What's wrong with the Mexican national team?

For the Mexican national soccer team, qualification for Brazil 2014 World Cup was supposed to be a breeze. After a perfect preliminary round in which they won every game, a great run of results in friendlies, and capturing the 2011 Gold Cup, there seemed to be no stopping "Chepo" de la Torre's men. This all came crashing down in 2013.

This year, the team has yet to win at home and has only managed to score one goal in the Azteca. They have won two games: one away in qualifying and one versus Ivory Coast played in the United States. Three ties at home and one very painful loss to Honduras now has the team in 5th place of the Hexagonal, down in goal differential and fighting for their World Cup lives.

Let's rewind to why this should be a great team. First, the youth squads have swept through competition from the U-20 tournament in 2011 (3rd place) to outright winning tournaments with U17 (2011) and more impressively at the Olympics 2012 in a final against Brazil. Add to this players like Giovani dos Santos (Villarreal), Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad), Javier Hernandez (Manchester United), Andres Guardado (Valencia), Hector Herrera (Porto), Javier Aquino (Villarreal), Hector Moreno (Espanyol), Oribe Peralta (Santos Laguna), Aldo de Nigris (Guadalajara), among others in the domestic league. Let's not forget that Liga MX is one of 3 top leagues in this hemisphere.

But the fate of certain players both domestically and abroad and de la Torre's unwillingness to call up specific players has not gone unnoticed. Carlos Vela, for example, hasn't played for the national team since 2011 due to a bad relationship with Mexico's front office. This in spite of him being a top goalscorer in the Spanish La Liga and having done his early years with Arsene Wenger and Arsenal. 

Then there is Chicharito Hernandez. He hasn't been the same ever since an injury in 2012 and then another one earlier this year. Chicharito was pushed down the depth chart at United with the transfer of Van Persie and the steady play by Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney. He's still an impact player but has yet to reclaim his status as an indispensable, fearsome goalscorer.

The back line for Mexico hasn't fared well either. Constant changes and the decline and replacement of the old guard (Salcido, Marquez, Magallon) has the defense in flux. The same usually occurs for most teams but it has been quite painful to see with Mexico. Ayala and Severo Meza have not been convincing enough.

Added to the back line is a midfield that just isn't producing. Despite having a relatively youthful group with the likes of Aquino and Herrera, the defensive middle isn't communicating well with the forward or rear flanks or we'd be seeing more goals for and less goals against.

Lastly there's de la Torre, Mexico officials unwillingness to let him go earlier, and the style of play he imposed on this squad. De la Torre should probably have gone after the Confederations Cup or maybe even before. He went from a pure possession and attack mentality under Aguirre to a highly-defensive game demeaning to years of development in Mexican teams. For this one only needs to look at the youth squads. Their momentum was halted with the senior team.

What can Mexico do now? Win both remaining games, to start. The key game versus Panama October 13 will decide whether they even have a shot at an intercontinental playoff. A loss leaves them pretty much out and a tie gives them merely a mathematical advantage. Even a win, unless it's by a significant margin might not be enough if the Aztecas do not win at Costa Rica as well.

Enter Vucetich. The former Monterrey head coach now has control over this squad. He has a fresh perspective, attacking mentality and desire to bring only the best players to the team, including Vela. He can make this team be as formidable as it can be, as dominant as it should be, and as great as their fans deserve. Failing to qualify for 2014 is not an option.

Protect your house: Mexico hosts the US in World Cup qualifying

Mexico will receive the USA at the Azteca this Wednesday at 4PM Eastern. As always, I like to keep perspective on what the US national team is able to accomplish. This summer was a rollercoaster for the national team. Starting with a horrible loss in Costa Rica with an experimental line-up that had several pieces missing, to redemption at Soldier Field coming from behind to triumph over Honduras, to falling from grace against Italy and Brazil in the opening games to the Confederations Cup. Wait, we're not done. The Americans gathered the pieces left, blanked Egypt 3-0, and with a little aid from Brazil they got through to an improbable semifinal against mighty Spain. We were hoping for a dignified exit from the tournament against the number one team in the world. Altidore and Dempsey showed up as well as the defense and a "miracle on grass" took place with their mildly historic win. A crushing loss in the final 2-3 against Brazil, compounded with a terrible goleada administered by arch rivals Mexico in the inconsequential Gold Cup buried all the hype and clamor the team had achieved earlier in the summer.


Now the US is hungry again for glory and they have a full-strength squad on hand. They look for the improbable... a win at the Azteca, another "Aztecazo" that will further cement them in Concacaf royalty. Only Costa Rica has been able to achieve this in recent memory. Honduras had delusions of grandeur late in 2008 when they thought they could steal 3 points away from the Aztecs. Wishful thinking indeed.

