Carlos Vela would make Mexico the strong team it should be

Photo credit: carlos-vela.livejournal.com

Once again we are hearing that the door isn't closed for Carlos Vela to join El Tri and claim his position as the best forward in the team. This is welcome news for a country and a squad in need of good results and preparation heading into the World Cup this summer. But will Miguel Herrera relent?

Herrera made it clear that it would be his way if he was to take over the national team. When he did so prior to the playoff match versus New Zealand he sent a clear message: Europe based players are not essential. He took all domestic-based players with a heavy tilt in favor of Club America.

You can argue that  indeed it wasn't necessary to have Andres Guardado and Chicharito Hernandez on the pitch to defeat lowly New Zealand. But we can hardly defend the fact that a domestic-heavy and perhaps América-heavy side might have trouble against the likes of Brazil, Croatia and Cameroon. 

But we can't seriously suggest that the all-knowing FMF could possibly allow for its megastars to get a snub come Brazil 2014. No, expect Europe to be well represented. But Carlos Vela is a special case. He has repeatedly shunned the national team for various reasons and on multiple occasions. So why is there still a chance for Vela?

Simply put. Mexico has no better chance. Not right now. They have a good team if they include Chicharito, dos Santos, Peralta, but none of them are in as good shape as Vela and in such a great place professionally. Vela has been lighting it up for Real Sociedad in the Spanish Primera and is considered by many to be the best attacker in Concacaf at this point. Can Mexico afford not to have him at the World Cup?

If we play out a scenario with Vela on board it simply makes Chicharito more honest, gives Peralta some haste and Jimenez something to strive for. For Dos Santos and Guardado it's an exhaust pipe for their pinpoint passes and darting runs. In short, Vela would make Mexico the attacking squad we liked so much in 2011 and 2012.

Miguel Herrera has some soul searching to do and not just with Vela. He is scheduled to be appraising his European legion this week. Let us hope that he at least acknowledges some of the talent El Tri has abroad, even if Vela is left out of 2014.

Perspective after Mexico's first game versus New Zealand

Photo credit: Yahoo Deportes

 

5-1 shouldn't be an unusual score for Mexico playing at home. Estadio Azteca on a Wednesday afternoon the November before a World Cup would ordinarily suggest a prep game for the tournament. But that wasn't the case yesterday. The Mexican national team was playing for its World Cup qualification life versus Oceania's entrant, New Zealand. How did it come to this?

Blame the poor form in the Concacaf Hex under de la Torre and less-than-optimal performances with Vucetich (Panama win and Costa Rica loss) as well as the non-issue that was Luis Fernando Tena's game versus the United States. All chose the same defensive, cautious style and relied on overpriced, over-hyped Europe-based players like Chicharito Hernandez and Giovanni Dos Santos.

In comes Club America coach Herrera and all bets are off. Herrera is a pupil of "Lavolpismo," a style of play first introduced by Ricardo Antonio Lavolpe and which preached attacking football with limited defense. It had mixed results for Lavolpe with the Mexico national team but made for entertaining soccer.

Another thing Herrera did which upset many people, even though it may not have surprised many, was the selection of purely national-based players for the play-in games versus New Zealand. Gone were the Chicharitos, Dos Santos and Guardados and in came ten players from Herreras's own Club America. He needed consistency, he said, in order to be successful and he claimed that the foreign-based players had too far to travel and that this diluted their abilities.

The win gave both hope and relief to the Mexican nation and confidence that their recent trophies in the u17 and u23 tournaments were in fact based on the reality that Mexican soccer that is on the rise. But what are the major takeaways after the win and the certain qualification?

First thing is addressing the foreign I players. Will they continue to be a part of the system? Certainly come World Cup prep time they will have time off to get acquainted with Herrera's style and manners. Will they acquiesce to the three man back line? Can they survive in that formation versus a team like Belgium? Perhaps another point here is the absence of  Carlos Vela. Will he turn down being at the World Cup? Does Herrera even need him there?

Mexican soccer needs to answer some serious questions ahead of the tournament. Is their structure a viable one where very few people control the direction of the national team? A serious failure at this point is going three and out at the World Cup, and the way teams are stacking up in terms of death groups, this isn't out of the question.