Everyone knows who Usain Bolt is. The Jamaican sprinter is only the fastest man in the world, last demonstrating his superhuman speed at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. Many fans know him by his nickname, Lightning Bolt, and many in the soccer universe know Bolt for having been stuck in perpetual limbo over a first-team trial with Manchester United for some time now.
October 10 is looming over both El Tri and the United States Men’s National Team. The winner of the playoff match earns a chance to represent CONCACAF in the 2017 Confederations Cup tournament in Russia. A man who would have loved to be there, facing the Americans, is Jurgen Damm.
Brazilian club Sao Paulo have announced that Juan Carlos Osorio has left the club to become the manager of the Mexico National Team.
Osorio, a native Colombian, has coached at Sao Paulo since earlier this year. He has had stints with the Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls, Liga MX side Puebla and various Colombian clubs. He is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University.
Chicharito Hernandez has opened his Bundesliga account. The Mexican striker scored his second goal for Bayer Leverkusen (he got his first in the Champions League last week) against Mainz Wednesday.
Cheeeeeeeeeech! pic.twitter.com/V2OXPND1kM
— Maxi Rodriguez (@FutbolIntellect) September 23, 2015
Stranger things have happened, but it's not looking good for Mexican midfielder Andres Guardado's chances of playing in the Confederations Cup playoff Oct. 10 against the United States.
A Dutch newspaper reported Thursday that Mexico captain Andres Guardado would be out for approximately six weeks because of an ankle injury he suffered against Manchester United in the Champions League Tuesday.
This is a big blow to Mexico, as that time frame puts the midfielder out for Mexico's Confederations Cup playoff Oct. 10 against the United States.
Bayer Leverkusen have been accused of buying Chicharito Hernandez for marketing reasons. They have denied these claims, but if Chicharito keeps playing as well as he did against BATE in the Champions League, they won't care what people say about the reasons for his purchase.
Mexico's choices for the Confederations Cup playoff against the U.S. in October have been narrowed to 35. The list includes some very obvious choices like Chicharito Hernandez, Andres Guardado, Carlos Vela and Rafa Marquez.
The list also includes quite a few Tigres players, probably because El Tri interim manager Ricardo Ferretti is Tigres's manager.
Goalkeepers:
Guillermo Ochoa (Malaga)
Moises Munoz (Club America)
Alfredo Talavera (Toluca)
Jonathan Orozco (Monterrey)
Defenders:
At 16 years of age, Carlos Vela walked onto a soccer pitch in Peru with all the weight of Mexico on his shoulders. The Mexican National Team had finally made it the final of the U-17 World Cup. Not once in Mexico’s history had a Mexican national team made it to the finals of a world tournament. No pressure. No pressure at all for Carlitos, who would go on to lead the young Mexican national team to glory against Brazil, scoring their first of the match and leading Mexico to a 3-0 scoreline against the tournament favorites.
Mexico tied Argentina Tuesday, 2-2, in a lively match that got more interesting as it went. Mexico took a 2-0 lead into the 85th minute via a Chicharito Hernandez penalty kick and a nice shot from Hector Herrera, but Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi proved too much for Mexico to contain near the end. Here are our takeaways.
It was mostly positive for Mexico, given they drew with one of the best teams in the world.
They played 85 minutes of solid soccer.