“JUEGO DE MANO, JUEGO DE VILLANO!”
As per FIFA, our Group rivals (France, South Africa & Mexico) have lined-up multiple friendlies to prepare them for the World Cup while Uruguay’s only confirmed friendly match as of today is still the one set for March 3rd against Switzerland. Should someone ring the alarm and start wondering out-loud what’s going on with La AUF? Mexico has 8 friendly matches lined up and all we could muster is 1 and maybe 2 more? Depending if you believe the rumors that Uruguay will play Chile & Belgium sometime in May. Something aint right here. La AUF does realize that the World Cup is being held this year and not in 2011? right? As of today all we have is one game and we should consider ourselves lucky that we have that friendly lined up but the truth is that Uruguay is still unable to secure quality friendlies that are worth a damn.
Joke Friendlies or Cause for Concern?
While Mexico has 8, count ‘em 8 friendlies lined up, the majority to be played in the United States, Mexico should be combat-tested when they eventually reach South Africa, now it should be noted that Mexico is one of these countries like the United States who likes to play against B-Sides in order to pat their Win/Loss %, but still the friendlies against Chile, Italy & the Netherlands should be against the A-Teams of those respective nations:
• February 24, 2010 MEXICO vs BOLIVIA (@ San Francisco, USA)
• March 3, 2010 NEW ZEALAND vs MEXICO (@ Pasadena, USA)
• March 24, 2010 MEXICO vs ICELAND (@ Charlotte, USA)
• May 7, 2010 MEXICO vs ECUADOR (@ New York, USA)
• May 10, 2010 MEXICO vs SENEGAL (@ Chicago, USA)
* May 16, 2010 MEXICO vs CHILE (@ Mexico City, Mexico)
* May 26, 2010 NETHERLANDS vs MEXICO (@ Innsbruck, Austria)
• June 3, 2010 ITALY vs MEXICO (unconfirmed as of today)
And the French?
France has a super friendly lined up against Spain on March 3rd which should be a great test for them and also worth watching to see where France really are as a football body against one of the best European Teams in the last 2 years. Here’s the rest of their friendly matches:
March 3, 2010 FRANCE vs SPAIN (Paris/St.Denis, France)
May 25, 2010 FRANCE vs COSTA RICA (Lens, France)
May 30, 2010 TUNISIA vs FRANCE (Rades, Tunisia)
June 4, 2010 FRANCE vs CHINA (Location unknown)
The Weakest of the Three
South Africa has gotten a head start but their level of friendly competition is a little on the weak side:
January 27, 2010 SOUTH AFRICA 3-0 ZIMBABWE
March 2, 2010 SOUTH AFRICA vs NAMIBIA (@ Durban, S.A.)
It’s terrible that FIFA has given only 1 “official” date (March 3rd) when friendlies can be organized. With that in mind, all friendlies before and including May 16th but not on March 3rd will be against B-Teams (or C-Teams) and may only consist of B-team (or even C-Team) players from Mexico. Mexico’s friendlies are money-makers for their federation; acc. to World Soccer, they pack in an average 82,000 fans in their Azteca “home” games (rank #1), compared to 38,000 for Uruguay (rank#20). Even though these games will be in the USA, expect sell-outs.
BTW, I read in another site that Mexico will also play England on May 24 and Portugal on May 30. So that 4 games in 2 weeks (May 24, 26, 30, June 3). They can probably afford to pay, err, play. But if that’s true, I wonder how well rested the players will be.
I mentioned before that acc. to URUGOL, Uruguay’s B-Team (local players) will play against Chile in April. This Chilean team might be the same one Mexico faces after. I haven’t seen any confirmation, though.
Lastly, with the exception of Spain, France’s friendlies look useless to me.
the lack of quality friendlies has always been a problem for Uruguay, but just to share some info acc. to URUGOL there might be a friendly vs. Argentina to close out the year befoor the World cup, also there might be games (aside from Switzerland which is the only game confirmed) against Bulgaria, Belgium Ireland and Romania. All of whom did not qualify for this years cup.
What’s goin on? Maybe Tabarez is constructing some top secret lineup and doesnt want to expose it to the soccer world! lol
Even though Bulgaria, Belgium, Ireland and Romania are not necessarily soccer powers, if those friendlies could be arranged, and provided we could have the A-Team + some extra players, it would be great prep for the team. Uruguay (and for that matter, all teams) must announce a 35-man squad by May 12 and the final 23-man squad by June 10. So, these matches can still allow for a final evaluation of some players.
WRT the Argentinian exhibition, that would also be great provided the players don’t use it to settle old scores and beat the crap out of each other.
looking at our group and having secured a a friendly with a quality side in Switzerland ( european at that) maybe the focus should turn to a side simiar to Mexico like Honduras. Given the fact that Uruguay has not had recent success with teams from Concacaf (except Costa Rica)and that Uruguay would be a good test for Honduras since they do have Chile to worry about in the World Cup. African teams have been tested vs. la celeste, as well as South Africa (direct rival) but i still think that if we intend to smash Mexico (which we should), Uruguay must test a squad against an opponent similar to a direct rival instead of other N.T’s that are not only non-participants in the Cup but also donot really reflect the calibre of teams in which Uruguay will face this summer.
I agree that the best would be to find opponents similar to who they will face. Mexico resorted to an aerial game against Honduras because they sat back and waited. Against Costa Rica, Mexico tried to use a fast pace game. What style of play will Mexico use and who do you pick as a similar opponent?
I don’t know that Honduras plays like Mexico (just like Uruguay doesn’t play like Chile). For sure, because of the political turmoil, Honduras has been a team on the decline in 2009. While Uruguay was playing the play-off against Costa Rica, Honduras lost to Peru in a friendly in Miami (i.e., cannot use altitude as an excuse). With the exception of Belgium (66), the other potential opponents Bulgaria (30), Ireland (which one, 35 or 40) and Romania (36) are more or less ranked similar to Honduras (37).
My primary concern is that our guys build some chemistry. I agree, of course, if the competition is too soft, then the games are useless.
i agree we need to build chemistry, im sure we have team spirit, but we dont play like a team…
i would even be happy playing uruguay team B…at leat team b will be playing to get in the squad and team A to keep the position….maybe hernandez and albin and some other guy in europe could go to team B and see if they can get past lugano and friends…
It will be interesting to see who will be on the B-Team that is rumoured to be playing against Chile and maybe Argentina. Unfortunately, it will be only local players so we will not see Albin or Hernandez in those games. They could still be included in the preliminary 35-man roster.
congratulations for working about fotball. For me this sport is very important for our country.
I hop you can following in the future. your website is very important. nancy!!!!!
Thank you Irene and Nancy. Gracias chicas, lo lograron. Fue muy dificil verdad? ja ja
Acc. to QUENONINO, the friendly vs Argentina has fallen through. There is another friendly in the works, on May 27th in El Centenario.