Edgar Pacheco and Jesús Corona Raise Their Hands in Mexico's Victory

Luis HerreraFeb 10, 2011

Mexico 2, Bosnia-Herzegovina 0. The José Manuel de la Torre's era at charge of the Mexican National Team had a good start, getting a deserved victory against an underrated Bosnian side (albeit they did miss two of their best players).

It's still too early to make a complete tactical analysis of the Mexican side. De la Torre started and finished with a 4-4-1-1, using also a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-4-2, so we will probably see many tests in the upcoming games before De la Torres settles with one style of play.

Personally, I think El Tri looked better with the 4-2-3-1, the tactic that also seems to be the best fit for Mexico's current pool of players. Anyway, we can say that Mexico won more because the individual talent of its players than the team work delivered.

And talking about individuals, there were two players who made an early impact to earn a spot in Mexico's regular starting XI: Edgar Pacheco and José de Jesús Corona.

After the World Cup, we could say that Mexico had 12 clear base players: Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa; defenders Efrain Juarez, Francisco Javier Rodriguez, Hector Moreno and Carlos Salcido; anchormen Rafael Marquez and Gerardo Torrado; wingers Pablo Barrera and Andres Guardado; forwards Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela; and striker Javier Hernandez. They were the core in the four friendly matches Mexico played in the second semester of the year.

It’s an obvious core. Nine of those players are based in Europe and Márquez had just left Barcelona, while Ochoa and Torrado have been linked with European sides in the past two years (Torrado already played for three Spaniard teams). Say what you want about the lack of activity most of the “Europeans” have had recently, but there is a reason why they are already in the top leagues and other players aren’t.

It’s not going to be an easy task for Mexican-based players to get a regular spot in De la Torre’s formations, but Pacheco and Corona made a good case for themselves against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Pacheco played as left winger, “substituting” the injured Guardado, who is apparently returning to activity with Deportivo next week, so he knew this was probably his best and only true chance to impress De la Torre in a full match before Guardado and Vela were available again.

The Atlas’ attacking midfielder was Mexico’s best field player this Wednesday. He created two very good goal chances in the first half and took advantage of a defensive mistake to score the 2-0.

It was just Pacheco’s second international cap (the first one in 2009, a game against Colombia in which Mexico fielded a B-squad), so it’s still too early to buy his ticket to Brazil 2014, but he unquestionably earned more chances to prove he belongs.

Corona’s case was a bit different, as he didn’t “replace” an injured player. Coach De la Torre consciously decided he is the Mexican keeper in best shape, leaving Ochoa out of the match list, and Corona did nothing to prove him wrong.

The Cruz Azul’s goalkeeper had a very solid performance, with a couple of nice saves (especially one in the first half with the game still 0-0) and providing leadership to the defense.

Corona is not as flashy as media-darling Ochoa, but he is a mature keeper (just turned 30 in January) who has been very consistent in the past years for Tecos and Cruz Azul. It was a shame that his only bad moment (affected for personal issues) happened in the months before South Africa 2010.

Mexico’s next matches will be in late March against Paraguay and Venezuela. A lot of things can happen until then, but Pacheco and Corona definitely deserve to repeat in those games.