Taking offense: all-star team to attack Mexican National Team

The last time the Mexican Under-17 National Team came to Yuma County, they left bloodied, bruised and unvictorious.

The Yuma County All-Star Team facing them tonight in San Luis is looking to duplicate just one of those feats.

The teams will meet at 7:30 .m. at San Luis High School in an exhibition game. The local team is made up of mostly players from Kofa and San Luis high schools.

San Luis coach Tim Conroy and Kofa coach Jamie Nicewander will helm the local team, which also features three former San Luis players who have moved on to college ball.

Each coach said instead of duplicating the physical, packed-in style that resulted in a tie the last time the Mexican team was in town earlier this year, they are letting the players - almost none of who played in that last game - play to their strengths.

And that means attacking.

"We're not going to pack it in the back and look for a 0-0 or 1-0 outcome," Conroy said. "We're going to go out and play and show what (these) guys can do. And if it's 5-2 or 6-3, so be it."

And while the team has just two forwards - Kofa's Danny Flores and Arizona Western's Abdel Becerra - there are plenty of attacking midfielders, including the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Year Irving Garcia, Yuma High's Jose Saucedo, San Luis' Danny Rodriguez and Kofa's Marcos Garcia.

"We don't want to pack 10 players in," Nicewander said. "We're serious about getting the ball upfield. With the players we have, even the defenders we have, they're the type of fullbacks that look to get the ball to the outside and lay the ball into the box. These are all guys that are attack-minded."

Once a player leaves the game, he can't re-enter. Still, Conroy said everybody will get a chance to play.

"Ideally, everybody gets half a game," Conroy said. "But if we put all our substitutes in at halftime, what happens if someone gets injured. We're not going to have a substitute. So we're going to have to hold someone out a little longer, but the idea is that we plan on getting everyone 20 minutes."

Noe Cobian will start in net for the local team, but San Luis' Luis Perez will play as well.

After given permission to use three college-aged players to make the game against the world-class Mexican team more even, there was some question as to wether the Mexican governing body would allow Becerra and Omar Heredia play. On Wednesday, Conroy and Nicewander were finally given the all-clear to use three college players.

Not having the two - Garcia's eligibility to play, despite being 20, was never questioned - would have changed the team's attack-first strategy.

"When your not worried about what the final outcome of the game is, and we're true to our word about letting the kids go out and play," Conroy said. "When there was a little bit of doubt about wether Omar and Abdel would play, that changed it. We were going to be a younger and significantly less experienced team. We'd have to play more of a defensive game to keep it from turning into a blowout."

And to try to throw a wrench in the works for the Mexican team, Becerra may not even start.

"Daniel will start up there, but we're thinking (Abdel) coming of the bench with his ability might be a change of pace that might throw the Mexican team for a little bit of a loop," Conroy said. "We haven't made up our mid yet, but he'll have significant playing time either way."

Regardless of the lineup, whoever is in the game will be gunning for the net.

"We want these guys to go out and play to win," Nicewander said. "We know its daunting against a team of that quality, the best in the world, but ultimately we want them to know ... you come out to play the beautiful game. It's called the beautiful game for a reason - because you should be attacking. That's how soccer is meant to be played."