Ahhhh, Paris

Well, at the end France deserved the victory. Mexico is very organized, but there is still something missing, mainly in attack.

Totally agreed. Lavolpe didn’t use Kikin Fonseca and it showed.

Bravo does a lot of things well but he just doesnt finish and he gets shoved around too much.

This game was the kind of friendlies that are awesome both for the players and the fans. A lot was learned.

Positives:
Good ball movement and good recovery speed shown. Osvaldo is in fine form. Very good conditioning. Nobody got hurt!

Negatives:
They still get beat in the air on set plays and get nervous in the box on clearances. All the defenders are guilty. All of them.

Total lack of finishing on the attack. There were a handful of crosses that were decent and they sailed through the box. The forwards looked bad. Of course, physical, fast defenses do this to teams.

The midfield looks too slight to hold up. Although they kept possession enough, they have problems getting around that second defender and usually hit the ground from physical play, of course this kills the flow of attack.

Overall:
Good game, fun to watch.

Posted from  United States

I don’t think Mexico wanted to show too many variations on offense. That said, France stuffed them all night. They only allowed one shot in the 90th minute.

I like Marquez recovering possession in the middle.

Bravo played well as a sub, but missed his one chance. With the head no less.

Franco must have had the wrong size tacos on, he slipped more than once. He may also still be feeling the effects of his pelvic injury. I was really surpirsed he played at all.

Well, Mexico left plenty of material to work on for their build up toward June 11. The next match is wedneday vs. the Netherlands.

Posted from  United States

Yes, another positive they did not show too much. You gotta believe that all of Europe was watching this game tonight and soccer fans all over the world, scouting both teams.

On another note, the announcers are HORRIBLE. It’s painful listening to those clowns, they aren’t objective and are not informed, and miss key moments in games because they are blabbing on and on about something that has nothing to do with the game. The way they ride players is just not professional.

Posted from  United States

We’ll it seemed that the Ref really wanted the game to be about him.
Did you guys see how many Yellows he was giving out??
and how Dirty the French players were playing? Its like they were playing rugby.
ya but i must say.
Mexico, you need to attack Already!
so.. who got Zidane’s jersey in the end?

Posted from  United States

Dirty, don’t know about that, that is just the way the game is played overseas.

If you look at a club like Chelsea, they are hated and loved in part because they will crush you with physical play all day long. Makelele, and Gallas prime examples # 1.

So beware when you play a team like Portugal that features 2 Chelsea defenders, Carvalho and Ferreira. Tough customers.

Posted from  United States

Violence = anti football. I rather watch a fair play.

HOLY COW THAT REFERE WAS racist for real Bravo should have scored two goals the offside which clearly wasnt and the end were they fouled him also mexico needs to shoot from far away

Stupid referee from TUNISIA

Posted from  United States

Well, this is what I think:

Salcido is in good form, Claudio is too unless it is covering a header (has always been his weakness).

I think Franco has been inactive for too long because of the injury, he seems out of rythm.

I thought the midfield played much better than Big-Baller gives them credit for. If football was all about physical presence, African teams would already have won a world cup.

The referee should have shown the red to Makelele for that play against Pardo. I don’t care how rough they play in Europe, that one is a red card regardless, because Makelele went for the leg, not the ball. All in all, the referees looked like they came from Luxembourg’s second division. horrible, horrible, horrible.

I also think the starting formation was mostly a test from Lavolpe to see if he could use this lineup in a situation where Mexico is winning a match and need to max protect to keep the advantage. It didn’t work though… Mexico looks best when they are pushing the issue at the opponents half of the field (like they did in the 2nd half).

It was nice to see that Mexican players were not manhandled by the size differential (dang it, Big-baller, you implant uneeded fears in me!)

All in all a good experience. It will be interesting to see how they behave against a much faster and offensively aggressive Dutch team next week.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to notice Mexico’s lack of a finishing attack. It appeared to me that they kept passing when they could have at least had more than a few attempts at a goal. To me, France demonstrated this in a superior fashion to Mexico, though not altogether great. I’m dissapointed that Thierry didn’t play and one has to wonder what would have happened had he been in the game.
I agree with John in that France was stuffing them all night. Borgetti needed to show more effort, he was a non-factor, and compared to Bravo he didn’t appear to do so well against France.
The ref missed some truly crucial calls and it is upsetting when an official looks the other way when an obvious foul is made. He was overcompensating the missed calls by throwing all the yellows around in the end.
However, Mexico did come out strong in the second half, late as it may have been, but showed some definite promise for the upcoming tournament. Next stop…. Netherlands. (stonger team than France?)

Posted from  United States

The first half is really the best measuring stick because both teams treated the game as a real game and had all their horses in except Henry and Fonseca.

For the second half Viera came out, Makelele came out and Zidane came out, essentially their whole midfield.

Everybody seems to be right on the money in the analysis.

The main learning tool from this, is worst case scenario, Mexico will not score a lot of goals but will not give up a lot of goals. Against good teams like France, scoring a goal is going to be tough because you have to play so much defense.

I though the referee was par for the course. Europeans refs dont mettle as much in games.

