Venezuela he’s serious about this one America Cup. Two games, two wins and a big quarterfinal. La Vinotinto (1-0) overcame a bad first half to beat Mexico thanks to Salomón Rondón’s penalty goal and Rafael Romo’s miracles, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Mexico will play for qualification on the final day against Ecuador, who today beat an eliminated Jamaica 3-1.
The team led by Argentine Fernando Batista is rising fast. He won even though he plays regularly and knows how to suffer, because Tri’s harassment was total in the last minutes. On the first day of Group B, they surprised Ecuador (1-2) and now it’s the turn of the Mexican team that forgave and missed its captain, Edson Álvarez, who was absent from the entire tournament due to a muscle tear. Orbelín Pineda got the equalizer from the penalty spot five minutes from time but Romo, the hero of the afternoon, kept it out.
And El Tri started better. He had a plan and followed it to the letter. The first minute hadn’t even passed when a long ball was brought down by Antuna and passed to Giménez, who headed it over by a hair. Soon, the same thing: ball behind the defense and run by Julián Quiñones. One of Tri’s best opportunities comes from the 9’s boots.
The naturalized Colombian left candy for Carlos Rodríguez, who shot Romo’s body. The other good chance for the Mexicans was wasted by Santi Giménez in the eleventh with a long delivery from behind. The Feyenoord attacker did the hardest thing and missed the easiest thing. Perfect control of his chest and shooting in the air when he has it all. Romo, well advanced, avoided the goal.
After the storm, Vinotinto brought down the Mexican euphoria in the stands with two sparks. The first, a shot by Soteldo on the edge of the area that went up; and the second, a solo play by Rondón. Pachuca’s scorer went out of his way to get a cross shot that hit the post. That was the beginning of what was to come later.
Batista got Cásseres right at half-time
The reaction was led by Batista from the bench. The Argentine coach removed Savarino from the field, a novelty in the eleven and not important in the first half, and opted for Cásseres. More creativity and less explosion. And Venezuela has improved. Soteldo forced Julio González to intervene for the first time; Rondón was inches away from the goal after another good run from the 10th; and Bello appeared on the right.
Mexico didn’t see that reaction coming. And, finally, after much insistence, Aramburu found an opening, entered the area and was run over by Quiñones from behind. Raphael Claus immediately whistled. VAR blessed the Brazilian referee’s decision and Rondón converted from the penalty spot. Mexico responded immediately, but Romo was at it again, popping up again to unleash a poisoned center that Antuna narrowly missed on the rebound.
Lozano’s team, pressed by the stopwatch, locked out the Venezuelans in search of a tie and found themselves with a penalty for handball inside the area where the VAR had to whistle. But Romo was there. The Catholic University of Ecuador’s goalkeeper would pull off a new miracle with a point-blank shot in injury time to seal Venezuela’s ticket to the quarterfinals and put Mexico in trouble.
DATA SHEET
1 – Venezuela: Rafael Romo; Nahuel Ferraresi, Yordan Osorio, Jon Aramburu, Miguel Navarro; Yangel Herrera (m.89, Christian Makoun), José Martínez, Eduard Bello (m.71, Darwin Machís); Yeferson Soteldo (m.82, Wilker Ángel), Jefferson Savarino (m.46, Cristian Cásseres); and Salomón Rondón (d.82, Jhonder Cádiz)
0 – Mexico: Julio González; Jorge Sánchez, César Montes (d.46, Israel Reyes), Johan Vásquez, Gerardo Arteaga; Luis Romo, Carlos Rodríguez (m.61, Alexis Vega), Luis Chávez; Uriel Antuna (m.73, César Huerta), Santiago Giménez (m.61, Guillermo Martínez) and Julián Quiñones (m.78, Orbelín Pineda)
Purpose: 1-0, Salomón Rondón, from a penalty (m. 57)
Referee: the Brazilian Raphael Claus. He advised Ferraresi, Santi Giménez, Miguel Navarro and Alexis Vega
Happenings: match on the second day of Group B played at SoFi Stadium, in Inglewood, outside the city of Los Angeles (United States), before 72,773 spectators
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
