Mexico has beaten Holland.
That headline would have mattered so much more, oh, say, 4 months and 13 days ago, but alas, time moves on and less meaningful friendlies are played. The victory may be "meaningless" for Mexico, but who scored the goals that ensured it is anything but.
Carlos Vela is back.
Oh, and Javier Hernandez did pretty good, too.
Sweet revenge aside, this is the best possible outcome from a friendly: a win and the team’s best players finding their form. If you are a fan of El Tri and you are not excited right now, you are not a fan of El Tri.
Carlos Vela is going through a tough patch in his club career. His club, Real Sociedad, is sitting in 15th in La Liga, and Vela has only 2 goals and 2 assists through 11 games. He is lacking form and confidence, and he just might have found the perfect remedy in playing for the Mexican National Team.
Vela may have spurned Mexico for years, and that definitely brewed some bad blood between him and the national team, but every goal he scores will put all that further and further in the past. And make no mistake, he still has plenty of time to do so.
Vela is only 25, that means that by Russia 2018 he will be 29 and quite possibly in the form of his life. One needs to only look to his opposite number in an orange shirt, 30 year old Arjen Robben, to see that a winger can still produce world class performances at that age.
These next four years have the potential to be some of the best in Mexico’s storied soccer history. Carlos Vela is back, and Javier Hernandez is rounding into the kind of form that made Sir Alex Ferguson buy him in the first place. Youth is on its way as well, in the form of Jesus “Tecatito” Corona, who assisted Vela’s second beautifully.
We cannot see into the future of Mexican Soccer, but we can channel our inner Ms. Cleo and pretend. Let’s just say it looks a lot like this:
Please insert $1.50 and tune in to the 2015 Gold Cup if you would like to hear more.
