Gold Cup: Mexico-Panama Preview

By Sylvestre Adame

Who: Mexico vs. Panama
What: Gold Cup Group C
When: 10:00 ET, Thursday, July 9
Where: Reliant Stadium, Houston
TV: Univision

El Tri took small baby steps towards progression on Sunday against Nicaragua. What was expected to be a “goleada” wasn’t as Mexico once again disappointed. It would seem as though there is no base squad for El Tri. Javier Aguirre decided to use the Gold Cup to experiment with players. But isn’t it a little too late?  Panama will be Mexico’s next opponent and with a win Mexico would reap the rewards by going into the next round and silencing some critics depending on the outcome of the Guadeloupe and Nicaragua game, which kicks off the doubleheader.

Where’s the balance?

Mexico is lacking some real balance in their squads. If the forwards play well then the defense does a poor job and vice versa. On Sunday we saw a defense that held up well. There were only three shots on target from Nicaragua, who had to settle for long distance shots on all three. The offense created chances but could not find the finishing touch they needed. Giovani Dos Santos and Miguel Sabah had plenty of chances to convert but couldn’t. Thanks to Pablo Barrera who might have only taken one shot on goal but at least made it, Mexico rescued something out of the match.

Attack-Oriented Aguirre

Javier Aguirre is known to be an attack-oriented type of manager, that’s his style of play but we are yet to see it with El Tri. A glance at the squad Mexico brought to the Gold Cup reveals that it’s filled with more forwards than anything else but the high number of attackers is still not changing anything. The defense has improved a lot under Aguirre, and the saying goes that defense wins games. In football goals are necessary, and without goals the best a team can get out of a good defense is a tie. Ties lead to extra time and eventually to penalties where it's all but common knowledge that Mexico struggles. Aguirre needs to get the lead out and start to impose his attacking methods on to El Tri before it’s too late.

The UNCAF Champions

Mexico will be squaring off against the current UNCAF champions. Mexico has never lost to Panama. They have played a total of eight times and Mexico has won six and tied twice. They have met in the Gold Cup before in the 2007 edition where Mexico won by a single goal. Curiously enough both teams were paired in the same Group C that they are in now, they also played in Houston’s Reliant Stadium which will be the site of Thursday’s game. Carlos Salcido who is not featuring in this Gold Cup was the only player to score as Mexico won 1-0 and barely made it to the second round in 2007.

Projected lineups:

Mexico: Guillermo Ochoa, Jose Antonio Castro, Jonny Magallon, Ismael Rodriguez, Fausto Pinto, Giovani Dos Santos, Luis Miguel Noriega, Gerardo Torrado, Pablo Barrera, Alberto Medina, Omar Bravo

Panama: Jaime Penedo, Luis Moreno, Roman Torres, Felipe Baloy, Joel Solanilla, Gabriel Gomez, Nelson Barahona,  Ricardo Phillips, Rolando Escobar,  Orlando Rodriguez, Luis Tejada

Goal.com Prediction: history repeats itself Mexico wins 1-0.

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