The wait is over; Gold Cup gets underway tomorrow!
It has been a very rough time since Tata Martino’s introduction to the National team, and it has nothing to do with the team’s performance. On the field he has delivered an accuracy of 100% with four games played, he has an impressive record of four wins with 13 goals in favor and six against. Tata has
La Telenovela started with the big controversy of “Tecatito” Corona’s mystery injury that turned out to be just a big fiasco that he and his club cooked so he could play in the Champions League well rested. That led to the manager excluding him from the Gold Cup.
Tecatito’s rejection was just the beginning of a long list of players that started dropping out of the team. Players like Chicharito, Hector Herrera, Carlos Vela are out due to personal reasons. These cases opened up a debate on whether they should be allowed to exclude themselves from El Tri’s roster list. Everyone has an opinion about this subject, and former players and coaches are coming out of the woods to express their thoughts on the subject all over the media.
La Telenovela is over and is time to focus on the field and leave all the other nonsense aside.
Mexico will face Cuba in their first match of the Gold Cup at the Rose Bowl Stadium. Martino’s squad had a few important absences due to injuries, players like “El Chucky” Lozano, Marco Fabian, Miguel Layun, before releasing his final 23-man Gold Cup roster list. Now, one day before kick off, four more players are on the verge being left out of the starting XI list.
Edson Alvarez left the first friendly against Venezuela with a knee injury; the good news is that on Thursday, he came back to practice with the rest of the team.
Hector Moreno also suffered an injury during the friendly. He was at risk of being left off the 23-man roster list, but they decided to keep him to see if he can recuperate for the tournament but is very unlikely to play the first game.
Jonathan Dos Santos has a heel issue, but it should not be a problem for him to start the competition.
Jorge Sanchez suffered a foot injury during the game against Ecuador and was unable to recover, and was just dropped off the roster list on Thursday night, now Uriel Antuna will replace him.
The Mexican National team is not the only one that will come to the first game with absences. The Cuban team will also start the competition with a significant absence, as their captain Yordan Santa Cruz will be unable to play because of an issue with his visa.
El Tri seems to come into this game as a favorite by far.
Tata Martino’s potential starting lineup: Goalkeeper: G.Ochoa, Defenders: J. Gallardo, N. Araujo, D. Reyes, and L. Rodriguez. Midfield: C. Rodriguez, A. Guardado, J. Dos Santos. Forwards: R. Alvarado, R. Pizarro, and R. Jimenez