Posted from  United States

noe, you need to look in the mirror. (racist??? what?)
goals will be hard to come by because mexico will constantly need to be on defense, but luckily portugal may be the only team in the group able to supply significant offensive pressure.
like coca cola says, “nada por el tri”.

Posted from  United States

Rafa Marquez ended up getting Zidane’s jersey. In an interview with Zidane after the match in the dressing rooms you could see how he takes it off and gives it to Rafa.

I guess it was to be expected.

Posted from  Australia

Hi all!

Well I do not care if it was a friendly! If Mexico keeps on playing like this we can forget about the WC. The played shit! Man, this was a very painful game. No attack whatsoever. I hope they improve with Holland, because theyve got a far more offensive and lethal game. Anyway! Ill report from Eindhoven, see you all

Posted from  Germany

No faith for Mexico?? That is the problem i see with most fans of Mexico, perhaps in the players themselves. You lose heart too quickly and are easily discouraged. Look for the good as well as the bad. Give France credit too for they are a good team and it’s not like Mexico got beat the way Luxembourg did by Germany.

Posted from  United States

It was a friendly, people. Would you rahter beat France 2-0, then lose to Iran 1-0?

Posted from  United States

Yeah I think El Tri didn’t play that bad for most of the game they played solid on defense(I still shake when Maza comes to the field though…)with a couple of blunders here and there.Diablo is right we didn’t play against Luxemburg we played freakin France in Paris last time we played there we got blown out.My only big concern is upfront they look out of synch but I’m sure with Chiquis in the starting lienup everything will be alright(just kidding…). Anyone saw Iran’s friendly? how did they looked?
Vamos Mexico!!!

Posted from  United States

I saw the Iran v Croatia friendly.

I thought that the Iranian defence were conceding a lot of spaces, and weren’t standing all that well on the field. Hwever, Croatia threw away chance after chance, when they could’ve scored 4 or 5 goals, they only ended up scoring 2, one of them a penalty.

The two goals that Iran got were due to silly defensive mistakes, the first one failing to clear the ball in the box, and leaving it just rolling in front of Karimi (Hope Mexico doesn’t do something stupid like that), and the second one was a wrong pass to an attacker, who just dribbled it past the keeper. Actually Iran had a couple other chances created by bad defensive errors, one of them just went over the bar.

There’s quite a few comments on this game over at the Croatia & Iran’s blogs, but I thought a Mexican’s opinion might be useful. I thought Mexico can definetly beat Iran if they play well organized at the back and take their chances up front. They have to get to the game with a very focused mentality, knowing that they can do it, but without disrespecting the rival.

Group D will be tougher than most people think. Iran isn’t Saudi Arabia, and we are about to see how well organized Angola is. It will be a tough one that might be decided in the last game.

Posted from  Australia

Hi, sorry for my comments earlier, but I was live at the stadium and I saw the game. I just think that they have to improve and stop saying that they were “hiding their weapons” as Lavolpe said. What are they hiding? Chiquis Garcia? Come on! I hope in Holland they do better. My faith is with Mexico always but we have to be a more responsible and tough fans. Good day all

Posted from  Germany

Chiquis takes a lot of abuse from all of us. Wouldn’t it be funny if he was the one that scores the goal to help us move on from one round to the next?

Posted from  United States

Hey Gus thx for the recap of Iran’s game.It seems they were lucky to score and that Croatia’s defense was sloppy.I assure you that our defense will come out and play I mean we were able to keep up with French defenders for most of the game.John I wouldn’t mind if Chiquis shuts all our mouths and scores an important goal but until then….well the abuse will continue!!lol
I read that Lavolpe will line up their 4 strikers vs Netherlands what do you guys think? does it make sense? I think it does because they’ll be a point where we might need the 4 of them in the field so its good to test it.
Even if we lose on thursday game I would feel better if we score a couple goals the strikers aren’t giving me any confidence.What do u guys think?

Posted from  United States

I have to agree with Aclantista, but only in the first half. The strikers didn’t do to much to gain our confidence. However, in the second half they did come out more agressively, albeit they still lacked shots on goal though they didn’t lack the opportunities.
I don’t know if it was just me, but I thought Omar Bravo came out strong, maybe, just maybe he’ll be the surprise in the tourney.
The next game will prove a better measuring tool to either re-enforce our doubts in Mexico’s attack or disprove them. It is easy for us with a spectator’s eyeview while sitting on our butts, to criticize our team, or teams, but please keep in mind that it is a totally different world down there on the field. Faith for MEXICO!!!

Posted from  United States

Blah blah blah blah.

I’ve seen this before. Most mexican teams before the world cup suck at friendlies.

It seems you guys forget the 6 friendlies Lapuente had before world cup 98. He lost 5 and won 1, scored poorly and received a lot of goals.

The funny thing is, that squad scored the largest number of goals by Mexico in a single world cup. I would recommend you take a chill pill and stop being so negative.

Dido

Posted from  United States

I think Marquez should stay in the back to give confidence to the defense. He played a good game in defensive midfield but he will need to concentrate on defense rather than try and help up the field when the real games start. The problem is where do we find the creativity in midfield? There is no stand out player that I can see. Pardo and Torrado are good but they lack the vision. We need somebody to take control of the offense and be that midfield general. Any thoughts?

Posted from  Canada