Mexican National U-17 team defeats Alianza FC 6-0
Special to this Newspaper
BRAWLEY — The Mexican National under-17 soccer team dominated Alianza FC 6-0 in an exhibition match played Monday night here at Warne Field.
Alianza FC is based in Yuma but has players from Phoenix as well as from the Imperial Valley’s Southwest, Central Union and Brawley Union High’s.
“Our main goal is to get the team working together for the 2009 under-17 World Cup,” Mexican National coach Rafael Jardon said. “Tonight we were very pleased with how the team played.”
The game was the third match in four days for the Mexican national team as they tied an all-star team in San Luis, Ariz., 1-1 on Friday before defeating a Riverside County squad 3-0 in Rancho Mirage on Sunday.
The Mexican national team’s roster showcased Martin Luis Galvan, a member of the Mexican League’s first division with Cruz Azul, even though he’s only 15 years old.
Alianza spent the first half playing solid defense trying to control Galvan, at times dropping as many as ten players back to control the Mexican offense.
Mexico was held at bay by five stellar saves in the first 30 minutes of the match by Southwest High Hector Romo who opened in goal for Alianza.
Due to no fault of Romo, Mexico drew first blood in the 32nd minute.
Drawing two defenders, Galvan passed the ball to Abraham Coronado who was a step behind and redirected the ball into the right side of the goal.
“I was drawing a defender who marked me, many times too,” Galvan said. “I was forced to give the ball up more times than usual.”
Three breakaways were all the Alianza offense could muster in the first half and their efforts resulted in the first shot of the game on a header with no such scoring luck.
With Mexico leading 1-0 at the half, the crowd was entertained by an exhibition match featuring the Dynamo El Centro U-12 Select team who outscored the Heber Eagles 2-0 behind goals by Fabrizio Marchesini and Erik Felix.
Galvan added to Mexico’s lead in the 60th minute when he picked up a loose ball in the box and chipped it over a sliding defender for a goal.
Nine minutes later, Juan Carlos Ivan Pineda stole an Alianza pass near mid-field and scored on a break-away. And just as quickly, two minutes later Carlos Alberto Campos passed to Salvador Jasso for a goal to give Mexico a 4-0 lead.
“The first half Alianza competed very well with us but then later in the match they seemed to wear down,” Pineda said.
In the 80th minute Pineda added a second goal and just before the final whistle, Mexico’s Octavio Hernandez scored.
Alianza manager and head coach Ezequiel Zuniga, whose team had tied the Mexicans 1-1 in Yuma earlier this spring, had a different agenda in the second half.
“We could have tried to keep it close but it wasn’t our goal to keep it 1-0 because I felt I needed to play a lot of the kids,” said Zuniga. “These kids have earned the right to play against these guys, to learn how to compete with them.”
The Score in the Friday game (held at San Luis High School) was 2-2. Seven minutes in Daniel Flores scored the first goal of the game and then Mexico answered back with two. In the Second half Irving Garcia scored and the Mexican tema failed to answer back resulting in a 2-2 tie. Very evenly matched on possession time, corners, set pieces and shots on goal. It is good to see the Mexican team had some success in their preparation for the upcoming games that will guide their path in the next world cup. Good game gentlemen it is always a challenge to prepare for playing at the next level.
Posted by: jamie Nicewander | June 10, 2008 at 09:41 AM