Saturday, November 29, 2008

El Tri in Europe preview (Nov. 29-30)

The Touchline's Sean Grybos takes a look at Tricolor players in Europe and how they stand entering the final weekend of November.

La Liga

Omar Bravo (Deportivo La Coruña): Bravo came on as a substitute in the 59th minute of the UEFA Cup match versus Feyenoord. Deportivo travels to Almeria this Sunday.

Andrés Guardado (Deportivo La Coruña): Guardado scored again as Deportivo defeated Feyenoord 3-0. The Spanish club takes on Almeria on Sunday.

Rafael Márquez (Barcelona): The defender returned to action in the 5-2 Champions League victory over Sporting Lisbon. Barcelona is away at Sevilla this weekend.

Guillermo Luis Franco (Villarreal): The third-place La Liga club hosted Manchester United in midweek Champions League action. Franco entered late in the match for Giuseppe Rossi.

English Premiership

Carlos Vela (Arsenal): Vela started in the 1-0 Champions League victory against Dynamo Kiev. He was subbed in the 77th minute. Arsenal is away at Chelsea this Sunday.

Nery Castillo (Manchester City on loan from Shaktar Donetsk): Did not factor in the UEFA Cup victory over Schalke 04. Manchester City travels on Sunday for this season’s first installment of the Manchester Derby.

Giovani dos Santos (Tottenham Hotspur): Injured (ankle)

German Bundesliga

Aarón Galindo (Eintracht Frankfurt): Galindo and his teammates travel to face Werder Bremen.

Pavel Pardo (VfB Stuttgart): Stuttgart drew 0-0 midweek against Italian side Sampdoria in the UEFA Cup. Pardo played the entire 90 minutes. Stuttgart hosts fellow UEFA Cup side Schalke 04.

Ricardo Osorio (VfB Stuttgart): Osorio played the entire match versus Sampdoria. He should start against Schalke 04.

Dutch Eredivisie

Héctor Moreno (AZ): First-place side AZ hosts SC Heracles Almelo. It will be a shock if AZ does not take three points from the match.

Carlos Salcido (PSV Eindhoven): Atletico Madrid’s Simão scored early in the Champions League match as his shot went right through Salcido’s legs as the Mexican defender failed to clear. PSV attempts to rebound against Heenerveen.

Francisco Javier Rodríguez (PSV Eindhoven): A deflection in the 26th minute off of Maza set up Atletico’s second goal to doom away-side PSV. As The Touchline’s video of the clearly demonstrated, this was not the Mexican duos finest hour in Europe. PSV travels to Heenerveen on Saturday.

-- Sean Grybos

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it'll be a shame if Bravo decides to pack it up early. Mexico doesn't need yet another "went to Europe for less than a year" players...I hope he sticks it out till the end or shops around European teams if they let him go.

Anonymous said...

bravo's a terrible bust in europe, as expected. there may be no takers for him at this point, other than mls, or the mexican league... my guess is that he'll be playing in mexico at the start of the new year, probably cruz azul, or monterrey, or some other rich club willing to pay the transfer fee.

saludos, d

Anonymous said...

Bravo will rebound. He has done well in European competition thus far.