Mexico announce May 30th friendly against Colombia

Mexico announced their third friendly of the year when they play Colombia on May 30th at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado. This would be Mexico’s third friendly of the year after their March 26th game against the Czech Republic in Charlotte, North Carolina and the March 29th game against Greece in Arlington, Texas. Mexico will play the friendly as a tune up for the Concacaf Nations League finals in June, while Colombia will play as a tune up for the 2020 Copa America, in which they will host Group B of the tournament.

Colombia is the CONMEBOL team with the longest time since they last faced Mexico. Their last meeting was all the way back in 2012, a friendly which Colombia won by a score of 2-0 with goals by Radamel Falcao and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado. Mexico’s coach at the time was Jose “Chepo” de la Torre. Colombia also holds current record of the longest time of any CONMEBOL team since they last faced each other in an official game, with the 2005 Gold Cup Quarterfinals (which Colombia won by a score of 2-1) being the last time they faced each other.

Colombia should be the strongest rival Mexico has faced since the tragic friendly against Argentina last September. That being said, a lot of fans might not be happy since there were strong rumors that they were negotiating with Brazil for this friendly but US TV rights got in the way. This would be the second time in 2020 that this happened, since the rumors were strong that Mexico was going to play with teams of the caliber of the Netherlands and Italy in the March friendly window, but the need of the games having to be played in the United States ended up forcing Mexico to settle for the Czech Republic and Greece. While the Czech Republic is a tough friendly against a team that is preparing itself for the 2020 Euro, it’s not in the same category as either the Dutch or the Italians. Still it’s a very good friendly for Mexico, which is not the case with the Greece friendly. Even with the expanded Euro tournament, Greece didn’t qualify for it. Colombia though is stronger than both and should be a tough test for Mexico, especially as they prepare themselves for hosting Copa America. Nothing will be a better sign for them that to beat the team they defeated in the Copa America final last time they hosted for their only Copa America.