HOUSTON — The giant scoreboard at NRG Stadium said Mexico 1, Jamaica 0, but it told an incomplete story. As Mexico’s players walked onto the field at the Copa America and greeted their fans, happy with their three points, their story was not yet complete. They eventually disappeared into the tunnel, the same tunnel their captain had ridden a cart through an hour earlier. Edson Alvarez should have led the celebration, but he left Mexico’s Copa opener injured and in tears.
For about 27 minutes, he was the proud new leader. El Tri Times have changed. And yet here he was, midway through the first half of his first major tournament match as Mexico captain, when Alvarez felt a sharp pain in the sole of his left foot.
He was chasing a Jamaican counter attack when suddenly he collapsed to the ground in pain.
As he grimaced and writhed with his arms over his face, his teammates gathered around to support and comfort him.
They came together because Alvarez, 26, who plays for West Ham in the English Premier League, is more than just a sprightly midfielder. He is “an important player,” as midfielder Luis Chavez put it, but also “in the dressing room,” manager Jaime Lozano added.
So the first question asked at Lozano’s post-match press conference was not to Mexico’s surprise scorer Gerardo Arteaga, nor to rookie goalkeeper Julio Gonzalez, who kept a clean sheet, but to Alvarez.
His expected absence for the foreseeable future undermined Saturday’s result and dashed any hopes that a Copa America victory might have brought.
The players and Lozano said it’s not yet clear how serious the injury is, but Lozano said scans over the next two days will tell them.
But they didn’t need medical imaging to read the pain afflicting Alvarez. They saw his distraught face. They stroked his head as he fought back tears. They watched him struggle to limp off the field, even with a team member on each side supporting his weight. They offered moral support as he reached the sideline. They watched him be carried out at halftime on a stretcher, his left leg stretched and strapped down, a large bag of ice wrapped snugly around his hamstring.
And in the 15 minutes after the injury, El Tri struggled to find any rhythm on the field. Perhaps they were tactically off-balance with Luis Romo coming on for Alvarez, perhaps they were simply neutralised by Jamaica, perhaps they were shaken.
Mexico rallied midway through the second half and a string of chances finally yielded a goal in the 69th minute, giving them the win and propelling them to the top of Group B and a place in the knockout stages.
But Alvarez’s injury, assuming any degree of severity, felt just as significant.
“He’s very important,” Lozano acknowledged. “Any coach who has coached Edson would say the same thing.”
Alvarez is Mexico’s fulcrum, its most talented player and tactical center. He is a versatile defensive midfielder who has brought stability to a team that has been far from stable in recent years. He was the only star player Lozano retained for the 2018-2022 season. Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa has left the team. Forwards Raul Jimenez and Irving “Chucky” Lozano were not included in the squad. Alvarez, just 26 years old, has been promoted to join the squad.
One of the reasons for his promotion to captain is that he remains an integral part of all of Mexico’s game models and systems. “He understands the game really well,” Lozano said in Spanish. He can slot in between the two centre-backs and control possession as a deep-lying playmaker or a steady passer. He can also sense counter-attacks and win duels.
But he was also promoted because “when he speaks, you listen,” Lozano said. He has a way with words and a presence that’s hard to replicate.
Lozano said the other players were preparing for the sudden opportunity to play football, but he acknowledged the injury was “a big blow.”
They will wait in hope of some good news in the coming days, but no one seems optimistic.
In the meantime, they prepare for Wednesday’s match against Venezuela, where a win could clinch a quarterfinal berth, but without Alvarez, the quarterfinals, or at best the semifinals, are the limit for them.
