Copa America Round 1 - Stars

Best team: Argentina.
Nobody can argue otherwise.

Surprise player: Humbero Suazo. FW, Chile.
I never heard of the former Colo Colo striker until this tournament and he has left quite an impression with an amazing performance against Ecuador followed by good games vs Mexico and Brazil. He has signed with Mexican side Monterrey, but look for him to end up in Europe before not too long.

Best goalkeeper: Guillermo Ochoa, Mexico.
An amazing game against Brazil and played two games keeping a clean sheet in both.
If Ochoa was #1, then Paraguay’s Aldo Bobavilla deserves a #1b.

Best defender: Rafa Marquez, Mexico.
A poor first round of play for most defenders leading to lots of goals when the games counted but Rafa was solid and Mexico’s defense was stingy even without Pavel Pardo.

Best midfielder: Juan Roman Riquelme, Argentina.
Without a doubt the face of the tournament so far. Riquelme quit the national team a year ago and has made a return in grand fashion playing only two games but impressive in both.

Best forward: Humberto Suazo, Chile.
Yes, I know you wanted me to say Robinho and his 4 goals, but listen up. Two of those came by way of PK - and horribly struck PKs at that. Not only that but Robinho really had one great game against Ecuador and then two average performances. El Chupete Suazo has been the most aggressive and best performing striker. I would put Robinho second, and Crespo third. Messi deserves no mention because he might be a fan favorite but did very little in comparison to the guys mentioned above.

Best goal: Nery Castillo, 1-0 Mexico vs Brazil.
No brainer. There is a reason it is the most clicked posts on this blog. An impressive goal by the Olympiakos star.

Mexico 0 - 0 Chile

Mexico and Chile agreed not to play hard and settle for a point each in another horrible and boring game. Not even up and coming stars like Andres Guardado, Omar Bravo or el Chupete Suazo could save a game that lacked passion from the start. Nothing else worth commenting.

So boring, this match put you to sleep 

The Star

Guillermo Ochoa. GK, Mexico.
In the only real chance of the game, Tello takes a surprise shot at goal off a set piece but Ochoa reacts well and saves the 0-1. In a poor game like this, that’s enough to stand out.

The Ugly Duckling

Nelson Acosta and Hugo Sanchez. Both coaches had their teams in idle mode for a game that wasn’t worth watching.

Nery Castillo - not for sale

With all the hype around Nery, rumors have been floating around that somebody would come to Olympiakos with a big check to take him to another league.

Olympiakos president Socrated Kokkalis said he will reject all offers because he is not interested in selling Castillo. The 23 year old striker raised in Uruguay but born in Mexico is a hot commodity. Chelsea reportedly contacted about him and Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine offered approx. $13 million to buy him.

And if reports from Mexico are correct, Nery Castillo will not play against Chile today so he can get some rest and avoid picking up another yellow card. Not having Nery Castillo will help Mexico avoid winning since they will miss his lethal instincts on attack.  That will fall into play with my conspiracy theory that Mexico might be looking to lose against Chile to set themselves up for an easier  round two.

Happy 4th of July! Games Today..

Hopefully the teams today will provide some fireworks.

In conclusion of Group B play the games today are:

Mexico vs Chile - 6:30 EDT Univision/GolTV
Mexico -  2.50
Chile - 2.70
Tie - 2.80

Brazil vs Ecuador - 8:30 EDT Telefutura/GolTV
Brazil - 1.28
Away - 8.50
Tie - 4.33

Notice how Mexico are NOT heavy favorite today. Reasoning?

First, they are already qualified.
Second, losing will likely benefit them! Winning today means they secure the top spot in Group B. Which means they play either Argentina or Paraguay in the quarterfinals. Losing today by more than a goal, would likely put them as 3rd in the group meaning they would face Chile again.

Will Hugo play all his subs looking to accidentally lose? We’ll find out this evening.

Off the pitch

Hugo Chavez ordered Venezuelan troops to dig up Che Guevara from his grave and resuscitate him, all in time for el Che to attend Argentina vs Colombia in person.

Under-rated Brazilian winger Maicon watches his teammates from the hotel balcony. He will miss the next game with a shoulder injury.

Mexican forward Omar Bravo cups his gonads. Must be Hugo Sanchez’s latest strategy at work, kicking his players in the balls.

