Mexico vs. Israel final score: El Tri win 3-0 in Blanco’s farewell game

Mexico squeaked into the 2014 World Cup thanks to some help from their neighbors from the north, the United States. They than won a two-leg playoff to punch their ticket to Brazil, and like numerous teams around the World they’re playing friendlies to tune up for the big tournament.

The first game came at Azteca Stadium against Israel before three games on the road in the United States. They’ll play Saturday May 31 against Ecuador at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. They then play Bosnia-Herzegovina at Soldier Field in Chicago, and Portugal at Gillette Stadium on June 6th.

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The Mexican national team’s game against Israel came under fire, particularly from the ESPN analysts calling the game, for two reasons. The first being the altitude of Azteca Stadium preventing the Israeli squad from playing at full strength, and ahead of a World Cup the analysts said they should be playing teams at their best, not at a disadvantage.

The other reason the game came under fire for Cuauhtémoc Blanco being started. He is 41-years-old, and was in the starting line-up for a “farewell game.” The announcers said the team should be focused on preparing for the World Cup and their chemistry, not honoring Blanco.

Unlike the United States men’s national team’s game on Tuesday night, the Mexican team looked better out the gates on Wednesday night. They were playing aggressively and pushing the pace. Blanco, for the criticism directed at him for being in the line-up for his final game in the Mexican jersey, was a big part of the offense. That could be taken as bad news for the Mexican national team as well, who won’t have Blanco in the World Cup.

He got a free kick from outside the box with roughly 35 minutes gone in the first half, but failed to get it on target with a high shot. Eventually he was subbed off in the 38th minute, taking off the captains’ armband and putting it on goal keeper Jose de Jesus Corona, as Raúl Jiménez. Blanco has 122 international appearances and is the second highest score in the Mexican national team’s history.

In the 43rd minute, Miguel Layún put the Mexican national team on the board with an absolute golazo. He got a soft pass out to the wing from Andrés Guardado, took the ball inside and just rifled his leg through it to put it on goal just inside the far post.

That goal was the difference at the half. At the start of the second half they substituted Javier Hernández on for Oribe Peralta. Both of whom are candidates to start up front in the World Cup, and might do so as a tandem.

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The second half seemed to be dominated by El Tri as they continued to press again. In the 62nd minute Layún struck again, and this goal might have been more impressive than the first. Layún struck the ball with an incredible amount of power again, this time from about midway between the 18-yard box and midfield line.

The Israeli goalkeeper, Ariel Harush, got a hand on it to stop it from going in initially. That save was an incredibly athletic play to stop the shot. The ball bounced high in the air before coming back to the pitch in-bounds and just in front of the goal. The ball had a favorable back spin and as it bounced off the pitch it went in the net for the second goal of the game.

It looked like the Mexican team was humming in this tune-up, despite playing an inferior squad at high altitude as the announcers pointed out. Then a bit of disaster struck. Goalkeeper Jose de Jesus Corona was far out of the box playing a ball and was cutting back to the goal it looked like, giving up his pursuit of the ball as it went towards the corner.

One of Corona’s teammates ran into him, and he laid on the ground some what motionless before being taken off the field on a stretcher. The Mexican national team subbed in Guillermo Ochoa to finish the game. It is a bit worrisome for the Mexican team and was originally reported to be a neck injury, not a serious one according to in-game reports, but he was being taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure to make sure his head was okay after the whiplash from the collision, or a potential concussion.

Mexico added a third goal in the 85th minute from Marco Fabian. It came with a bit of controversy and a lot of protesting from the Israeli team. An Israeli player was slow to get up and when he did, Mexico threw the ball into play rather quickly. The ball was thrown towards the goal but bounced back out towards the edge of the 18-yard box and Fabian booted it on goal.

There was also the protest of Hernandez being offsides, he is clearly behind the goal keeper but moved to get out of the way of the ball. That goal line held till the end of the game to give Blanco a win in his final game before they begin their 3-game World Cup warm-up game in the United States.

It was also a pretty solid strike that curled a bit before going in.