Ricardo ‘Tuca’ Ferreti has released his roster for the upcoming September friendlies against Trinidad and Tobago and Argentina. The talk immediately turned to the absence of usual starter Guillermo Ochoa, as well as the Dos Santos brothers. While Ochoa is likely to be out due to lack of playing time, the Dos Santos brothers being left out feels odd. They were seen as bright spots this summer. Gio is also having an incredible debut season for LA Galaxy despite only having been with the team for about a month. There is chatter that this may be due to tweets made by them about Piojo’s firing. With the Dos Santos brothers missing, here is my starting lineup prediction.
My predicted starting line-up uses Tuca’s preferred 4-3-3 formation. ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez will likely be playing up top, unless Raul Jimenez can put together a great game at Benfica prior to the friendlies and even then, Hernandez is the #1 candidate. I expect his support to be Carlos Vela and Porto target, Tecatito Corona. We may finally get an extensive look at the Chicharito-Vela duo for El Tri.
In the midfield Andres Guardado seems like a shoe in to start after winning the Golden Ball at the Gold Cup. The rest of the midfield is more difficult to predict. Hector Herrera has struggled this summer and that may give Carlos Esquivel a shot to start but I’ll plug in HH for now as he seems a safer option. Esquivel replaced Herrera in the Gold Cup finale after a rough tourney for HH. On the right side, we can expect Tigres player Javier Aquino to get a shot at starting as Tuca may want someone he’s comfortable with.
Defensively, Layun probably starts at left back, where he has been consistently solid and has played well early for Watford in the EPL. It’s easy to predict that the central defense will be a combination of Diego Reyes, Rafael Marquez and Hector Moreno. At right back, Paul Aguilar was a favorite of Piojo and may continue getting starts under Tuca.
Without Memo Ochoa and Jesus Corona on the roster, Talavera likely gets the start at goalkeeper. When Ochoa didn’t start, Piojo felt comfortable with his former Club America player Moises Muñoz but I don’t think that’ll be the case with Ferreti.
Remember, this is only a prediction for the September friendlies and I do expect Gio, Jona and even Ochoa to be called for the Confederations cup play-off against the United States.
Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
No way Torres Nilo isn’t starting in the upcoming friendlies.
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