HexagonalBlog

Rafa Marquez goes down

The bad news keeps getting worse for Mexican football: Barcelona's central defender Ráfa Márquez went down with a knee injury in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinal against Chelsea.  The preliminary indication is an injury to the meniscus of the left knee.  What made it especially unfortunate was that Márquez had not been under contact; rather, the ground gave way under him as he made a move with the ball in the center of the field.

It looks like Márquez could be out for the rest of the season (four rounds left), and he may be out for the June qualifiers as well.  Mexico might miss him against El Salvador, but not against Trinidad & Tobago.

Mexican league matches behind closed doors

The FMF confirmed today that all first and second division matches in the country will be played without spectators, as the flu outbreak continues to spread beyond central Mexico to the outer states.  The matches correspond to the 16th round of Primera and the final round of the Primera A. 

The news is no surprise, given that clubs have barred public access to training sessions in recent days.  It remains to be seen whether the Liguillas in both divisions will also be played in empty stadia, but that ruling appears almost certain.

Another one of these strategic alliances

The Chicago Fire announced today a "strategic alliance" with Club América of Mexico.  Didn't the Fire have a similar partnership with Morelia some years back?  What became of it? 

The partnership will involve reciprocal friendly matches, marketing, and player development.  The first is confirmed for Wednesday and a future date in Azteca; the rest is all in the planning stages. 

I wish the partnership well, whatever it might mean.

Mexico, CONCACAF, and the flu outbreak: The continuing fallout

The big news of the week in this region -- the world, really -- has been the flu outbreak in Mexico.  The story really has gone viral over the weekend (pun unintended).   The Centers for Disease Control has an informative website on the subject that's frequently updated, and you can also consult the various news websites.

The epicenter of course has been in Mexico, with over 100 deaths from the virus so far.  During the weekend, places such as theaters, schools, libraries and nightclubs were shut down across the capital city.  Those school closings have now been extended nationwide.   The US State Department has also issued a travel advisory recommending that citizens not travel to Mexico until further notice. 

The crisis has had a significant effect on soccer in the region.  League matches in central Mexico were played behind closed doors.  CONCACAF  have canceled the remainder of the U-17 tournament in Tijuana and postponed the second leg of the Champions League final until 15 May.  The cancellation of the knockout round of the U-17s is not a big loss as the four qualifiers for the U-17 World Cup had already been known.  I'm not a fan of the current qualification format (that's for a future post), but CONCACAF got lucky this time.  The second leg of the Champions League final could also be pushed back, or even played in a neutral country if necessary.

To me the real questions are the remainder of the Clausura tournament and the World Cup qualifiers.  There is a real possibility that the last two weeks of the regular season could be played behind closed doors, which would be a huge economic hit to the clubs.  That's the least of the clubs' worries right now, but there is little question that there will be economic reprecussions.  Assuming that the flu outbreak stays relatively contained, it may not impact Mexico's next two matches.  El Salvador is an away match, and the result of the T&T home match probably wouldn't be different even if Mexico couldn't play in Mexico City.  If the outbreak lingers into August, then we're talking about the home qualifier against the US and it might have an impact of Mexico's World Cup campaign.  And if the outbreak goes global, everyone would have the same situation and all bets would truly be off.  Would there even be a Hexagonal in that case?

As I said in a tweet this weekend, this is a developing story, and its effect on soccer in the region has yet to be completely determined. 

Atlante: 90 minutes closer to Dubai

Perhaps I should have seen Atlante's result coming last night.  Cruz Azul were without two of their primary midfielders in Gerardo Torrado and Cristián Riveros, which would have reduced the team's ability to dominate the midfield.  Even so, I was surprised by two things: Cruz Azul's lack of urgency for a majority of the game, and Atlante's decision to take the game to La Máquina.  Márquez Lugo on the left and Navarro on the right tore Cruz Azul's back line apart in the first half, and Vilar became Atlante's most important player in the second.  By the time Cruz Azul responded and assumed a dominant role it was already too late.

