Mexico gets very serious about friendly in Houston
Mexico’s string of soccer failures in the United States -- the Tricolor has not beaten the U.S. on American soil in nine years -- obviously is beginning to gnaw on some nerves south of the border.
That, at least, is one way of looking at the roster that Mexico Coach Hugo Sanchez announced Thursday for Wednesday’s match against the U.S. national team at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
The game is nothing more than a friendly, with only bragging rights at stake, but Sanchez has called in most of his heavy guns from Europe.
“As always, we’re going with the idea of winning, even though it’s only a friendly,” Sanchez said in Mexico City.
The Mexico roster includes the Barcelona duo of defender Rafael Marquez and forward Giovani dos Santos, as well as defender Carlos Salcido of Dutch league leader PSV Eindhoven, midfielders Pavel Pardo of VfB Stuttgart in Germany and Andres Guardado of Deportivo la Coruna in Spain. Also on board are forwards Antonio de Nigris of Ankarspor in Turkey and Carlos Vela of Osasuna in Spain.
Those seven players, combined with a dozen top names from the Mexican league, including standout goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa, give Sanchez a potentially formidable lineup.
There are a couple of well-known Mexican players missing -- namely Oswaldo Sanchez, Ricardo Osorio and Nery Castillo, because of injury or a lack of form.
Mexico has not defeated the Americans in the U.S. since a 2-1 win in San Diego in March, 1999. Since then, Mexico has gone 0-8-1 against the U.S. on American soil, although it is 3-0 in Mexico during that span.
Last year, they played twice. The U.S. won, 2-0, in front of 62,424 in Phoenix in February, and 2-1, in front of 60,000 in Chicago in June in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Wednesday’s match, for which more than 50,000 tickets had been sold by Thursday, will be live on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. --
