Sports

The soccer revival of Andres Guardado

Guardado, just like the Mexican National Team were close to missing the World Cup due to lack of form.

When current manager Miguel "Piojo" Herrera took over the Mexican National Team in November of 2013 and had the World Cup last chance playoff series against New Zealand in hand, he made a risky decision to leave out all European based players and opted for an all out Liga MX squad. One of the players not missed was Andres Guardado.

Guardado had spent the majority of the season up until that point watching La Liga matches from the Valencia FC bench. He had been given opportunities early on in the season and did not impress, his playing time kept getting shorter and shorter. A mid-season manager change for Valencia could have been the change of pace he needed but, even under new manager, Guardado kept underperforming and kept spending more time in the bench.

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The Guadalajara native saw the majority of his playing time with the struggling Mexican National Team who had a disastrous FIFA Confederations Cup, Sub-Par CONCACAF Gold Cup, and even worst World Cup Qualifying campaign. Guardado's drop in form was not enough for then manager Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre to drop Guardado from the starting lineup; much less the squad.

During the winter transfer season, German side Bayer Leverkusen came looking for Guardado, and Valencia gladly sent the Mexican away. Andrés believed this was the change he needed to be able to pick up his form and impress Miguel Herrera who had managed to get by New Zealand and had Mexico in the World Cup Finals.

The problem with Guardado and many of the European based players was that there was very little time for them to make their case to Herrera. There would only be one official FIFA date friendly match in which they could come and participate with Mexico. The rest was going to have to be done at club level.

Andrés Guardado found a harsh reality in Germany; it was not his surroundings in the struggling Valencia that was the problem. He truly wasn't playing good football and his playing time reflected that. Very few minutes were given to the Mexican at Leverkusen and his World Cup dreams seemed doomed.

During the one friendly match in which Miguel Herrera was allowed to use his European legion against Nigeria, he gave Guardado his chance. Guardado had a decent performance; a much better second half than first half.

Some thought that the performance in that Nigeria friendly was enough to get Guardado on the plane to Brazil, others thought it was too little too late. Miguel Herrera's 5-3-2 system made it clear Guardado could only occupy one of two positions: the left wing-back - which was/still is in the hands of Miguel Layun - and the other as an attacking/box-to-box midfielder. In the midfielder position, at that time there were clearly better options: Luis Montes, Carlos Peña, Isaac Brizuela, Marco Fabian, and even Javier Aquino.

But drops in form from Peña and Brizuela got Guardado a call up to the National Team. The Luis Montes double fracture got him into the starting lineup. And after three World Cup matches, he has not done a horrible job; a great job actually.

Guardado's effectiveness in the midfield position was always a doubt. Andrés has always been a wide player. He began his career as an attacking winger, and as his form started to drop so did his position until playing left wing-back and even left back.

But he has done well to adjust to the new slightly central role, he still gets to find wide spaces on the left wing helping out the left wing-back Miguel Layun. His attacking mind has contributed to many Mexico attacks through the three games. He is getting that confidence to shoot from distance back, it won't be long before we see another GOLAZO from him just like in his younger years. But he has also been key on defense.

His experience as a left wing-back has helped when he is assisting Miguel Layun or covering for the Club America defender who enjoys running up the field and attacking. Between the two, they contained the dangerous Dani Alves of Brazil.

He was originally picked into the final 23-man roster for Mexico over Toluca left back Miguel Ponce - although Ponce found his way back after the Juan Carlos Medina ankle ligament injury - because of his versatility to play left wing-back and midfielder. As well as his European and past World Cup experience. He made it into the starting eleven because of Montes' injury. And now he is taking full advantage of the situation and 'seizing the day'.

His good form in the first two matches against Cameroon and Brazil would definitely have his confidence up, but the stellar performance for a third World Cup match in a row plus a goal will have him at his peak for the upcoming Round of 16 showdown against the powerful Clockwork Orange of Netherlands.

Source: Jonny Rico / Soccerly.com

Stay connected to the Facebook and Twitter pages of SanDiegoRed for more local San Diego/ Tijuana news.

jonny.rico@sandiegored.com (Follow Jonny Rico on Facebook and Twitter)

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