Mexico defeats Ecuador 3-2 and goes into the Gold Cup as favorites to take the title!
After a week of a lot of controversy surrounding El Tri and its players, whether it was players dropping from the roster like flies due to injuries or personal reasons. Or dealing with allegations by former players, that they were asked to pay millions of pesos to play in El Tri during the World Cup.
The Mexican’s National team’s final test took place AT&T Stadium in front 59,222 pro Mexico fans. El Tri had several few new faces in their line up due to the absences and Tata Martino took advantage of his last opportunity to watch players before picking his starting eleven for the Gold Cup.
There were several good plays in the first 20 minutes of the game for the Mexican squad, and Orbelin Pineda had a couple of shot attempts but didn’t pose any real threat to the Ecuadorian team.
The first shot on goal came courtesy of Chapito Montes when at the 23rd minute of the game, he took a shot that went just over the crossbar.
With El Tri dominating the game, Jonathan dos Santos put the Mexicans on the scoreboard in the 28th minute when he took a shot from outside the 18-yard box and made things 1-0 in favor of Mexico.
Tata’s men continued to push forward and moments later, Raul Jimenez made a beautiful play in the last minute of the first half winning a ball over three defenders, but once he was in the box in front of the goalie, he ran out of gas and the play ended in a foul after he crossed it.
In the second half, Ecuador got the equalizer right off the bat, thanks to a familiar face, Angel Mena, the Liga MX top scorer. On a free kick by Mena, a Mexican defender deflected the ball and left Memo Ochoa without a chance to get to the ball.
Club Leon’s players were on fire during this game, and Luis “Chapito” Montes couldn’t let his teammate overshadow him and also on a free kick scored a golazo at 63rd-minute to give El Tri the advantage once again.
Ecuador didn’t give the Mexican fans enough time to finish celebrating and only 3 minutes later, tied the game 2-2, courtesy of another Liga MX player, Ayrton Preciado, who plays for Santos Laguna. Luis “Chaka” Rodriguez lost his mark on the corner kick that gave Ecuador the equalizer.
Ten minutes later, he made up for his mistake by giving Mexico the 3-2 lead with a golazo. After a perfect crossed ball by Gallardo, Chaka blasted the volley and put the ball on the bottom right corner of La Tricolor’s goal.
“Chaka” Rodriguez made a fantastic play, leaving a couple of defenders looking for moles or the right wing and crossed the ball that Pizarro deflected and went out of bounds a few inches away from the left post.
After 90 minutes, El Tri won the game 3-2, and now Tata has won 4 out 4 won games, all over South American opponents.
In my opinion, the player of the match goes to El Chaka Rodriguez. He overcame a couple of defensive errors and helped give the fans the satisfaction of a victory and a masterpiece goal.
The goal was Chaka’s first with El Tri, and after the game, he told Univision ” you are always waiting for that opportunity, and when it comes you gotta take it. And I’m pleased with my first goal.”
El Tri now goes into the Goal Cup where they are the number one contender to take the championship and earn their 11th Goal Cup title. The Gold Cup kicks off next week and Mexico opens versus Cuba at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.
