A look at the two teams for this would have many people picking
out Mexico as the clear choices but Chile re odds-on favourites for tonight's
match (best prices of 4/6), as Mexico are a severely weakened side following their
Gold Cup success last month for many reasons.
After their Gold Cup success many of the high profile members
of the squad were sent to allow them to recuperate fully before their club
seasons (Javier Hernandez being the best example) but the ore high-profile
reason for Mexico's relative weakness is that pre-tournament prostitution
scandal involving eight of the central American team’s players left Mexico
short of regular choices following the players removal from the squad.
Of those left, 18 of the 23 players are 22 or under, only Giovani
dos Santos and Paul Aguilar have more than 10 international appearances to their
name and 10 of the squad have yet to win their first caps.
It’s a tremendous shame because Mexico were in some cracking
form - unbeaten in their last six matches with their last defeat having come on
12th June against Venezuela – And would have been very realistic contenders for
the title if coming here with a full squad.
Chile are on a hot streak as they attempt to continue
momentum after Marcelo Biesla, who brought about visible changes in the Chilean
set-up, with the fast-tracking of young talents and a more attacking mindset
away from home that led to their Chile's first win ever over Argentina in an
official match in a qualifying campaign that led to them making the 2010 World
Cup, going down to Brazil in the last 16, having come second in Spain’s group.
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| Mathias Fernandez is one of the stars of the Chile squad |
Chile’s squad is filled with quality and many scouts from
Europe will have eyes trained on Alexi Sanchez who looks set for a big money move
from Udinese with Barcelona a possible destination among others.
Typically of South American football, the leading light is
not the only star in the line-up and Gary Medel (Sevilla), Mauricio Isla
(Udinese), Jorge Valdivia (Palmeiras),Matias Fernández (Sporting Lisbon), along
with the Premiership experience of Gonzalo Jara (West Bromwich Albion) and Jean
Beausejour (Birmingham) should all have enough to score tonight against such an
out of sorts team.
Chile are probably the team to be on but not at 1/2 and they
may still have to work fairly hard before breaking through. Getting onside of
the first goal after the 26th minute would appear to be a good way to tackle
the problem, while Chile/Chile could do well if things are really as easy as
expected.
Advice
1 pt First goal after the 26th minute (evs Paddy Power)
1 pt Chile/Chile (13/8 Blue Sq)
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