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The CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament moves from the group stages in Nashville and Los Angeles respectively to Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas, where the four Semi-finalists are one game away from booking a place to the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Canadian Men’s U23 team goes up against a Mexican side that went undefeated in the group stages and scored 11 goals while only conceding 1 goal in the final moments to Trinidad and Tobago.
Canada
While Canada is coming into this match off a rather dour performance against Cuba, the squad have had a much needed four days off to work on tactics and recovery, which was something Coach Tony Fonseca stressed in the press conference after their final group game.
The team knows they will be without forward Randy Edwini-Bonsu, who will be serving the second game of a red card suspension, and will also likely be without forward Babayele Sodade, who suffered a right knee injury against USA.
Tony Fonseca
However, the forced squad rotation in this tournament has given the team some much needed depth in the likes of Lucas Cavallini and Evan James, who have already stepped in to fill the void. Depth has been the name of the game for Canada, as they have been the only team in the tournament to use 19 of their 20 players (backup keeper Adam Janssen the only unused player).
The squad’s main strength has been in the central midfield and defensive positions, with the main lynchpin in this regard being midfielder Samuel Piette, who at only 17 years of age has shown a well-rounded game in the deep lying playmaker role. He will be an essential piece against the Mexicans. His ability to win the ball , communicate with his defenders and make pinpoint passes from 50-60 yards hitting teammates in stride will be required against a Mexican side that has shown an ability to defend in numbers and keep a solid shape with an eye on getting the ball wide and getting a lot of crosses into the box.
Nana Attakora
It will be intriguing to see how Canada approach this match from a tactical perspective, as they did a masterful job frustrating the US with a 4-3-2-1 formation, gaining a 5 v. 3 advantage in midfield and creating a solid base of 7 players in defense.
A similar tone must be set in this match with a few minor tweaks, mainly not sitting as deep and quickly supplying defensive support in the wide area. The one area that Canada has firmly in their favour and which has looked stronger in as the tournament has gone forward is the accumulation and quality in their set pieces. While Mexico are favoured in this game in nearly every other facet, set piece plays are the ultimate equalizer and when done properly are impossible for any team to combat.
Mexico
The Mexicans come in off a fairly difficult match themselves, defeating Panama 1-0 with a goal by Erick Torres in injury time. Of the 20 players on this current squad 6 of them took part in the 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup in Colombia, where they finished 3rd losing 2-0 to eventual title winners Brazil and beating France 3-1 in the Third Place game. Furthermore, 7 players played in the 2011 Copa America, while the majority of their senior squad were playing in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup (a tournament they won beating USA 4-2 in the final). That team ended bottom of a group that consisted of eventual winners Uruguay, Chile and Peru.
While this group is being tagged as favourites and rightfully so, it has to be said that they are missing some key pieces, as this group is without forward Giovanni Dos Santos, his brother midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos and forward Carlos Vela amongst others.
Samuel Piette
However, they may have found themselves a player in forward Alan Puido, who is joint leading scorer in the tournament with four goals, including a hat trick against Honduras. On his first two goals he showed great close control and elusiveness while the third was scored while on the break. All three where very well taken and showed he has excellent composure.
Coach Luis Tena likes his team to stretch really wide in order to create gaps and mismatches, have his off the ball players make decoy runs and launch balls into the box like a NFL quarterback in the pocket. They main deliverers of the ball in this case are left back Miguel Ponce and right back Israel Jimenez, as well as midfielders David Cabrera and Javier Cortes.
Keys to the Match
Pressure the Ball: The best way to negate Mexico’s tactic of decoy runs and quick fire crosses into the danger area is to pressure the ball as high up the field as possible. Now it would be wasting energy to do this on every single possession, but unlike what the US tried to do, this Mexican side will be much calmer and will bide their time before creating gaps and finding open pockets from which to operate from. The aforementioned tactic from Mexico hasn’t changed from match to match, so Canada must prepare for this going in.
Capitalize on Set Pieces: This was a key in all three matches to date and so far Canada has done this to great effect. Canada has a definitive size advantage over Mexico in the likes of Marcus Haber, Lucas Cavalini and Nana Attakora and will need to use it at every opportunity; they also have proven through players like Russell Teibert, Phillippe Davies and Samuel Piette to have capable deliverers of crosses.
Watch the Wings: Similarly to USA, this Mexican side likes to play out wide. That said, they approach it in a completely different way. Rather than just simply doing overlaps or taking it to the byline and crossing the ball, they make a lot of decoy runs, play reverse balls and flood the box with players on an angle instead of in a straight line. Also, while they have some very capable midfielders, much of their delivery comes by their fullbacks on either side. This is where the defensive support from the forwards will be essential.
Misiewicz Magic: The play of FC Edmonton keeper Michal Misiewicz has been both surprising and impressive. He was the main hero in the 0-0 draw against El Salvador and stood tall again against the USA. Canada will need him to have another outstanding performance, with the keeper continuing to command his area and providing solid distribution.
While this game is being billed as Canada’s eventual undoing, the tournament hasn’t gone to script and I think Canadian supporters have learned something about this group that was simply unknown beforehand. From an individual player perspective, the country now knows Andres Fresenga and Lucas Cavallini exist. But beyond that, this group has shown when they play with no fear or second guessing, they can raise their level. Here’s hoping they can produce the goods one last time.
Looking backward or forward serves no purpose, as it stands everything should be focused on Mexico.
Livestrong Sporting Park - 2012 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying
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