And in the “We’re not gay, we just enjoy male bonding” category is Elano and Robinho doing… well I have no idea what they are doing, but I sure as hell don’t want a part of that.

Who’s moving on

Group A:
Venezuela is through no matter what happens.
The rest of the group is very much in it as the 2nd and 3rd place finishers will move on, so there is a lot at stake in their final games. Last team in the group (currently Bolivia) is will be eliminated.

Group B:
Mexico has already qualified for round 2 play.
Brazil and Chile are not mathematically in yet, but you need some crazy scenarios to happen for them to be eliminated at this point.
I mistakenly stuck the fork in Ecuador but they are still in it, as long as they beat Brazil by more than two goals and Mexico wins. Plausible if yet unlikely scenario.

Group C:
Paraguay and Argentina are through and will battle to see who is the #1 seed.
USA and Colombia are going home as long as pigs don’t fly.

 

By the way, if you haven’t seen how the knock out round is scheduled, it is completely laughable. Whoever gets 1st place in Group A can practically go on cruise control. Perhaps the best thing for Brazil is to finish third in their group (eek!) and avoid Argentina in the next round. That’s COMEBOL for ya, host country gets the spoils.

Hugo Sanchez does yoga

How do you get over a pathetic Gold Cup? Picking up yoga of course!

Hugo gives his team instructions during their match against Ecuador with a pose that the gurus call Vrksasana VII

 

Or is he dancing?

 

 

Mexico 2 - 1 Ecuador

Nery Castillo again scores the 1-0 for Mexico

Mexico gets the job done and advances to Round Two after yet another great performance by striker Nery Castillo and some awesome saves from their goal keeper Oswaldo Sanchez.

La Tri beats Ecuador 2-1 with the lone Ecuadorian goal coming late in the game. For your cliff notes: 1-0, min 21 Nery Castillo. 2-0, min 79 Omar Bravo. 2-1, min 85 Edison Mendez.

The Mexican squad is playing really well lately with amazing goalkeeping by either Oswaldo or Ochoa, solid defense, a hard working midfield and a lethal attack. At this rate, nobody is going to want Jared Borghetti back in the lineup. Nery Castillo has a brilliant left foot and amazing speed, which netted him the opening goal tonight and places him as Mexico’s top scorer in the tournament. Omar Bravo nailed one in coming off the bench.

They also have the luxury of bringing in an aging but effective Cuau Blanco as a sub. Both he and Bravo created Mexico’s second and deciding goal, surely giving Hugo Sanchez some praise in his hometown papers tomorrow.

Meanwhile poor Ecuador is most definitely going home even if they have played rather well. Some sloppy defense led to the first goal but they tried damn hard for the rest of the match and got off some great shots, but inspired goalkeeping kept them off the score sheets until very late in the game. Mathematically I think they still might have a shot at getting through the first round, but they have a better shot at winning the lottery I’m sure because they face Brazil next. Mexico takes on Chile in a game that means a lot more to Chile (and Brazil!) that it goes to La Tri, but I doubt Hugo will let his guard down and play the subs because he wants to be firing on all engines when they hit the second phase of play.

 

The Star

Nery Castillo. F, Mexico.
Yet again the speedster is all over the place and gets a score. He is completely dependent on his left foot and can’t do jack with his right but nobody is able to stop him.

The Ugly Duckling

Oscar Bagüí. D, Ecuador.
Confusion on his part directly led to Mexico’s opening goal and even though he played better, between him and Hurtado the defense wasn’t as solid as they needed to pull out with a win.

Mexico, Mexico, Ra! Ra! Ra!

Univision is throwing it all out today hoping the Mexicans beat Ecuador and guarantee themselves a spot in the next round.

Mexican Luchadores reporters are on hand.

Same goes for the Senadoras from Republica Deportiva and (kinda randomly) AC Milan’s 2007 Champions League Cup.

Sunday matches

Odds for today

Brazil 1.30
Chile 8.00
Tie 3.75

Mexico 1.80
Ecuador 4.00
Tie 3.10

Brazil and Mexico are clear favorites which is to be expected. You have to be very brave to bet against them today.

Match times are 4pm and 6pm respectively on EDT on Univision.