Does this mean it's not possible. No. We can never count anything out in sports. But there exists a fundamental difference between the US and Mexico that goes far deeper than comparing the domestic leagues. The difference is the fans and the crowds. The US may be able to pull of a 60-40 or 70-30 majority at the Columbus Crew stadium but nearly everywhere else the Mexicans always hold home turf within this country. This is a unique situation in the entire planet. And when it comes to "El Coloso de Santa Ursula" you can expect a 99.9% Mexican crowd of 113,000 screaming fans.

Another important point that is different between the two sides is the media coverage. Where the US gathered important attention after the Spain match, nearly all the casual viewers were turned off either by the Brazil match or the Gold Cup final match. Only die-hard US soccer fans and the underground soccer media awaited word on the potential team to be used in Mexico. Where Aguirre chose a squad two weeks prior to the contest, Bradley responded just last Friday. More pressure for Mexico, undoubtedly.

Finally, let's not forget the recent 5-0 loss at Giants stadium with a half-full Mexican squad and a highly inexperienced American side that had none of its starters or even the token substitutes. Mexico is keeping a good number of the players from that match for this one. Here's Aguirre's squad:

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (America), Jesus Corona (Cruz Azul).

Defenders: Efrain Juarez (Pumas), Jose Castro (Tigres), Rafael Marquez (Barcelona), Jonny Magallon (Chivas), Ricardo Osorio (Stuttgart), Aaron Galindo (Chivas), Carlos Salcido (PSV Eindhoven), Oscar Rojas (America).

Midfielders: Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul), Israel Castro (Pumas), Andres Guardado (Deportivo de Coruña), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Chicago).

Forwards: Alberto Medina (Chivas), Giovani Dos Santos (Tottenham), Nery Castillo (Shakhtar), Carlos Vela (Arsenal), Miguel Sabah (Morelia), Guillermo Franco (unattached).

Invariably, it comes down to true home field advantage. It comes down to history and comon sense, to European-based players and media coverage, to years of practice and reputations. The US is going for history and this is exemplified by the ESPN spot prior to a game that won't even be on the network itself. Hours of coverage in several other Spanish-speaking networks is the Mexican response.

Bradley's squad looks like this:

Goalkeepers- Tim Howard (Everton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa)

Defenders- Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA)

Midfielders- Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo)

Forwards- Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Charlie Davies (Sochaux), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids)

TV coverage for this match is tricky. No ESPN or Univision or ABC. If you have Telemundo (Charter and Comcast usually carry it) then you can see it in Spanish. For the English version there is mun2, usually an extra channel on satellite and cable. If all you have is internet then you can check out the game here or here.

Gold Cup 2009: From B teams to amateur sides

Concacaf has chosen to have a biannual tournament with its conference members. Fair enough. But here's the deal: only one of the two tournaments qualifies the winner to the Confederations Cup (played last month with the US as representative due to their title in 2007), the tournament is always played in the US (no Mexico, Central America, Caribbean nations can host it), and the tournament (at least the second one) has very little in the form of top stars and important players from the more prevalent countries, i.e. Mexico, USA, Honduras or Costa Rica.

So is it an important tournament? Hardly. Is it overkill? Yes. Is it worth it? Only as warm-up and/or practice for B-teams from Mexico, the US and other Concacaf teams. Am I alone in this line of thought? Absolutely not. There is a score of players and coaches (including Bob Bradley and "el Vasco" Aguirre) that have decided to call B-squads that sometimes look like C-squads. The US itself was allowed to call up or dismiss various players due to the tournament's close temporal proximity to the Confederations Cup. Dismissed have been Steve Cherundolo, Charlie Davies (to join a new club), Freddy Adu (disappointing Gold Cup after no appearances), Michael Parkhurst, among others.

And the list goes on in terms of Gold Cup bashing. Prominent commentators like Andres Cantor and his Futbol de Primera crew have publicly voiced their concerns for this tournament seemingly meaningless nature. The quality of the competition is simply not present. Shouldn't we limit this tournament to a 4-year interval like the Euros and Copa Americas? Shouldn't it be a top flight competition with Donovan, Guardado and other stars as prominent participants? Shouldn't the host nation be rotated the way it is everywhere else?

In the meantime, it seems that all is definitely not well with Mexico, even in a medium-grade dress rehearsal like Gold Cup 2009. Now Javier Aguirre is showing his discontent with the mess that is the Mexican national team. The footage below shows a sore point in Mexican soccer: a tie with lowly Panama and a foul (a foul?) by the coach Aguirre. The man will serve a 3 match suspension.

Concacaf rewind: more Mexican trouble?

