Is Mexico World Cup ready for Russia 2018?
A Gareth Bale-less Wales put Mexico to the test.
Mexico’s National soccer team started their preparation for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. “El Tri” faced the Wales National soccer team at the Pasadena Rose Bowl where more than 80,000 fanatics congregated for the game. This was the first of three games that Mexico is using for preparation before heading out to Russia.
Wales will not be in the World Cup since they didn’t make the final cut in the UEFA Confederation. On the other hand, Mexico was the first team to qualify from the CONCACAF Confederation.
The match between these two national teams was one to forget. The Aztec manager Juan Carlos Osorio continued with his rotation scheme and sent out a squad full of juvenile players. Less than three weeks from the World Cup kick off these rotations seem to only affect the functionality of Mexico.
The match ended in a 0-0 score where possession of the ball belonged to El Tri, but they had no clear creations of goal opportunities.
During the press conference after the game Osorio answered questions about the final list of the 23 players he’ll be taking to the World Cup.
“None of the players are out of the final list, we have seen what happened at the final in the Champions League with Carvajal. No one is exempt, anything could happen during practice or in the next games.” Declared Osorio as he referred to the players who will be missing the cup due to recent injuries such as Salah from Egypt, Araujo form Mexico, Carvajal from Spain and many others until further notice from medical staff.
The Mexican forwards have a goal scoring drought that can be a problem during the world cup. Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez only scored three goals with the national team in the past year and Oribe Peralta has not scored for the national team since 2017.
Mexico is heading back home for a farewell game against Scotland in their second preparation match at the Azteca Stadium on June 2.