Photo by ISIphotos.com
Admit it, you are a U.S. national team fan who is so confident in your team winning on Wednesday that part of you is getting nervous. All the injuries and suspensions to the Mexican national team have some U.S. fans believing Wednesday will be a cakewalk.
Players such as Nery Castillo, Omar Bravo and Giovani Dos Santos could have something to say about that.
You remember Castillo, right? He was the Mexican striker who terrorized the U.S. defense in the 2007 Gold Cup final before seeing his club career derailed by a disappointing move to Shakhtar Donetsk and even worse loan move to Manchester City.
Castillo is back and playing regularly for Donetsk again and he will be one of Sven Goran Eriksson's key weapons in trying to break down a stingy American defense.
So how will Mexico upset the Americans? It will require a star performance from one more more attacking players, something Mexico hasn't gotten on American soil in a decade.
Whether it is Castillo, Vuoso, Dos Santos, Guillermo Franco, Zinha or Alberto Medina, Mexico will need somebody to step up if 'El Tri' will have an attacking player score a goal against the United States for the first time since Andres Guardado did in the 2007 Gold Cup final (defender Jonny Magallon scored both of Mexico's goals in last year's 2-2 tie). In fact, Guardado's goal is the only one scored by a Mexican attacker in the past 10 games in the United States.
So here is the question for U.S. fans. Which of Mexico's attacking players worries you the most? Which of the aforementioned candidates is the Mexican player most likely to cause problems for Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu and company?
Share your thoughts below.
Wait, Castillo hasn’t played for Shaktar all season long. In fact, its been since 2007 since he played for them.
And Shaktar refuses to sell him, which makes so sense whatsoever.
Braden, Vela is out because he was red carded against Honduras.
Ives, I’ll totally admit to being that US fan who sees this as a game that we should win…so much so in fact that it’s true that I’m nervous. I think Mexico has always been a dangerous team, and it just seems that the coin keeps landing US side up in recent memory. It isn’t going to take much for our southern neighbors to get the mix right to disappoint us in an important game.
that’s just silly if carlos vela isnt at least involved in the starting line up…at 19 he has been tearing up defenses all season for arsenal and has been waiting for the chance on the big stage, apart from the hat trick against sheffield in the fa cup…at age 19 may i remind you
Nery will be the main threat, if he doesn’t get carded early.
the evil baby from the Simpsons is all grown up
Castillo.
Although the Mexicans have better technical skills at the individual level, we have a better team. And it team sports the better team wins.
My barber, an Argentinian who watches a lot of Mexican soccer, thinks Mexico might not qualify for the WC. Wow, maybe would just go up in flames.
yeah people dont understand that gio is a great player. he not suited for teh english game and not getting playing time but you put him on a mid table la liga team he flourishes. the u.s has never had a player with technical ability and vision of gio so the fact that he hasnt played means nothing half our team wont have played much renetly. castillo is also just an exicting player to watch you never know what he s going to do.
he was !!
I hear Medina was not called in this time.
Why do you think Franco is going to be a threat. I’ll bet anybody here that he’s only going to at the most 10 minutes of playing time. Vuoso, Nery, and Medina are going to be a nightmare for the U.S.A.
“Am I the only one who thinks nery looks like a skinny Claudio Reyna?”
I agree.
And I’m getting increasingly worried about US overconfidence.
I gotta say I’m worried about Marquez’s sidekicks to the back.