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Thursday Kickoff: Mexico beats Venezuela, Bayern angers fans and more

Mexico Venezuela (Getty Images)

By FRANCO PANIZO

Mexico seemed ready to settle for a draw with Venezuela, but two late goals coming in a span of two minutes lifted El Tri to a 3-1 victory over the South Americans.

Fielding a squad largely comprised of players competing for a spot on the Olympic qualifying team, the Mexicans won on Wednesday night courtesy of goals from Rafael Marquez Lugo and Oribe Peralta in the 88th and 89th minutes, respectively.

Mexico trailed Venezuela after forward Edgar Greco nodded home a corner in the 52nd minute. The Mexicans responded 16 minutes later when Carlos Salcido rifled a shot into the back of the net, paving the way for the late-game heroics from Marquez Lugo and Peralta.

Here are more stories to help get your Thursday going:

BAYERN PR STUNT UPSETS FANS

If losing to Borussia Moenchengladbach last week was not enough to anger Bayern Munich fans, what the club did next surely is.

Bayern Munich announced it was set to make a spectacular forward signing, an announcement that sparked heavy interest among fans on social media websites. Fans tuned into the club's Facebook page to see who was being signed, but were let down when Bayern general manager Christian Nerlinger showed fans' Facebook profile pictures instead. The fans then say their names appear on the back of a No. 8 jersey. Within half an hour, several thousand comments were made about the PR stunt, mostly negative.

ALEX WANTS PSG SWITCH

Queens Park Rangers may want Alex, but it appears he does not want them. The Brazilian centerback prefers to join Paris Saint-Germain instead, and he continuted to hold talks with the French club on Wednesday. No offer has been made yet by PSG, but it is suspected that Chelsea wants a transfer fee of $6.6 million for Alex.

ORLANDO SELLS ALVAREZ TO RSL, SIGNS ROONEY

USL Pro defending champions Orlando City announced a pair of moves on Wednesday during their Supporters' Summit, the first being the sale of midfielder Yordany Alvarez to Real Salt Lake. Alvarez had joined RSL on loan after helping Orlando City win the league title, and the MLS club exercised its option to buy. The other move the Lions made was the signing of John Rooney, the younger brother of Wayne Rooney who was drafted by the New York Red Bulls last year.

HERRON JOINS STRIKERS

The Ft. Lauderdale Strikers bolstered its attacking options on Wedenesday, signing former Chicago Fire forward Andy Herron. The signing of Herron is one the Strikers are hoping will help make up for the loss of some of its key players, including Bryan Arguez. The 33-year-old Herron most recently played for Limon FC in his native Costa Rica.

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Surprised Venezuela went winless against Mexico and the United States? What do you think of Bayern's PR stunt? Think Alex should leave Chelsea in favor of PSG?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. @ fishy. If anyone is an idiot it’s you. The US has more talent than Mexico. I based that on how many players are ranked by the Castrol Rankings of players in the top 5 European Leagues from each country and their average ranking. Hernandez is ranked higher than any US player with Dempsey closing fast on Chacharito. The next 6 highest ranked players from North American are from the USA. Stuart Holden was ranked 200 before his injury and will return to at least a top 500 ranking. The second highest Mexican is ranked 888 (Hector Moreno). The US currently has a total of 14 players ranked by Castrol playing in the top 5 while Mexico has 9. As for Mexico impressive success in U17 WCs, at least the last U17 championship was due in large part to Mexico playing at home. I’ve lived in Mexico City and no nation has a stronger home field advantage than Mexico at Azteca. The first U17 Mexican champion (Niño’s y heroes) was very impressive. However, the top players on that team have done poorly so far as pros. I know Castrol rankings are totally objective etc. but there is no better method of assessing the talent a particular nation has. The number of players a country has in the top 100 correlated well with their success at the world cup. Of course, it also depends to great extent on the national team’s coach. No that the US has a real coach the brief period of Mexico clearly outplaying the US will soon be only a memory.

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  2. Are you guys that narrow minded not to see that Mexico clearly has a better program right now at all levels? You guys criticize Fischy but he’s totally right. We’ve got some catching up to do.

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  3. I was there as well, Marco Fabian and Aquino were very impressive. So much talent even-though it was only Mexican league based players

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  4. Went to the Mexico game last night. Very entertaining given the squads. I was highly impressed with Mexico’s squad (movement off the ball, unselfishness, quickness). They dominated about 80 minutes of the match.

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  5. That would not be a fair trade cause Red Bull would end owing more to Morelia for Rafael Marquez old and wash out LMAO. While RedBull will gain a good Rafael Marquez Lugo young and good player in his prime by the way Lugo said one time that he would like to play in the MLS when he was with Pachuca.

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  6. Hey, Fishhead (fischy), Mexico won by scoring twice in the 88th and 89th minutes due to an exhausted Venezuelan side. This Venezuelan side on the field was tired after playing the U.S. Mexico had a strong side out there. Did you even see the game? Venezuela could have even scored two more goals. The US has had its C team out there; forget about their B team. The U.S. will beat Mexico in the qualifying rounds. You no nothing about the game! You are a rotten fish head and a Dhead all rolled up in one. You do not want people to insult you; but in turn, you like to throw insults.

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  7. I know you’re probably being sarcastic, but this movement to compare results against mutual opponents is very tempting, but not very productive in my view. Not only is the sample size too small to draw meaningful conclusions, but each game is different.

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  8. Fischy, the funny thing is if the US gave up a goal to Venezuela , you would be the first one to criticize why the U.S. gave up the one goal. You need psychiatric help. Take a pill. We’ll see who is better in two years from now.

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  9. I root for the USA, but it’s only an idiot who doesn’t realize the Mexican program is better right now, especially at the younger levels. Speaking of idiots, there were a couple of dudes who posted here about how Mexico sucks because they were trailing Venezuela 1-0.

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