By COLE KELLOGG
When Mexican National Team coach Miguel Herrera put together his roster for the Copa America, he made it clear he believed his team could challenge for the title despite essentially being a B team.
On Friday night, Mexico was eliminated from the tournament after a 2-1 defeat to Ecuador. A 64th-minute goal from Raul Jimenez was not enough to keep the CONCACAF side in the CONMEBOL competition, as an early goal from Miller Bolanos and a 57th-minute strike from Enner Valencia sealed the victory for Ecuador.
El Tri managed only two points overall in the 2015 Copa America. The first came in a disappointing scoreless draw against Bolivia, while the second came in a thrilling six-goal game against tournament hosts Chile.
Herrera’s squad for the tournament was full of reserves. The manager had to tap into his pool of players due to Mexico’s busy summer, which also includes competing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July.
The Mexicans need to win their regional tournament if they want to face off against the U.S. Men’s National Team for a place in the 2017 Confederations Cup. The U.S. won the previous Gold Cup in 2013.
Javier Hernandez, Guillermo Ochoa, Diego Reyes, Miguel Layun, Jonathan Dos Santos and Carlos Vela are all strong European-based players that were saved for the CONCACAF competition.
In Friday’s other Group A game, Chile handed Bolivia a 5-0 loss. Charles Aranguiz scored twice for the Chileans.
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What do you think about Mexico’s performance at the Copa America? Did any of El Tri’s players impress you? Should CONMEBOL be as upset as it was in 2007 when the U.S. took a B team to the tournament and performed poorly?
Share your thoughts below.
That what happened to mexico for taking the squad B to south America imagine if they would have taken the original team to copa América they would have done a lot better and probably get to the finals
Mexico shouldn’t play Copa America!!
They should just play Copa Oro… after all they r north america…
Plus if mexico is out.. Copa america should be even & they wouldn’t need to call a guest team..
Mexico Go play gold cup!! U don’t belong in the south… they are way better!!
You also know me as El Comandante, but I didn’t want to have to defend all the previous comments I made supporting the Mexican team(s) while poo-pooing everything the US does, good or bad. I’ll be here under a different sock puppet name for whenever the next tournament is.
the whole reason for mexico to win Gold Cup 2015 is to participate in Confederations Cup 2017.
this tourney is too short with only 6-8 teams in it. It needs to be expanded to 16 teams.
Send the champion and runner up from each confederation (12), the current WC champion(1) and current WC host(1), the next WC host(1), and the previous WC champion(1). example using the confederation tournament results as of end of 2014.
-Spain, Italy
-Uruguay, Paraguay
-USA, Panama
-Lybia, Ghana
-Australia, South Korea
-New Zealand,
-Germany
-Russia
-Spain (spain repeats, so allow 3rd place UEFA team above)
-Qatar
I’m sure you can fine tune other details. This is a more rewarding experience for those of us who love the beautiful game.
That’s kinda what happens when you use B teams. Not really that surprising.
This headline does not come as a huge surprise, to me at least. In fact, now Herrera and his staff are back 100 percent focused on Gold Cup play. Which is what he wanted all along. Yeah, U.S. Won the previous GC and has some serious momentum as of late, but count me among the group of “very, very wary” of this Mexican team next month. They are going to have something to prove and essentially an entirely different unit in their camp with a chip on their shoulder. U.S. Vs Mexico will be a massive final if it works out that way. Absolutely massive.
Why would this new squad have a chip on their shoulders and have something to prove if most of them did not even participate in the Copa America? And didn’t the US essentially get black listed from participating in this tournament for bringing a B team? Wonder is the same happens to Mexico. Oh, and watch out now! They’re bringing in Jonathan Dos Santos…
When he said Mexico would have a chip on their shoulders, I think he was referring to their failure to win the last Gold Cup and their recent record against the United States.
That was a B team Gold Cup. I doubt that’s much motivation. Mexico won the last Gold Cup that mattered. Hopefully that’s motivation for our guys.
Mexico eliminated. LLOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
insert [HAHAHAH I DIDNT EVEN KNOW UNTIL MY PHONE ALERTED ME…] cliché joke here