Copa America: Ecuador v. Mexico

There has been a great commenting thread below in the wake of the 2-3 loss to Chile from last week. I personally don’t have high hopes for qualification at this point, although it’s certainly not impossible. I also agree with the notion that the team’s defense, so strong last summer–ZERO goals allowed from open play by the first-team defense–has been a liability.

The first time I saw Mora and Hurtado play in person, last Spring against Colombia, I had the following observations about each. I thought Hurtado was completely smooth, never rattled, and an indispensable part of the backline. As for Mora, I thought that he made a lot of great plays, but also gave me a lot of heart attacks, running around the penalty box willy nilly, running out to the corner flag on plays, general mayhem.

In the World Cup, Bam Bam had a good tournament, both in the defense and as the captain. Mora played pretty well, although the quality of the defense meant that his challenges were few when the first team was in the game (i.e., not against the host Germans). It’s still debatable as to whether he should have had Beckham’s fee kick in the octavos, but whatever.

At this point though, as I said, the defense has not held for the offense as it did last summer. But here’s the deal: Suarez likes both of those guys a lot and I would be shocked if either were dropped, especially in the midst of the tournament. But with Hurtado, and any of the field players, more and better substitutions could factor in from Suarez.

Bottom line: the defense will just have to pay better for the team to advance, because Suarez is going to dance with the ones that brung ‘im.

And finally, some good news re: the altitude ban here.