Colombian striker Luis Sinisterra heads over Mexican Néstor Araujo. Godofredo A. Vásquez (AP)
The Mexican team is running out of rehearsals.
Tata Martino's team tries to find the compass and the goal to pack for their trip to the World Cup in Qatar.
What they have collected, however, have been setbacks, frustration and doubts.
Against Colombia, this Tuesday, they seemed to have regained their joy by going 2-0 in favor in the first 45 minutes.
It was the night for the Mexican party.
The Colombian team sent veterans Radamel Falcao and James to the bench to plug in and embitter El Tri with a comeback (2-3).
The coach has focused on finding someone reliable up front.
In recent friendlies against Peru and Colombia, he hasn't had much luck.
He has preferred Henry Martín, scorer for América, than the attacker who excites at Feyernoord, Santiago Giménez.
Raúl Jiménez and Rogelio Funes Mori have lost stripes, injured in this window of friendly matches.
Martino has shown, in four years of work in Mexico, that he respects hierarchies above all else, even though that can weigh down the team.
He has also sought solutions to Jesús Tecatito
Corona 's injury injury
at the extremes of the attack with Alexis Vega, a player up to the task to take over.
In just five minutes of the match against Colombia, Mexico found the goal in a fortuitous play in which Uriel Antuna was brought down in the area.
Vega asked Henry Martín to kick him and he was right.
That was the impetus for El Tri to enjoy the game during the first half.
The connection of the Mexicans began to shine from band to band, thus the second goal fell with a cross from Antuna to Gerardo Arteaga.
The Colombian strategist, Néstor Lorenzo, made the changes to remove Falcao and James, heroes in the 2014 World Cup, to give reel to Luis Sinisterra and Rafael Santos Borré, the players in full rhythm.
Sinisterra, a Leeds United striker, took four minutes to make it 2-1.
The tie occurred seven minutes later after another kick from the attacker.
After the bad drink, Martino began to make changes, including Santi Giménez, but there was no success.
Wílmar Barrios sentenced everything with a shot from a bounced ball for 2-3.
The bad night for El Tri worsened when with nine minutes remaining the fans at Levi's Stadium, in Santa Clara (California), began to shout "puto", the punishing homophobic cry that has cost him a dozen fines.
That caused the game to be stopped as part of the protocol that tries to avoid this type of attitude from the Mexican public.
Glimpses of Diego Lainez, a substitute under the leadership of Martino, and pride of an Orbelín Pineda who tried to break through the Colombian defenders.
Nothing more.
The stands fired Tri de Martino with boos.
The Mexican team will have its last two friendly games in the World Cup month, in November, against Iraq and Sweden (on the 9th and 15th of the month, respectively).
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