Mexico Is Put at Back of Class

Leonardo Cuellar sent a message to Mexico City on Sunday evening, in plain and unambiguous language.

“It was almost like jumping from the kindergarten to the university level,” Cuellar said.

He was speaking, of course, about Mexico’s debut performance in the Women’s World Cup, a performance on which the final curtain came crashing down Sunday with a 2-0 loss to Italy.

At least that was better than the earlier 7-1 pasting by South American champion Brazil and the 6-0 clobbering by European champion Germany.

“We have improved with every game,” said Cuellar, who coaches the Tricolor. “We improved from the Brazil game to the Germany game and now to the Italy game.

“But I think we have a long way to go. We welcomed the experience because that’s the only way we can establish a program in Mexico, knowing what we have to put together, what kind of players we have to develop, when to start, how to start and who we need to get involved in order to come back to a World Cup and have the opportunity to qualify for the next round.”

Playing an Italian team that was not inspired--both Italy and Mexico had been eliminated from advancing to the quarterfinals by Brazil’s 3-3 tie with Germany earlier Sunday--Mexico did not have the skill to break down the Italian defense.

The goals were scored by Patrizia Panico in the 37th minute, when she beat Mexico goalkeeper Lenny Quinones from close range on the right, and by Paola Zanni six minutes into the second half.

“I strongly believe that you cannot go to a World Cup without a national program,” Cuellar said. “You cannot compete against these very powerful teams by just recruiting players from the streets and bringing some from abroad. That’s not the way to do it.”