Efra had involvement. He is new to them but I noticed he played entire match. He wasn' key to anything playwise but I am glad he is there to a point. It is a different level of pressure that will make you or break you. Tata will not suffer fools gladly for long nor will the mex fans and pundits. He is in a sink or swim situation and that may snap his play into focus for them and for Galaxy. Chucky is out of the Gold Cup. He will remain in USA for further tests. I know Napoli is hitting the roof right about now. He may have cracked cervical bones. He will be missed. I love to watch that kid play.
Finally had a chance to see the Chucky Lozano injury. My god that was horrific. I really hope he has a speedy recover but man that looked really bad.
Yep, had reconstructive surgery on his face to go with the stitches, concussed, hyper-extended neck issues plus whatever the MRI will find. Not a good day at the office. Which why I am keeping a close eye on our players, both at the nats level and the three for Galaxy we have in there. These Conca turneys bring the best and worst out in players turning them into bulls and freight trains. Regional refs will allow the bulls to run and have a low level of control even if they want to pull on the reigns. Lletget should be talking to these young guys about it. His knee was busted v Honduras if you recall. PS Oh yeah, Fisher too. Nobody should get busted up playing the game. Pipo is semi-retired so I doubt that dude is in any danger eccept for bench splinters.
Suriname takes a 1-0 over Costa Rica and at the center of that was our favorite Tico central defender G. Gonzalez. Totally failed to deal with his mark who scored the goal. His contract is up this year right?
Jona started and played most of the game. Efrain Alvarez stayed on the bench. I'll admit the fan in me was in full force so I really didn't pay attention to Jona, but considering Mexico controlled possession, I think Jona played well. Just sucks for him the strikers couldn't do much with it. The moment after the match between Seb and him was touching. *Edit: The Nats threads here and on reddit are rubbing salt in the wound of Efrain for choosing El Tri over USA, for not seeing the pitch hardly and for losing in the final. Efra's still young and could still feature. Probably will, too considering the generational Shift El Tri is currently in.
The level headed side of that Efra argument (which isn’t against him personally, but more of an observation) is that Gregg has proven that he’s willing to play and grow young players in the national team. Tata Martino has not. That may sway some dual nationals when making their choice.
I also feel that Gregg has been very very honest and open with his dual nationals. They know where they stand. I don’t think he’s trying to cap tie players just to cap tie them.
He definitely has. He even encouraged Efra to go to a Mexico camp to see what they had to offer so Efra could make an informed decision and remove national pride out of the equation if that’s what it came down to. I think that honesty will get a lot players to buy in. It worked on Musah and Dest.
Schrodinger’s Dual-Nationality MLS Player : A player who simultaneously is a big loss to the USMNT team AND playing in an inferior league that isn’t good enough for USMNT players.
To say nothing about the fact the Berhalter is likely to be around for a while and Mex changes coaches every 10 minutes. Even if Efra likes Tata, no assurance the next guy in will value Efra.
I’m still waiting for Tata to get fired for losing the Gold Cup. Maybe it’s too close to WCQs to make that decision.
Alvarez is nowhere near good enough for Mexico or USA at the moment. He was called up to be cap tied, but with his current skill level, he won't be called up by Mexico anytime soon.
Didn't that happen in 2014 WCQ cycle? They fired their coach mid qualifying and it was literally only USAs performance against Panama saved their butt?
This is exactly right. Kid has a great left foot, but is yet to show he can consistently contribute at MLS level, never mind International level. I'm not sure he has the physical tools for it. Araujo on the other hand is growing right in front of us. I have no doubt he could have started at RB in the Gold Cup and positively contributed. His ceiling is sky high.
Alvarez shut me up with that goal, and I am glad. He looked good out there. Having Vazquez in the team is likely helping Alvarez develop. Vanney also seems to know how to utilize him.
That was a very special moment. It’s really a shame that Rob Stone didn’t grasp what was going on because it was a story in itself
Those of us who were privileged to see Zizi play in LA are saddened by his early departure from this plain of existence. He was a special player. And leave us not forget his brother Roberto (Beto) who also played here and now runs an academy in LA. Best wishes to the entire dos Santos clan.
"My path to El TRI" by David Ochoa (not exact title) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/my-path-to-mexico-01fcv8h1wqwq/amp It's not really LA Galaxy, but it speaks to probably what players like Efrain and Julian are dealing with. I've long held it's a very personal decision on who to represent. I'm not a dual national in this sense, I don't have strong cultural ties to two different countries, with a foot in each but sometimes rejection from both. The homer in me wishes they would always choose USA, but I can completely understand decisions like the one David Ochoa made. Also it saddens me to hear of one of his heros taking his own life, a victim of depression.