16/6/2007 - 18:16(EST)

Mexico will have a tough match against Costa Rica

This just got serious. After much talking, Mexico and Costa Rica will face off on Sunday loking for a spot in the semifinal round.

16/06/07 - Everything started when Rolando Fonseca said that Mexico is not CONCACAF’s power house anymore, and Jared Borgetti replied that Fonseca shouldn’t talk; because he’s a nobody.

Then, Harold Wallace defended his teammate and said that Mexico should be more huble. Of course, Cuauhtemoc Blanco had to chip in by saying that he doesn’t know anything or anyone about or from Costa Rica.

But on Sunday all that will stay behind and reality tells us that Mexico has three suspended players –Nery Castillo, Pavel Pardo and Francisco Fonseca- and were barely able to qualify to this stage.

“We need to find a way to replace them. We have a deep bench, and although they are very important players, we will find players that can do the job just like them,” said Hgo Sanchez after Friday’s practice.

Mexico started the Gold Cup as one of the favorites, but they have not been able to play good soccer. Sanchez’s continuos rotation has not let the players get a good feel of one another.

Costa Rica’s coach, Hernan Medford, doesn’t have that may problems. His key players are ready to face Mexico in a CONCACAF classic.

“They played Honduras and Panama, while we faced Guadeloupe and Haiti. We both had problems to make it trough, but we managed to do so”, said Medford.

“This is like a final and that’s our mindset. We’ll play in front of a full house, and 90 percent of the fans will root for Mexico, but it is not the first time we’ve faced a situation like this and we were able to win,” mentioned Medford, referring to the time when Panama beat Mexico at Azteca Stadium in 2002.

The game will start at 2 PM in Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

Honduras and Guadeloupe will aso face off on Sunday for the last spot in the semifinal braket.

___ Line ups:

COSTA RICA: José Francisco Porras, Jervis Drummond, Víctor Cordero, Leonardo González, Gabriel Badilla, Randall Azofeifa, Andrés Núñez, Michael Barrentos, Walter Centeno, Álvaro Saborio, and Rolando Fonseca.

MEXICO: Oswaldo Sánchez, Ricardo Osorio, Jonny Magallón, Carlos Salcido, Ramón Morales, Gerardo Torrado, Jaime Lozano, Andrés Guardado, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Alberto Medina, and Jared Borgetti.

Terra/AP