Mexican Scramble
Given the rather casual approach toward work that the French appear to be adopting as the World Cup draws near, it should take the mail about three weeks to get from, say, Bordeaux to Guadalajara.
All of which means Mexico’s players could beat their own postcards home.
These are difficult times for Coach Manuel Lapuente’s unhappy band. El Tri, as the team is nicknamed after its green, white and red uniforms, is looking decidedly faded lately.
When Mexico plays well, El Tri is lauded. When it doesn’t, the fans use another nickname. Mexico’s players then become the Rotas Verdes, the Green Rats.
Unfortunately, for the past few months the team has looked more rodent than roadworthy. Not that Mexico travels well at the best of times.
Each loss or poor showing in warm-up games has undermined the players’ self-belief, especially since each setback has been followed by a barrage of intense and often bitter criticism in the media back home.
If U.S. Coach Steve Sampson thinks he has been the target of media barbs, he should try coaching south of the border.
As it stands, there are few who believe that Mexico can make it out of the first round from a group that includes the orange-hot Netherlands--which has scored successive 5-1 victories over Paraguay and Nigeria in the last week--Belgium and South Korea.
But Lapuente is a patient man, one who for the most part is not given to public ranting and raving. He might be bald, but he didn’t tear his hair out, he lost it slowly.
And his placid approach might yet prove correct.
After Mexico struggled to a 0-0 tie against fellow World Cup competitor Saudi Arabia at Creteil near Paris on Wednesday, Lapuente pronounced himself “satisfied” with the performance, no matter how unattractive it appeared.
“During the World Cup, you’ll see a very different team,” he said. “Against South Korea [in Lyon on Saturday], you’ll see the result of our work.”
The result might be good or bad. What will be more interesting will be to see which players Lapuente starts. He has chopped and changed his lineup so often in the past few months that no one knows exactly who Mexico’s 11 first-choice players are.
At the International Press Center here Saturday, three of Europe’s most respected soccer magazines--England’s “World Soccer,” Spain’s “Don Balon” and France’s “France Football”--lay open on a table. Each featured an article on Mexico, complete with a diagramed starting formation.
The trouble was, every team and formation was different, with 19 players being picked as starters and only five players appearing as starters in all three publications.
Maybe that’s the way Lapuente wants it. If the soccer press can’t figure it out, perhaps the Koreans, the Belgians and the Dutch will have a tough time too.
Lapuente, 50, is a student of the game. He was no great shakes as a player--although he was good enough to play four times for Mexico and score three goals--but he has read and watched and listened for 15 years and as a coach he has become a respected tactician.
Whether the Galaxy’s Carlos Hermosillo agrees with that is another matter, but Lapuente must have had a sound reason for leaving the striker off his World Cup squad. All Hermosillo, 33, had done during qualifying play was score 10 of Mexico’s 37 goals.
Lapuente also cast aside Benjamin Galindo, even though he was the second-highest scorer in qualifying with eight goals, and Luis Roberto Alves, the third-highest with five. At 38 and 31, respectively, age worked against them.
All the same, they were the strikers who, under then-coach Bora Milutinovic, helped Mexico go 8-2-6 in qualifying for France ’98. But Lapuente has been grooming the next generation and is trying desperately to get them in sync, as opposed to sink, by Saturday.
Fortunately, he has not abandoned all the veterans and Mexico still has a half-dozen or so proven players in key positions. If South Korea wants to upset Mexico, it will have to find a way to overcome:
* Jorge Campos. The former Galaxy and now Chicago Fire goalkeeper seems to have reclaimed his starting place in the nets. Los Angeles fans are well aware of what Campos is capable of doing or not doing. The Koreans might find him a surprise.
* Claudio Suarez. The most-capped player on the team with more than 100 appearances for his country, he is usually a fixture in the center of the defense but also is capable of playing a defensive midfield role.
* Alberto Garcia Aspe. A tough-as-nails midfielder with a blistering shot on free kicks. He is 30 now and although he has slowed some, his experience makes him invaluable.
* Ramon Ramirez. His film-star looks are deceptive. Ramirez is a tough defender, probably the best left back on the continent, but is even more dangerous in an attacking role on the left wing.
* Luis Garcia. Fans who watched Mexico in the USA ’94 World Cup will remember his goals there. His career should have taken off but didn’t. He remains a capable finisher, however.
* Luis Hernandez. It is the other Luis who could become King Luis here in France if he doesn’t lose his head. The flowing blond mane, the headband, the “Matador” nickname, and the speed and finishing power all mark him as player who could make an impact in the World Cup.
It was Hernandez’s headed goals that sank first Jamaica and then the United States at the Los Angeles Coliseum as Mexico won the Gold Cup earlier this year. The victories gave Lapuente his first trophy as national coach to go along with the four club championships and one Mexico Cup he also has won as a coach.
A series of losses, some lopsided, that occurred as Lapuente experimented with the lineup has shaken the faith of many in his coaching ability. The team even earned a third nickname: Tritanic.
Lapuente has three games in France in which to right the boat. Mexico reached the second round in 1994, only to lose to Bulgaria on penalty kicks. This time, simply reaching the second round will be seen as a success.
On Saturday, Mexico will find South Korea a tougher opponent than Japan, which it defeated, 2-1, in Lausanne, Switzerland on June 1, with Garcia and Garcia Aspe scoring the Mexican goals.
For one thing, South Korea is a stronger, more technically refined team. For another, the Koreans desperately want a first World Cup victory after three tournaments and 11 matches without one. They know it will have to come against Mexico or Belgium because it surely won’t come against the Netherlands.
Of course, Mexico has its own bleak streak to erase: It has never won a World Cup game in Europe.
Campos and company might want to consider mailing those postcards right away.