Mexico 2 - Trinidad & Tobago 1. Meantime it was 1-0 for Honduras in favor of El Salvador. So is 2-1 for Mexico really that bad? Did the team play so horribly? Long answer is "no" with a "but" and the short answer is "yes" with an "if." The Chicago Fire midfielder/forward Cuahutemoc Blanco did his duty and was easily the best player on the Mexican side. Guardado committed a few errors but was still strong going forward and creating chances. The Castillo-Franco tandem up top was great at the start of the first half. The first goal by Mexico was in the first minute of play with a nice give-and-go between Castillo and Franco. Throughout the game Mexico created plenty of chances but luck was not on their side. It could easily have been 6-1 or higher if it wasn't for the Trinitarian 'keeper. The back line looked shaky at times, yes, but they also went forward and created chances.

It wasn't an incendiary match for "el Tri," yes. But they got the 3 points they needed. I'm also being realistic that the only way to succeed in Concacaf is to win all your home games and take points from teams when away. That's true of any competition in world football. So far Mexico have none of those points. I propose this scale for points earned/lost abroad with home wins being null:
Costa Rica 4
USA 1
Honduras 0
Mexico 0
El Salvador -4
T&T -4

I also don't think the Mexican FA is as much to blame as the press itself. Look at what happens when teams win at home. USA beats Honduras after coming from behind 2-1 and its called "courageous" and "a step in the right direction. El Salvador beats Mexico and they are "heroes" and "historic." Ecuador beats Argentina and it's a "justified win" because they wanted the game more. Now you have Mexico win at home and looking "deplorable," "uninspired," etc. The players were upset with these comments. They put their heart and soul on the field. I could see that. No one wants to "not win." That's ridiculous. And what about the "Futbol Picante" crew on ESPN Deportes calling Lavolpe's team as "much better" than the current squad when this particular group was supposed to be the "golden generation" after winning an U-17 tournament against Brazil by 3-0. We should know that when the youngsters play all bets are off. Sanchez and Eriksson were not given enough time and were ousted prematurely as many a coach in the Americas. Now you have "el Vasco" Aguirre and you lose abroad. Same difference.

The same thing happened with Argentina after going down to Ecuador. The press was furious and looking to decapitate players' and managers' heads. We know Ecuador is a much better team these days, even if they are on the outside looking in at the potentially "qualified" teams in South America. The team has been to two successive world cups. So, with that said, I ask the press to stand down. Reflect. Accept the consequences that these days world football isn't as "black and white" as it used to be. Support your local squad when they achieve a win or good result. 3 points puts Mexico back in the hunt. They will almost certainly beat the US and any other team at the Azteca... and they, along with Argentina will qualify for the world cup.

What's happened to Mexico?

Let's face it. Few teams around the world have as many fans as the Mexican national team. That is a fact. And I'm talking real, true Mexican-born fans, not the bandwagon fans that Brazil, Argentina and France get along the way to the World Cup. And yet it seems that the Mexican team, all Mexican national teams in fact, are in a constant state of negative flux.

Why is this? The players? The coaches? The team owners? The federation? My take: all and none. All because they have repeatedly failed at achieving important goals like qualifying for the Confederations Cup, the Olympics and the U-20 tournament. Hugo Sanchez was sacked and now Eriksson has been sacked. I'm not an expert in these matters but I've heard and read enough about the squabbling delegates of the Mexican soccer Federation that stalled various plans and included their own pet projects into the system. That last one is Vergara, owner of one of the most financially successful teams on the planet--Chivas de Guadalajara. He insisted on bringing a European name to the coaching vacancy left by Sanchez. He failed at getting Scolari and settled for Eriksson.

Did Vergara's pet project and gamble work? Yes and no. The team played differently and added a few names to the fold--Vuoso, Augusto, etc. Interestingly, some of these players were not Mexican-born. Eriksson also gave a lot of opportunities to youngsters like dos Santos, Martinez and Vela. A welcome sight if sometimes an unnecessary gamble.

Still, Eriksson failed at what he was brought to do. Win tournaments and win every Concacaf game. Let's rewind to last fall for a moment. Mexico was pooled against Canada, Honduras and Jamaica in the second round's group of death. Admittedly, all those teams deserved a spot in the Hexagonal. So when Mexico left the Azteca after getting all 9 points at home and gathered only 1 from a tie in Canada, heads started to shake. Was this so bad? A loss in Kingston, Jamaica. The Reggae Boyz are very good at home against most oponents. Why couldn't Mexico lose? Then there was a tie in Canada. The relative "minnows" of the group still have players with considerable abilities--de Guzman, DeRosario, Onstad are just a few. And finally, a loss in Honduras. 1-0. Was is so bad that they lost against the probable number 3 team in the conference?

