Ah, the burden of leadership

Well, it is settled. Head coach Ricardo La Volpe has made his “Tri” selection of Mexico’s 28 best prospects. The players who will go to Germany were announced early this week and now face a rigorous training period over the next 62 days left before the big event begins.

Controversy surrounds such a selection of course with stars like America's forward Cuauhtemoc (Temo) Blanco and Chivas' striker Adolfo (Bofo) Bautista missing from the lineup. Included however are my favorite Mexican player, America's 19 year old goalkeeper Memo Ochoa (although he will be 2nd or 3rd string behind the starter, Chivas’, Oswaldo Sanchez). Also included in the list are 2 key international players Bolton’s striker Jared Borgetti and Barcelona’s Rafael Garcia. Borgetti, at 1.82 M and with about a billion dollars in his pocket, (both from play and sponsors like Nike), is a big heartthrob in both Europe and Mexico.

Mexico is ranked 7th in the world (behind Spain, the US, Argentina, Holland, Czech Republic and Brazil - the No. 1 team) and has never gone beyond the quarterfinals in a World Cup. The heart of the country will rest on the performance of these young players in Germany this summer. They are indeed expecting big things. TV Azteca, (one of the main network stations) is counting down the days and dressing their announcers in the “Tri” at every opportunity. That means painting their faces red, white and green and generally acting silly, trying to hype the event even more than it is already.

It will be fun to be in a soccer country for the World Cup again and get to see virtually all the matches. I am not a big fan of Mexico’s head coach but what do I know? Mexico is in Group D with Iran, Angola and Portugal. They believe they got a break by being in that group with only Portugal considered a threat. Time, of course, will tell.

Meanwhile back at the Masters all the usual suspects are there with Phil in the lead at present but the Tiger not far behind. Some guy called Campbell will probably win.