Mexico was playing against the odds and their limits. Mexican soccer players no longer aspire to make the great global leap to sneak into the top 10 teams in the world. Now he plays to avoid failures, to win by the minimum, to minimize damage caused by his country’s leaders. The Mexican team is mired in the mud, with no possibility of getting up from a knockout. The fans, loyal followers in the United States, are already beginning to abandon the team. The Mexican ship is aground, with a breakdown that requires the most prolific coach to rescue a team without a goal or security with the ball. Against Ecuador, the Mexican team depended on itself and its own identity abandoned it with a 0-0 draw, insufficient to play the quarterfinals in the Copa América.
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The cast includes the following actors: Julio Gonzalez, Cesar Montes, Johan Vasquez, Gerardo Arteaga (Alexis Vega, min. 89), Jorge Sanchez, Orbelin Pineda (Guillermo Martinez, min. 66), Luis Romo (Erick Sanchez, min. 84), Luis Chavez, Julian Quinones (Jordi Cortizo, min. 85), Santiago Gimenez and Cesar Huerta (Uriel Antuna, min. 66)
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Alexander Domínguez, Piero Hincapié, Ángelo Preciado (Andrés Hurtado, min. 90), Willian Pacho, Félix Torres, Jeremy Sarmiento (Ángel Mena, min. 75), Kendry Páez (Alan Minda, min. 66), Moisés Caicedo, Alan Franco , Enner Valencia and Kevin Rodríguez (Carlos Gruezo, min. 75)
Referee Mario Escobar
Yellow cards
César Montes (min. 5), Moisés Caicedo (min. 42), Jorge Sánchez (min. 49), Luis Chavez (min. 72), Johan Vásquez (min. 81), Carlos Antuna (min. 93)
Jaime Lozano did what he could against Ecuador. He tried to change the eleven with respect to his other games against Jamaica and Venezuela. He once again trusted Santiago Giménez and Julián Quiñones. Lush. And he stayed waiting. There was no goal. No joys, no dribbles, nor anything that could break the Jamaican, Venezuelan or Ecuadorian goal. The only score they achieved was based on the hard work of a wing defender named Gerardo Arteaga. The Mexican team tried to propose to Ecuador; When he received the Ecuadorian reply, the Mexican defenders trembled. They had trouble clearing. The problems were evident with the problems of Jorge Sánchez and César Montes, two players who still want to show that they are more than a promise.
Mexico wanted to cling to the sporting miracle; Ecuador was dedicated to keeping the score with all kinds of strategies. From the long ball to find a lucky Enner Valencia, to pressuring the Mexican defenders’ exits or dedicating themselves to looking for spontaneous injuries to kill time. The Ecuadorians, with more experience, dedicated themselves to holding on. The first half was competitive between both teams. The second half was a neighborhood game with a lot of anarchy and no clarity.
When Lozano turned to the bench, he found no answers. No substitute was enough. The biggest problem in putting together the team was finding young players who had a good career in the First Division. The raw material, however, was scarce and in the Copa América it showed its true face. Time is running out for a Mexico that wants to give its best performance in the 2026 World Cup, which it will organize with the USA and Canada. Two years later, the team looks lost. The leaders of the Mexican Football Federation assured, shortly before the start of the tournament, that Lozano would be the ideal coach to reach the World Cup. After the performance of the team, that commitment is in doubt. Mexico, since 2019, has gone from failure to failure: Nations League, World Cup and now Copa América.
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