Heading into the summer, Mexico’s World Cup prospects looked dimmer than usual. An uninspiring second place in the Concacaf qualifying campaign (and only 17 goals in 14 matches) made the long-dreamed-of fifth match seem improbable.
Making matters worse was the unimpressive form of several key members of El Tri’s “European contingent.”
Raúl Jiménez was in a slump while Orbelín Pineda and Diego Lainez were considered surplus by their respective coaches, facing the likelihood of little to no playing time ahead of the World Cup.
A bit of hope was restored when Pineda and Lainez were loaned out to team (AEK Athens and Sporting Braga, respectively) where they could at least expect to get in game shape ahead of the trip to Qatar.
El Tri suffers injury setbacks
The moves proved serendipitous when Jesús Corona went down with a broken leg during a Sevilla training session in mid-August, especially as Pineda was already producing at AEK Athens (a goal and an assist in his team’s season opener)
“Tecatito” is considered a starter for El Tri so Pineda and Lainez (along with Alexis Vega) are natural substitutes and Team Mexico coach Gerardo Martino was already worrying about the out-of-form Jiménez and the suddenly injury-prone Rogelio Funes Mori, his back-up on the El Tri roster.
Then this past weekend happened and suddenly sullen El Tri fans were bullish on the team’s prospects.
Lainez got his debut goal for Braga and played the entire second half in the team’s 6-0 rout of Arouca and Jiménez played the entire 90 minutes for Wolverhampton after seeing only 31 minutes of action in the team’s first three games of the EPL season.
In addition, youngster Santiago Giménez got his first goal of the season for Feyenoord after transferring to the Dutch powerhouse at the end of July. The 21-year-old was off to a great start with Cruz Azul (5 goals in five games) and seemed to have worked his way onto the back end of the El Tri roster.
And back home in Mexico, Henry Martín is suddenly on fire, further bolstering Mexico’s attacking options. The América striker – the starting forward on last year’s bronze medal-winning Olympic team – has scored 7 goals in his past six games, making Funes Mori’s fitness issues less of a concern.
Martín will not be available for El Tri in Wednesday’s friendly against Paraguay in Atlanta (América is shutting him down for 10 days to rest tired legs), but with the recent turn of events Martino can focus on other back-end roster decisions.
The No. 3 goalie position remains undetermined and Carlos Acevedo and Luis Malagón will get a look. The projected El Tri World Cup roster also lacks a defensive midfielder behind Edson Alvarado and a right fullback behind Jorge Sánchez
Speaking of Sánchez, the 24-year-old got his debut for Ajax Amsterdam this past weekend after transferring from América three weeks ago.
The key players to watch in the El Tri-Paraguay contest will be midfielders Luis Chávez and Luis Romo and fullbacks Kevin Álvarez and Emilio Lara. The first three are seen as most likely to fill the final spots on the El Tri World Cup roster while the 20-year-old Lara has been a revelation this season in Liga MX.