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Guardado, Salcido still question marks for Gold Cup Final

AndresGuardado (ISIPhotos.com)

By JONATHAN VERA

PASADENA, Calif — The Mexican National Team may be without two of its starters Saturday night in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final against the United States. Andres Guardado and Carlos Salcido have taken their share of knocks in the tournament and though they remain optimistic about playing in the highly-anticipated final, their availability is still a question mark.

Both players came off in the second half of Mexico's overtime victory against Honduras in the semifinals. Guardado is nursing an ankle injury while Salcido has a heel injury.

'"We'll wait, yes they took a few knocks and if they are not 100 percent to start, then we'll have that conversation then," said the coach.

One of the keys of Mexico's high-powered attack, Guardado sounded confident that he would be able to play.

"I'm ready to play tomorrow," said a confident Guardado. "We trained in the morning and we tested the ankle, it bothers me a little, which is normal, but I feel fine to play" The midfielder understands full well the situation he's in and is comfortable sitting out the match if it's for the greater good of the team.

"No one wants to lose, we're looking for what's best for the team. Here, the important thing is the team, not the person and if I have to sit on the bench, then that's what's best," confessed Guardado.

If Guardado can't play, it would significantly alter Mexico's tactics, and would likely mean the inclusion of striker Aldo DeNigris into the starting lineup and a shift from the 4-5-1 Mexico has been using regularly, to a 4-4-2.

As for Salcido's heel injury, that's a little more uncertainty about his availability. If Salcido can't play, he would likely be replaced at left back by Jorge Torres Nilo.

Comments

  1. We need this now since Boca, Dempsey, Donovan, Jones, and Cherundolo aren’t getting any younger. At least get one final win in while our talent levels aren’t too far apart.

    Holden, Mixx, Chandler, and a hopefully matured striker corps won’t make up for losing those guys.

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  2. There’s almost no way around it, Mexico has the horses to dominate us over the next decade. Their young guns put ours to shame.

    Having said that, we aren’t terribly overmatched in this game and Mexico looked mighty mortal in their last two. We have a solid chance to win this and put off Mexico’s domination until qualifying.

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  3. Let’s face it the US has had a good run against Mexico in the last 10 years. Mexico has been the more skillful team in that period, but the US was able to overcome that with teamwork and athleticism. This Mexican team has more athleticism than past Mexican teams, and they seem to be playing together better. Scary proposition for the USA.

    If the US can avoid too many defensive errors and Mexico begins to doubt themselves this game could still turn out well for the US. However, a couple goals from Mexico and the USA might not be able to recover. The longer the US can hold Mexico scoreless, the stronger the US will become.

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  4. I’m trying really hard to be a better person than to hope that Guardado and Salcido are subpar or benched due to injury. Otherwise, that left side scares me.

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  5. Guardado is money, the Beez of his generation.

    Salcido impressed me with his sportsmanship the last couple of US games, so I cheered for him to do well with Fulham and wish him well.

    I too hope they are both OK to go, that way no excuses when we eek out a win in penalties.

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  6. GuardAdo is outstanding, Salcido is good. Hope all the best players from both teams are healthy and raring to go.’put on a show, boys! USA!

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  7. If they don’t get to score 1 or more in the first half with this squad, we may have a chance, but I’d say Mexico coach is very smart I may say and has the upper hand going into this match, than say B Bradley who’s weapons aren’t as individually skilled. Guardado and Salcido are important, however Mexico’s depth has shown well throughout the tournament with 5 players missing.

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  8. 3-1 Mexico, Chich scores twice then one by De Nigris, Dempsey gets ours. The US has shown nothing that merits they’ll be able to conted with Mexico in the Midfield or in the attack especially with Jozy out, they have too many weapons to keep in check and we cannot afford to double team Hernandez because then it’ll turn into an open house and we may see worse than the 09′ gold Cup final. Just because we have our starters we cannot afford to get cocky as Mexico definently as home-field advandtage(sigh…) for this game and will come out guns blazin.

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  9. This is going to be a tough game. Mexico has a much more skilled team than the USA and the Rose Bowl will be filled with Mexicans since the game is being played in north Mexico (or California.)

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  10. If you care about nothing more than a US victory, a less than 100% Guardado who plays anway is probably your best outcome. De Nigris has been a machine this tournament and their other potential backups aren’t poor.

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  11. Great players, nice to see a team like Mexico play complete. Hope their starting eleven can start…

    Go USA!!!

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  12. If you saw the tackles he took in the last game you would not thing about gamesmanship.
    I doubt they were both subbed with a 0-0 score just to mess with the US.

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  13. guardado is a very skilled player. his absence of limited play would be a plus for usa. same thing but to a lesser extent in the game changing department applies to salcido

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