Fans are fans and media (especially Mexican media) are trash-talking. However, all Mexican shows I saw after the game were very honest that the Mexican team was outplayed. But let's forget Mexico for a bit.

Please remember all this talk of "excuses" next time the USMNT loses. Look, I am a huge USMNT fan, but also an honest one. When we lose, especially to a CONCACAF minnow team (which is becoming exceedingly rare, thank God) US players are full of excuses and fans (and soccer bloggers) are full of disrespect towards the opposing team. We exhibit the same kind of behavior we accuse Mexican players, fans and media of. Just wait and see.

Anonymous said...

Why did Sanchez play in goal? Was the other keeper hurt?

Even though that was an incredible chip by Messi, you have to wonder if another keeper might have had it. And the first goal it looked like Sanchez had a chance to win it over Heinze but was a step late.

L.B. said...

I think Hugo Sanchez's big mistake from this summer was not letting Guillermo Ochoa play the majority of time in one tournament. He should have let Ochoa play in one and Oswaldo Sanchez play in another if he didn't want to give the reins to Memo just yet.

Ochoa showed his worth against Brazil in the opener and then vanished. He played in the meaningless group finale, a 0-0 draw against Chile that was backup-laden for Mexico.

Mexico won't play a meaningful match again until World Cup qualifying starts. I can't imagine a scenario in which Ochoa wouldn't be the starter.

Okay, injury. That's one.

But Ochoa should clearly be the frontrunner for the 2010 World Cup. And if he's not, that's a shame.

Mofo said...

Bummer that Mexico lost. Mexico played better during the first half. The subs were terrible, just awful. Hugo Sanchez should have held off before putting them in.

And I agree that Memo Ochoa should have been on keeper duty tonight. And I think that maybe we were missing some of our more experienced players tonight.

Despite the loss I'm really hopeful for the future of the Mexican National Team.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, just to point out the absurdity of a certain "soccer journalist" writing in the LA Times Wed and the "return of Mexico as THE POWER" of CONCACAF, if I recall our MLS B team also played Argentina to a stalemate for 60 minutes and finally succumbed to their superior play but we also are still undefeated against El Tri over the past several years.....

Anonymous said...

Players I'd like to add to the Farewell Tour: Alberto Medina (Seriously?! Why was he in there??? Why is he on the National Team????); Adolfo Batista; Omar Bravo (Same as Medina, but with less punctuation marks).

Not making excuses, I'm just sayin' ... Medina and Bravo killed Mexico. I'll give Hugo a slight pass on Bravo, but only because the Medina move was so atrocious. In what world would he be an acceptable replacement for Torrado, yellow card or no? Had Torrado been tossed in the first ten seconds of the second half Mexico would have had a better chance ... to not get blown out, at least.

L.B. said...

I think Medina might have been the most disappointing player on Mexico. Fernando Arce has passed him up on the depth chart in my opinion; blew by him actually.

I think we all know what to expect with Omar Bravo and I don't know that he'll ever be a consistent scorer with Mexico but at least we know that going in. With Medina, it seems like there's so much promise there but he's been sporadic lately to say the least. He was invisible out there against Argentina.

Anonymous said...

Ugh, he was all too visible to me. The only thing I could see that second half. My blood pressure still hasn't gone back down.

Can I just add that all Chivas players can be excused from the National Team? I like Masa more than most, but he doesn't need to stick around. Also, earlier I forgot to say that Sanchez is still useful as the back-up. He needs to teach Memo how to yell at his teammates.