The Mexican soccer federation (FMF) has a long history of dumping its national team coaches — it employed four in the space of a month in 2013 — but when El Tri suffered its worst defeat ever in anofficial match, what did it do?
On Thursday, the FMF confirmed Juan Carlos Osorio will continue as Mexico head coach despite the 7-0 loss to Chile in the quarterfinals of the CopaCentenario.
“Dismantling everything would be an error, which is why we’ve decided to continue with the project,” FMF general secretary Guillermo Cantu said on Thursday. “Ifwe trust in the methodology of a person, it is because those of us on the inside have seen it.”
Osorio won his first nine games in charge of Mexico before a 1-1 tie with Venezuela closedout group play at the Copa Centenario.
Against Chile, Mexico fell behind 2-0 in the first half, it was 5-0 after an hour and the final score of 7-0. Mexico’s only larger defeat was an 8-0loss to England in a friendly game in 1961.
The reaction of the Mexican fans in the capacity crowd of 70,547 fans at Levi’s Stadium was so bad that some even hurled vulgar chants atMexico keeper Guillermo Ochoa.
“I want to ask for forgiveness from the Mexican people,” Osorio said afterwards. “Today was an embarrassment. I take completeresponsibility.”
After the game, Santiago Banos, the Mexican national team director, said there was no Plan B and Osorio would stay. “We just had a bad night,” he offered.But the next day, Cantu raised doubts about Osorio’s future, saying, “He has no guarantees.”
Much of the criticism of Osorio was for his rotation of the starting lineup through the CopaCentenario. Even before taking the El Tri job, he had earned the nickname of the “tinkerer” for messing around with his lineups. But that was not enough to convince the FMF bosses to make a change.
“The results at this Copa America were a failure,” said Cantu, “but the project is Russia 2018. In order to strengthen, we have to trust in the team, with its leader Juan Carlos Osorio.”
INTERESTING!!! Re-read the penultimate paragraph above, and think for a moment: doesn’t this sound just what has been said about JK’s “tinkering???” Maybe US Soccer has taken a note and page from the last paragraph.
What’s with Mexico’s keeper situation?
Ric, good catch….but. Osorio’s record (accomplishment) with Mexico is WAYYYYY better than JK”s. Not simply win/loss, but much more important the way he has his team playing.
From what I have heard, the GK situation has Memo Ochoa going back to Europe and the other guys still in the mix. But who knows, it is possible that they may just find another one or more of our GKs. Quien sabe!!!