One Small Step for Mexico and Chile

by Luke James

With the 2014 World Cup consigned to the history books, national teams now take their first steps on the road to Russia 2018. For Mexico and Chile one of those steps is the friendly game being played at the Levi Stadium on Saturday, September 6 in Santa Clara, California.

Both of these teams came agonizingly close to reaching the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup. Chile were eliminated in a penalty shootout by the hosts Brazil, while Mexico held a 1-0 lead over The Netherlands until the 88^th minute when the Dutch hit two late goals to dump them out of the competition.

Mexico come into this friendly game with 10 new players named to the squad, including Chivas USA striker Erick Torres who has 15 goals in MLS so far this season. One of Mexico’s debutant defenders is 30-year-old Luis Gerardo Vanegas of Atlas, and with fellow veteran Rafael Marquez not named to the squad the captain’s armband will go to Andres Guardado of PSV Eindhoven.

Chile, on the other hand, will come into this game with much the same squad that they used in Brazil. Head coach Jorge Sampaoli will be looking to fine tune his team for the more immediate goal of next year’s Copa America. This tournament will be held between June and July in Chile and the hosts must feel, given their performance in the World Cup, they stand a real chance of taking the title from current champions Uruguay.

One of the consequences of Chile’s performance in the World Cup is that several members of the side have been snapped up by top European clubs. The benefits to the national side of having players compete at the highest club level are enormous. Among the Chilean players who moved to European clubs are Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal, England), Eduardo Vargas (Queens Park Rangers, England), goalkeeper Claudio Bravo (Barcelona, Spain), and Gary Medel (Inter Milan, Italy).

This continues to be a superb summer for Bay Area soccer fans who have already witnessed clubs such as Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and Atletico Madrid display their skills. With Chile sitting at number 12 in the FIFA rankings and Mexico at 17 this should be a mouthwatering competition.