Mexico to play June soccer friendly in San Diego
Mexico’s Rodolfo Pizarro, second from right, is congratulated by teammates after scoring against Senegal on Feb. 10 in Miami.
The Mexican national team’s preparation for this summer’s Copa America soccer tournament will include a June 1 friendly in San Diego against an as-yet unnamed opponent.
El Tri also will play an exhibition in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome on May 28.
The two games will be the final tuneups for Mexico’s Copa America opener on June 5 in Phoenix. The draw for the 16-team tournament will be Sunday in Miami. Mexico is one of four teams seeded into the tournament, alongside the U.S., Brazil and Argentina.
Mexico last played at the Georgia Dome in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals in front of a sold-out crowd of 70,511. A pair of controversial decisions by referee Mark Geiger helped Mexico win that game in extra time en route to the Gold Cup title in Coach Miguel Herrera’s final game.
The team’s last visit to San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium was in 2013, where it defeated Finland 4-2 in Herrera’s first game.
Herrera was dismissed as national team coach last summer after an altercation with a TV reporter in the Philadelphia airport. He is now coach of Tijuana in Mexico’s Liga MX.
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