A bright Mexican future

Mexico lost its third consecutive match of the Copa América today, and was for the first time ever eliminated in the first round of this tournament. However, there is much reason to be optimistic about the future if you are a fan of the North American nation. Just before the Copa América Mexico was awesome in winning the North American Gold Cup, with an excellent side with great attacking power. Now, this is not the side that Mexico sent to the Copa América: instead, they sent a largely Under-23 side that was further weakened when eight of its most talented players were sent home for misdeeds with ladies in Ecuador. Still, this weakened youth side was, in spite of losing all three matches, an interesting team, that caused all of its more experienced opponents many troubles.
There can be little doubt that if Mexico had shown up with its strongest side, results would have been different. However, these youths showed that they are already competitive at the highest level.
At the same time as these Mexican youths were playing in Argentina, an even younger Mexican youth side, its Under-17 team, was the triumphant winner of the FIFA World Cup for U-17 after defeating Uruguay's u-17 2-0 in the final.
In August, the FIFA World Cup for U-20 will take place in Colombia, and there can be little doubt that Mexico will be one of the teams to watch out for, and that if this trend continues, Mexico will be looking at a very bright footballing future!

Upcoming Argentina and Brazil clashes

With Argentina's victory against Mexico in the semifinal of the FIFA Confederations Cup, we are on our way to witness another classic encounter between the football giants Brazil and Argentina. Last time they met was in a World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires only a few weeks ago. Then, Argentina won 3-1, and Brazil should now be ready for an entertaining and intense rematch. There is no doubt that the rivalry between these two teams is so great, that on next Wednesday, they will play their best to take the Confederations Cup title. In any case, and as I had predicted earlier, the title will go to Latin America.

These days seem to be abounding with encounters between these two nations. On the day before the Confederations Cup final, Brazil and Argentina will also face each other in the semifinal of the FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands. Thus, these teams are showing that while their senior players are among the best in the world, the youngsters are ready to continue their dominance.
The other semifinal in the Youth World Championship is between Nigeria and Morocco. Nigeria defeated hosts the Netherlands, while Morocco upset the Italians for their spots in the semifinals. This also shows the great talent coming from Africa these days. No matter who we will see in the final, it promises to be a great South American-African Youth clash!