Andres Guardado Suffers Sprained Ankle, Questionable For Mexico Vs. USA

Last night, Andres Guardado was substituted off in Mexico's Gold Cup semifinal match against Honduras in favor of Aldo de Nigris. At the time it seemed like an odd move, as Guardado has been arguably the best player in this tournament, but it now appears that Guardado suffered a sprained ankle during the first half of the game. He is questionable for the Gold Cup Final against the United States, but he hopes to be on the field as the sprain is not terribly severe.

Honduras's tactics last night were very physical in nature, to use a euphemism. I'm not sure I would go so far as to call their play dirty, but they were dancing on the line between good, hard physical play and unfair, dirty play. Guardado was repeatedly targeted and suffered a foul in the first have which Victor Bernardez was lucky to avoid getting sent off for. At the time Guardado looked fine, but he obviously wasn't. In that respect, I guess their tactics worked, but karma came by way of a stoppage time header by de Nigris.