The Hindu : Sport : Striking troubles for Mexico and Angola

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 16, 2006

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Striking troubles for Mexico and Angola

HANOVER: Mexico and Angola have problems upfront ahead of their Group D clash on Friday and whichever team finds a solution could come out on top. The Mexicans scored three goals in their opening match against Iran despite an injury to talismanic striker Jared Borgetti.

He is expected to miss the group games and coach Ricardo La Volpe might push Omar Bravo, who scored a brace against Iran, further forward to partner Guillermo Franco in a 5-3-2 line-up.

"Jared is a loss to any team but we have plenty of faith in our other strikers," captain Rafael Marquez told reporters. A victory on Friday will give Mexico six points, which will guarantee a second-round berth if favoured Portugal wins or draws against Iran on Saturday. Angola also has concerns in attack, having created few chances in its 1-0 defeat to Portugal.

Akwa begs for support

Captain and lone striker Akwa has appealed to coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves to change tactics and play a second man upfront. "We have Mantorras, Flavio, Andre Titi Buengo, Love, Mateus. I don't care who it is," he said earlier this week.

But after a battling display against fancied Portugal, Goncalves is unlikely to change his strategy.

"The performance has given us confidence for the next game, even though it was a defeat," said keeper Joao Ricardo. "I think we will be a little more ambitious, more positive against Mexico."

"We go into all our games knowing that it is a big responsibility. In every game, during the first 10 minutes there is always one team that is the favourite and the other will end up going through what we did against Portugal. I believe in the game against Mexico, we will go onto the field with more concentration for this not to happen," Akwa added.

Meanwhile, Mexico is in a buoyant mood. "We are confident that we can reach at least the semifinals. Reaching the last 16 will not be good enough," Marquez added.

Likely line-ups:

Mexico: 1-Oswaldo Sanchez, 16-Mario Mendez, 4-Rafael Marquez, 5-Ricardo Osorio, 3-Carlos Salcido, 14-Gonzalo Pineda, 23-Luis Perez, 7-Antonio Zinha, 8-Pavel Pardo, 10-Guillermo Franco, 19-Omar Bravo. Coach: Ricardo La Volpe.

Angola: 1-Joao Ricardo, 20-Loco, 3-Jamba, 5-Kali, 21-Delgado, 17-Ze Kalanga, 8-Andre Macanga, 7-Figueiredo, 11-Mateus, 14-Mendonca, 10-Akwa. Coach: Luis Oliveira Goncalves.

Referee: Yet to be announced — Agencies

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