I liked both Atlante goals, but my favorite had to be Navarro's opener, for the combination play with Márquez Lugo and the audacious flicks that opened up the Celeste defense and resulted in the goal.  That's a goal worthy to be scored in a final, as Medio Tiempo's summary stated.

So can Cruz Azul score three goals without reply in Cancún?  One would think that a side that can lose to Joe Public at home can also lose to Cruz Azul, but I believe that match was an accident.  Since then, they beat Montreal in a hard-fought match, and then defeated Houston and Santos quite comfortably at home.  (Okay, the Santos game was more difficult because of the aggregate goal requirement.)    Cruz Azul will have their suspended midfielders back for next Wednesday's match, so I can see them scoring one goal in Cancún, but it will be difficult for them to score three.

So even though Atlante manager José Cruz is making the right noises about Cruz Azul still being alive, he has to be feeling very good about his team's chances of appearing in Dubai later this year.

CONCACAF Champions League, The Final (1st Leg)

After almost eight months, the first edition of the CONCACAF Champions League has been reduced to its final two teams.  Cruz Azul and Atlante will play over two matches to decide who will represent CONCACAF in the UAE in December for the FIFA Club World Cup. 

I'm doing something different for the first leg.  On this blog I will only have updates of the game clock, score, and goal scorers (and if necessary, red card recipients).  The match commentary will be on my Spanish-language blog.

Cruz Azul 0-2 Atlante F

17' 0-1 Navarro
25' 0-2 Bermúdez

Disciplinary situation in the Champions League, 2009-04-22

The following players are suspended for the first leg of the Champions League final:

Atlante - Giancarlo Maldonado, Luís Venegas

Cruz Azul - Gerardo Torrado, Cristián Riveros

The following players will miss the second leg of the Champions League final if they receive a yellow card in Wednesday's match:

Atlante - Federico Vilar, Fernando Navarro, Clemente Ovalle, Ráfael Márquez Lugo, Gabriel Pereyra, Gerardo Espinoza, José Guerrero

Cruz Azul - Rogelio Chávez, Gerardo Lugo, Fausto Pinto, Júlio César Domínguez

Trying something out for tomorrow

Tomorrow night is the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Final.  I'm going to do something different for the match:  it will be liveblogged, but on my Spanish-language blog.  I haven't done a full liveblog of a match in Spanish before, so it will be a new experience for me.  If I like the experience I might do it again in the future.  I need to add more original content for that blog, and the fact that the Final is an all-Mexican affair makes a Spanish liveblog convenient.

I'll have a concurrent post on this blog, but I'll only update the time, score, and goalscorers.

Two potential blows for the USA

Steve Cherundolo and Jozy Altidore will have surgeries to remedy issues with hip and toe injuries, respectively (H/T: Goff's Soccer Insider).  At first glance, it would seem that Altidore's injury is less serious, meaning that he might have more of a chance of appearing in the USA's qualifiers in June.  But Xerez's website is saying that he could be out for three to four weeks, so it could be an issue of how ready he will be by early June.  It does look like Cherundolo is doubtful to appear, unfortunately.

Another look at South America

I was going to write this post immediately after the previous round, but I got overtaken by events.  At any rate, the South American qualifiers have passed the 2/3rd mark, and there is a clear separation between the top and bottom halves.  Paraguay, Brazil and Chile occupy the top three places, and Argentina lie in fourth.  (The top four qualify directly for the World Cup finals.)  Fifth place, and the berth into the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL playoff, belongs to Uruguay on 17 points, and their closest rivals are a match behind (Colombia and Ecuador). 

If Uruguay do pass through to the playoff, whoever finishes in fourth place in CONCACAF had better hope that the second leg is played in North America.  Uruguay are extremely difficult to beat in a winner-take-all scenario at Estadio Centenario.  The alternative could be a lot worse if Argentina get sucked into the playoff race.