LOS ANGELES – Realism surpasses reality: Mexico is the leader of the Concacaf Octagonal. He confirms it by winning 0-1 in Costa Rica. Nothing exciting, nothing exultant in 90 minutes, except for two funny, chaplinesque, humorous nonsense by Funes Mori. The clumsiness that gines laughter.
For the count, to be strict, two moments that originate from the run over and irrefutable penalty on Andrew Saved. The sublime and the ridiculous in one character.
1.- Orbelín Pineda executes to his left, flawlessly, smoothly, placed, immaculate, while Keylor Navas he plunges into ridicule, towards the other extreme, by swallowing the feint. It was the epitaph: 0-1.
2.- The second postcard? The celebration of the so-called “Wizard of Coyuca de Benítez”. A peculiar little dance, like tango for arthritic people or reggaeton for electrocuted ones or waltz for epileptics. Neither Springs nor Michael Jackson would have sponsored him. But, there is the little meneadito, as the seal of a festive population of 14 thousand inhabitants on the coast of Guerrero.
It was a bland game. Mexico did the most intentional of soccer, which was actually very little. It was not his responsibility. The owner of the house organized the party and forgot about the music, until he finished, gloomy, whistling his own funeral.
El Tri faced a Costa Rica that showed the most childish of its versions. The serious thing was not his little soccer. The worst thing, the alarming thing for his red crowd, is that that anger, that strength, that testosterone, that volcanic passion, that fury to play against Mexico, smells only of ashes.
Other versions of Costa Rica starred in the perfect equation: soccer, personality, gallantry and certainly that surly brand. Before they were filibusters after the ball, but this Sunday we saw the Barbie version of the Costa Rican national team. A shame, for a team that was many times Pura Vida on the field.
Trying to set the intention of the game of Mexico is complicated. Nor is it to say that he does not play anything. Who argues this, is that he has no idea of the game, although sometimes it does.
But, the Tri was very rustic. Tesonero, without a doubt. Superior, since Andrés Guardado and his centuries in tow, and the thriving Youth of Carlos Rodríguez, always won the balls in the half court and avoided the partners, with obvious shocks due to inaccuracies of Edson Álvarez and Nestor Araujo, and precipitations of the Cachorro Montes.
Remarkable that of Guarded, because despite the rebellion of his tired physique, and osteoarthritis in both knees, he proudly defended the perennial image of being a caudillo del Tri, while, at the other extreme, Tecatito Corona returned to the timorous version , that one, that of the anesthetized player, who neither tries, nor creates, nor proposes, nor generates, only transits in anonymity and indifference.
Beware: the obvious superiority of Mexico is not the unequivocal reference of a karat soccer level. Absolutely. He did what was necessary to win, beyond the fact that the American whistler ended up scamming the Ticos, by not marking a clear hand from Edson Álvarez.
2:06
The ESPN specialist highlighted the importance of winning on the road, despite not displaying pleasant football at the start of the tie.
Regrettable injury Alexis Vega. Until this Monday, the deterioration in the right ankle can be determined. The most reserved diagnosis, at the delivery of this text, speaks of four weeks, and that even the FIFA Date of October could be lost.
In the movements, the time will come when, finally, Gerardo Martino, from his convalescence in Mexico, makes the decision to do without Rogelio Funes Mori. This Sunday, misguided again, with an unbeatable opportunity against Keylor Navas, the Twin was stunned, cramped, as the black pages of River Plate and Monterrey record it.
In the count of @golesycifras, the statistics are updated and enervated: Funes Mori has scored only five goals in the last 24 games with Rayados and the Mexican team. He scored three in the Gold Cup: two against the assembled vacationers of Guatemala, and one against the dismantled team of Honduras.
Curious that the word that scared in the era of Juan Carlos Osorio, that of “rotations”, has become the rescue mechanics of this Mexican team.
1:46
The former Tri player was critical of the team led by Gerardo Martino, despite registering his best start in three World Cup processes.
Now, El Tri travels to Panama, which crushed Jamaica (0-3) at home, the same one that ended up falling 2-1 at the Azteca Stadium.
In the end, Vince Lombardi’s phrase is an anthem for conformists: “Winning is not the most important thing, it is the only important thing.” And the Tata’s offspring carry perfect numbers.
At the moment Mexico is leading, with six points, by four of Panama, while Honduras, Canada, El Salvador and the United States, add two units; Costa Rica has a point, and Jamaica, affected by the absence of 12 players by COVID-19 protocol, goes to the bottom without units.
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