And they will be lucky if they manage to shock the world to its very core (and in-so-doing, prove that there IS, in fact, a football God) if they even manage to claw their pathetic way to the final round.
Not likely.
This is the wonder-squad that tied 1-1 against Panama at Reliant Stadium last Thursday (I was there at the game, and I admit the first half gave me hope.)
It's not that the footballers who played against Panama were terrible, they're actually very good players capable of replacing some of the ones who have seen more action in bigger NT games and may even bump one of the Euro-players.
But does it matter how good any of them are? I'm starting to think that it doesn't matter what clubs they play for, the skill the allegedly have, and as we've learned in the past two years, who their head coach is.
The Mexican squad is starting to look like and old and rusty institution. Sure we have a mix of young and old players, but that's not the point. The style of play refuses to advance to adapt to the more physically-demanding international styles that are growing today.
Whether or not Mexicans can swallow their pride and admit it, the Truth is that the Devil to the North, the US Mens National Team is adapting to international play in their own way, and surpassing Mexico in doing so. Everyone who saw the 2-0 win over Spain that shocked the world knows how annoying it is to sit through a US game and cheer for them.
Knowing that they lack any attacking talent, the US team bunkers down on their side and defends like there's no tomorrow, then looks for an opportunity to use the only offensive weapon they have -speed- to create a counterattack goal against a team with maybe one defender because it's moved all its players up the field to attack.
And even though the US plays boring and cheaply, at least it's recognized how to adapt to international play. Because it PLAYS against big international teams.
(Physique: notice the difference between injury-prone Nery Castillo and Oguchi Onyewu)
The Mexican National Team faces a worse situation. 1st, Mexico rarely plays European teams. 2nd, Mexico DOES consistently play small, meaningless teams that do not help Mexican players improve 3rd, Mexican players in Mexico show very little physique--which is growing more and more important in today's soccer.
Watch a 90s era World Cup soccer game. You will see a big difference in the way the world plays soccer now and then. And Mexico is a big country with a big emphasis on soccer, the Mexican 1st Division is an enormous economic machine, Mexico is now sick. It plays slowly and methodically and it cannot win even against countries without professional leagues.
What will Mexico gain in this Gold Cup by playing Panama, Guadaloupe, Haiti? I'm not even sure Panama has a league, and I KNOW Hait and Guadaloupe sure don't. Somehow Costa Rica is a big threat in this Gold Cup, a threat Mexico may not be able to knock out. And of course, the biggest threat, and the only game in which Mexico might gain some serious experience for future international matches is against the United States.
It is needless to repeat what the outcome will be. Mexico is on the path to nowhere in this Gold Cup.
4 comments:
As a side note some typos and sentence syntax errors threw me off sometimes. I think you are right and wrong. Yes Mexico plays a bit old school but I think the answer is a coach that isn't old school or rather a coach that isn't willing to bend over and take it from the Mexican federation and play their game like they do elsewhere. In other words, sauce for the goose.
diboll_mexican.... typos and sentence syntax? Ey em rreel surrri dat i knot speal koerektly.
Quit being a moron, Esteban.
What happened to Sven? who had no prior relationship with the FMF and came from a different school of thought?
or Aguirre? Who for 7 years has not coaches a Mexican team?
That's my point entirely, we get coaches that have been somewhere else and coach differently and do it well and then when they come here they don't play the same way they used to elsewhere
Nice post. i learned many more about the football from this post.
thanks for posting.
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