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Hell week is upon us

May 8th, 2006 | By: John | 7 Comments »

Do you remember finals week? Your eyes are red and bleary. You have been studying for so long, the coffee maker is worn out. It’s hell week for the Tri, and we will know on Saturday who will be the unlucky 3 players left off the 23-man roster. We have had some great comments in regard to last week’s game in Pasadena. What can we take away from the game? That was a tired team that salvaged a victory against the Vino Tinto. Let’s see who shed light on themselves.

Claudio Suarez – He won’t be starting, but he will definitely be coming off the bench to play a line of 4 and let Rafa move up to the DM spot if Mexico has a lead. For all the jokes about his age, he looked pretty good.

Andres Guardado – His excellent conditioning and pace will be a huge asset. He has poured the cement on the left side, and the water is starting to come out of the spout.

Ricardo Osorio, Carlos Salcido – Solid solid solid. It looks like they both can stay in Europe and play if they want to.

Jaime Lozano, Ramoncito – I have a feeling both will see 1 half of action during the cup.

Jesus Arellano, Zinha – There was some expected rust from both, especially Zinha, and the Cabrito looks like he is working himself into world cup form by missing great scoring opportunities. It does appear that the cabrito is loading the howitzer.

Israel Lopez – I didn’t even realize he was on the pitch until he fouled the Venezuelan forward. If this was an audition, he wouldn’t get a call back. BUT, he is in good with the casting director, so he will get another chance.

Oswaldo Sanchez – He, along with Salcido and Osorio were the only 3 players we can say will definitely be on the pitch June 11.

Omar Bravo – Some may disagree, but he did what he asked to do. He ran himself ragged, put himself in scoring position, he just couldn’t close the deal.

Luis Perez – Not his best effort.

DNP – Huiqui and Chiquis did not play. Does this mean anything? Others — Mario Mendez, Kikin Fonseca, the goalies.

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Comments

By Rey | May 8th, 2006 at 4:12 pm

I watched the game and I became a little worried. I was expecting more from my team, however, I know that Mexico is stronger than ever.

Posted from United States

By Big-Baller-Shot-Caller | May 8th, 2006 at 4:37 pm

As solid as Mexico is talent wise and on paper, they still go through some really boring stretches of play in friendly games mostly. You can watch a whole game and not see a legitimate shot or sometimes the ball seems to dissapear into the abyss of the sidelines near midfield.

Hard to put a finger on it. Is it Lavolpe’s system, or is it the players, or is it the fact they are exhibition matches?

Their saving grace is they play well when it counts and look like a completely different team when they are in the spotlight. It makes it tough to judge the team.

One real danger in the make-up of the team is the midfield clones. Lots of quick, little, frail players. They are very mobile and skilfull but sometimes it would be nice to seem some muscular slashers that take more outside shots. Hopefully Rafa can add something to that role.

Posted from United States

By Rene | May 8th, 2006 at 4:55 pm

Again, keep in mind, when you go to the grueling physical training the players went through, it takes a few weeks to get flexibility back.

Whenever I see warmup matches from teams before the start of the local championship of any countries, matches tend to look like this. Players look almost robot-like and there is aesthetics to it.

Another thing to consider: friendly matches before a wrold cup result in teams playing very VERY conservative, to avoit both being spied upon by opponents and also to avoid injury.

And just for a historical reference, I think the last friendly match for Mexico before the World Cup in 98 was against a bundesliga team called Wolfsburg. At that point in time, that team 14th of 18 teams, and won 4-1. Everyone said the sky was falling and Mexico would have a horrible World Cup. We know what happened afterwards.

By Big-Baller-Shot-Caller | May 9th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

Enough whining about grueling physical conditioning. Excuses. These players are professionals and train and play 7 days a week, since they were young kids. Being sore is daily for theses guys.

In the meantime, let the party begin, Jared Borgetti is back in Mexico and ready to go and may play Friday if needed!

Borgetti looks awesome, and he looks hungry. Bolton and the Premiership has done him well.

Mexico is really lucky to have him in his prime at the moment.

Off the subject, can you believe England has chosen Theo Walcott to potentially pair with Peter Crouch up top.

Never thought Mexico would have a better striker unit than England. The Borgetti, Franco, Kikin, and Bravo quartet is real nice.

Posted from United States

By Rene | May 9th, 2006 at 4:08 pm

You seem to dismiss basic training canons with your “excuses” comments.

When it comes to soccer excercising, you go through 3 phases: Pre-season, season and post-season.

During the season, players (by virtue of playing 90 minutes every week), loose body fat and muscle mass, making them nimbler and faster. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, a player at the end of the season is usually faster than a player entering a season. Also, because of the reduction in muscle mass and the wear and tear of a season, a player at the end of the season is more likely to suffer an injury.

In order to avoid that, a very specific (an quite different than regular season) training regime is established during pre-season to fortify and augment the muscle mass, which will in turn allow the player to have a better oxygenation and protection to the body. Augmenting muscle mass is usually very straining on the body, since it is both painful at first, but also because all the joints have to adapt to the new conditions of the body structure. it is this second point that is key. Because the joints are not used to the additional mass, it takes a while for them to add the required flexibility for the body to reach peak performance. That means that the reaction time and speed levels will be BELOW those achieved after several weeks of training. That is why players tend to be stiff after training camp (after all, the anaerobic aspect of the training is the most important one during this phase).

Another thing to consider is that week to week training when the season starts has a completely different approach, since it is NOT intended to add muscle mass, but basically to maintain what was already there to begin with, plus loosen up the body after 90 minutes of constant aerobic excercise.

So the idea of players being professionals and excercising 7 days a week and therefore not having an excuse for pre-season lack of form is not valid.

I have heard coaches discussing about it since I was a kid back in the 70s, and they do so with good reason.

As an excercise, take a look at the pre-season camp of teams during the summer. Usually the ones who start pre-season first will usually have the players going at a better pace by the beginning of the season.

By Big-Baller-Shot-Caller | May 9th, 2006 at 4:25 pm

Long winded jibberish. You either play well as a team or you don’t. End of story.

El Tri will play better in future games.

Posted from United States

By Rene | May 9th, 2006 at 4:32 pm

If that is what you think, then that’s fine. Just keep in mind that even the best teams can be decimated by not being in optimal shape. Just ask France 4 years ago.

As far as Borgetti goes, he will most likely not play on Friday, since FIFA require players to have at least a week off (or is it 10 days?) before reporting to their teams.

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