Tata Martino’s unfortunate press conference in which he basically announced that Santi Giménez would not be with the team in Qatar sparked a Twitter and media frenzy. Particularly due to his comments about Santi’s lack of minutes at Feyenoord being the determining factor. In Martino’s reality Funes Mori, and Raul Jimenez who were both injured the entire semester played more minutes than Santi. Needless to say the numbers don’t add up.
Santi Gimenez was naturally asked about the whole situation, and the 21-year-old gave a lesson in class to everyone involved. He mentioned that if he was in fact left off the team that’s going to be headed to Qatar it would not be an unfair decision. Gimenez even went one step further saying that he continually prayed for Raul Jimenez to be fit enough to play and essentially wished him all the best!
Is Santi Gimenez Really Not Going To The World Cup?
With what Tata Martino said yesterday it’s pretty clear that Santi Gimenez will be amongst the players cut from the Mexico team that’s headed to Qatar. As we mentioned yesterday though, Martino may be overly optimistic in public about Raul’s health, but privately people inside the Mexican delegation want to know what they can do if in fact Raul can’t go, and they find that out in the middle of the tournament.
Apart from Martino’s comments there was another incident that sparked an online debate. The official Mexican National team social media managers uploaded a video of Raul Jimenez warming up with his teammates. In the video it can be seen clearly that Raul is having trouble lifting his right leg, in what is seemingly a routine warm up exercise. The official social media account of the Mexican national team decided to delete the video, but it was too late the footage had already made the rounds.
After this first video surfaced certain Twitter accounts that we can label as pro Raul Jimenez uploaded a video of the Wolves striker doing some shooting drills in which he looked much better than he did in the infamous warm-up video. At this point though his availability for the World Cup as well as his potential effectiveness are still up in the air.
How Important Will Funes Mori’s Role Be In The Tournament
Even if Raul gets the green light to be able to play in the tournament it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll be able to start against Poland up front. That leaves Henry Martin, and Rogelio Funes Mori as the top options to start at that number 9 spot for Mexico. Henry Martin is the one getting the start against Iraq in the first of two friendly games that Mexico will play before the World Cup. It would seem likely that we’ll see Funes Mori start against Sweden. Each of them is getting a chance to prove that they should start.
The Sweden game seems to be the game that Martino will use as the real dress rehearsal for the World Cup. In this game against Iraq we’re seeing a midfield that could potentially start at least one game in the World Cup. However, Nestor Araujo is playing right back. We don’t expect to see this in the World Cup. He’s looking really out of place in that spot having trouble particularly on the offensive end. Roberto Alvarado is also part of the starting 11, but he’s in a spot in which we’ll likely see Chucky Lozano.
