As we have said many times in the past, we can only speculate as to who will line up in at the start in Lavolpe friendlies, so let’s go ahead and speculate again. We do know that Franco probably will not play, but then again…. Lavolpe says he will see Franco play vs. Holland and rest him for France.

It doesn’t really matter whether Mexico wins or loses Saturday night in the Stade de France. It’s a friendly. The drama might happen after the match as Mexican players position themselves…to trade shirts with Zinedine Zidane when the match is over.

It’s halftime at st. Denis. The ref is up a goal vs. Barcelona. I am not sure why the ref did not call advantage on the Lehmann sending off play, and the phamtom foul he called on Puyol led to the only goal so far. What a mess. Barcelona are being [...]

I was watching the Pachuca – Chivas game yesterday, and switched away when it looked like Chivas were going to win after 2 Bofo goals in the second half made it 3-1 to complete an improbable comeback against Pachuca, the strongest team in the Clausura.
To my astonishment, when I clicked back, I saw the Tuzos jumping in a celebratory circle. What just happened? Mosquera knocks in the goal that takes Pachuca to the final vs. San Luis.

Rafael Marquez did not complete Barcelona’s training session because of some discomfort in his legs. He was taken out more for precautionary measures, and will probably sit out this weekend’s clash with newly crowned UEFA Cup champs, Sevilla. Rafa has had issues all year with muscle strains. Let’s hope the Champions League game is the last one he plays before he joins up with the Tri in Europe.

It sounds like Gozalo Pineda is listening to the right people. Pineda echoed the sentiments of his coach, Ricardo La Volpe in saying that qualifying for the 2nd round is not a guarantee.

Because of the scheme that Ricardo Lavolpe plays, the carrileros will have play a vital roll for Mexico to have a successful run. Luckily for him, there is an abundance of talent on one side, probably too much talent, and not so much on the other.

A member of the Iranian Football Federation is worried that Mexico may put witch doctors on the payroll to help put a hex on Team Melli.
FFI Executive, Ali Pour even went on to suggest that recent injuries to Ali Karimi, Vahid Hashemian, and Mehdi Mahdavikian could have been influenced by this withcraft.

The players finally got to play another team yesterday. The Under 21 team came to the training center to spar with the Tri. The 23 split into 2 teams, they played 2 35 minute halves, and won 1-0 and 2-0 respectively.
Don’t expect anything new vs. Venezuela. Ricardo Lavolpe doesn’t want to be predictable during the world cup, so expect a liberal helping of Mexican Vanilla this Friday in Pasadena. Claudio Suarez has also said that the practices are where the decisions for the final 23 will be made, not the games. It sounds to me that Lavolpe must love watching NFL pre-season games.

The Mexican national team is looking to make history in Germany this summer. Their goal is to play 5 games, and hopefully get to the sixth, which would guarantee a seventh game. Over the next few weeks, we’ll discuss each sector of the team. Today we will look at the defenders, which could be the stongest group Mexico has had at the back since 1986, where they only gave up 2 goals in 5 games. This is extremely high praise considering that the defense is without 3 very skilled players: Hugo Sanchez Guerrero, Aaron Galindo, and Salavador Carmona, the latter 2 suspended for doping.