Friendlies against Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Sweden were 2 losses and 2 wins on American soil. All of those games included reserves on the roster due to the fact that they were played outside of FIFA dates. Then comes the Hexagonal. An opening match against the US in Columbus and a loss they should have seen coming. The US held their own and made the home soil count. Mexico did the same against Costa Rica last Saturday. It injected "confidence" into the team and coach. Really? Then why the 3-1 loss to Honduras in San Pedro Sula? Because Honduras really is that good. That's my take. Maybe a 2-1 was more deserving for Mexico but that's football.

So who's really to blame here? Eriksson had only a limited amount of time to get used to Mexico, the style of play and other idiosyncrasies of the Azteca game. Mexico was given a tough schedule in the preliminary round and also to start the Hexagonal. If they had started at home vs USA then a visit to El Salvador and at home against T&T things would be different. It was foolish to let him go at this point. Aguirre (in-coming coach and the coach that lost to USA in the 2002 World Cup) may do only what was expected to happen anyway... qualify for South Africa. Can he inject more spirit into the team? Sure. Can he do the same for the fans? Why not. And the federation? They sure hope so. Aguirre is their "savior" and if he doesn't pan out it will be difficult to truly nail down what could be wrong with Mexican play. Too many players abroad that don't care about the national side? Sure, we've all heard that before.

Mexico has quite a few dollars invested commercially in terms of the national team. This is why Sanchez was ousted. Never mind the awesome play the team displayed in the Copa America 2007. Sanchez didn't need to be the u-23 coach. Bradley sure wasn't for the US. That job went to Peter Nowak. Maybe Mexico should have considered that and Sanchez could have had more time with the nats to make things smoother. Then again, Vergara, Martinez and other FMF owners had considerable input in the matter. Is that where the fault lies? The caprice of one or two team owners? I hope not.

Hex Mex: The Mexican Resurgence

This is the first part of a multi-post series detailing what is sure to be a match worthy of world class soccer: US vs Mexico at Columbus, Ohio next Wednesday at 7PM (ESPN2HD) for world cup 2010 qualification. For those not familiar with the qualifiers this is the first game in a home and away tournament with 6 countries vying for the 3 1/2 spots to South Africa next year. Each team plays 10 games in total. The group, besides Mexico and US, includes Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Sven Goran Eriksson divulged his list for next week's match yesterday:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Oswaldo Sánchez (Santos), Guillermo Ochoa (America), José de Jesus Corona (Tecos). DEFENDERS (7): Juan Carlos Valenzuela (America), Julio Cesar Dominguez (Cruz Azul), Carlos Salcido (PSV Eindhoven), Ricardo Osorio (Stuttgart), Rafael Márquez (Barcelona), Aaron Galindo (Guadalajara), Leobardo Lopez (Pachuca). MIDFIELDERS (6): Fausto Pinto (Cruz Azul), Pavel Pardo (America), Leandro Augusto (Pumas), Luis Perez (Monterrey), Israel Martinez (San Luis), Antonio Naelson (Toluca). FORWARDS (8): Alberto Medina (Guadalajara), Cesar Villaluz (Cruz Azul), Giovani Dos Santos (Tottenham), Matias Vuoso (Santos), Carlos Ochoa (Guadalajara), Nery Castillo (Shakhtar Donetsk), Guillermo Franco (Villarreal), Omar Bravo (Deportivo La Coruña)

Mexico is never a weak side, no matter how many Guardados or Velas are injured or suspended. Superclasicos like US-MEX always are tossups. Also, a word of caution to the overconfident... This is a Mexican side in dire need of a good result. To them a win is a must, a tie is acceptable and a loss is a catastrophe. Jaime Gallardo and XM Deportivo company have seen "el Vasco" Aguirre's dismission from Atletico Madrid as a precursor to replacing Eriksson were he to fail in Columbus. This is ridiculous to me. There are 9 other matches and of all 10 winning in the US should be, in theory, the toughest.

A new crew of players is also at hand, including Vuoso, Naleson, plus some that have not been called up recently (Castillo, Franco). Some players, like Castillo, have not seen regular play in their European teams but this is also the case with US players like Pearce, Adu and Altidore. Some players to watch for are Castillo, "el venado" Medina, Omar Bravo and Matias Vuoso. Marquez, Osorio, Salcido and Galindo are a fortress in the back. Villaluz is a potential headache, as is Pardo (the savior of Mexico these days).
This is my homage to Mexico, always a disciplined, historical team with diehard fans that will make up a large portion of Crew stadium next week. Good luck, fellas, and may you have a good game.