BONN, Germany – Not long after the Black Impalas of Angola had played Mexico to an improbable scoreless draw in the World Cup and Mexico coach Ricardo La Volpe had kicked a water bottle across the field, he was escorted into a TV studio beneath Hanover's AWD Arena for a postmatch interview. He was asked about the final group match, tomorrow in Gelsenkirchen at 6:55 a.m. (PDT) against Portugal.
“We're going to have to see,” he said.
La Volpe was being his usual evasive self. He also, probably, was just being honest.
The Portugal match presents one of those conundrums that put gray speckles in a coach's goatee, a set of agonizing decisions that, if they go awry, give Monday morning midfielders a lifetime of fodder. Does La Volpe send out his best team against Portugal? Or does he rest tired starters and guard against yellow-card suspensions?
Technically speaking, Mexico (1-0-1) needs to do the former because it must beat or tie Portugal to assure a spot in the second round. Realistically, unless an Angola team that hasn't scored a goal in two matches suddenly finds a way to score a bunch against Iran, Mexico is through to the next round no matter what it does against Portugal.
But can La Volpe take the chance?
“We have to be very careful in this match,” midfielder Pavel Pardo said.
Beating Portugal gives Mexico the Group D title and the spoils that come with it: an extra day of rest and a second-round match against the Group C runner-up in Nuremberg, a venue eminently familiar to El Tri – having defeated Iran 3-1 there on June 11 to open its World Cup.
It also likely means avoiding Argentina, which most recently thrashed a respectable Serbia and Montenegro team 6-0 to vault itself to the top of the list of teams to avoid at all costs. Argentina and the Netherlands have already clinched Group C's second-round berths. They meet tomorrow in Frankfurt, with Argentina taking the group title with a win or a tie. Kickoff is three hours after the Mexico-Portugal finish.
The Group D runner-up plays June 24 in Leipzig against the Group C winner.
For Mexico, the extra day could be the difference between getting forward Jared Borgetti back on the field and having him watch a third straight match from the bench. Borgetti strained his left hamstring early in the second half against Iran, and team doctors confirmed Mexico's all-time leading scorer will sit out again tomorrow.
“The muscle is 75-to 80-percent healed, and fortunately we found only a little inflammation of the tendon,” Dr. Jose Luis Serrano said at an evening news conference at the team's headquarters in Goettingen. “This is a good result. The ideal thing, for me, is another five days. We would be able to say with those five days more, we would consider him 100 percent recuperated.”
So if you play your regulars and beat Portugal, you buy Borgetti a crucial extra day of recovery . . . at the risk of losing other key players.
Starters Gerardo Torrado, Carlos Salcido and Gonzalo Pineda are all carrying yellow cards from the first two matches, meaning they would have to sit out the second-round match if they get another yellow tomorrow. In addition, defender Rafael Marquez (thigh) and midfielder Antonio “Zinha” Naelson (knee) have minor injuries that could use a day off.
La Volpe's counterpart, Felipe Scolari, has indicated he will sit the five Portugal players with yellows: Costinha, Deco, Pauleta, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nuno Valente. The difference is, he can afford to. Portugal is 2-0 after defeating Angola and Iran, enough to clinch a spot in the second round for the first time in 40 years and erase the bad memories from 2002's early exit.
La Volpe has no such luxury. Lose to Portugal, and El Tri must sweat out the Iran-Angola game that kicks off in Leipzig at the same time. Iran (0-2) is already eliminated. For Angola (0-1-1) to advance, it must win and make up a three-goal deficit to Mexico – meaning its margin of victory and Mexico's margin of defeat would have to total to more than three.
“Advancing is a little bit complicated now,” Salcido said after the Angola tie, “but we're still confident we will advance.”
Their coach just might have a few more specks of gray in his goatee.
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com
