Mexico Primed for More Success
Ricardo Lavolpe has packed away his blue jeans. In their stead, Mexico’s coach now favors a suit and tie.
Today, Mexico plays Angola in Hanover as the Tricolores try to get into the second round of the World Cup and beyond. If Lavolpe’s tie loosens and his shirt collar gets unbuttoned, blame Germany’s muggy summer weather, not the varied pressures of the match.
It promises to be an intriguing game, pitting the Africans’ size, power and speed against the North Americans’ skill, touch and guile.
There are sure to be times during the 90 minutes when Lavolpe will reach into his suit pocket, fumble around for a pack of cigarettes and then remember why he can’t seek relief in that direction.
After Mexico had defeated Iran, 3-1, in Nuremberg on Sunday, FIFA’s powers-that-be informed Lavolpe that, as world soccer’s governing body, they would prefer that he not smoke on the bench. It sets a bad example, they said.
So Lavolpe will chew gum or chew his nails or chew out his players instead.
The Argentine-born coach suddenly is being hailed as something of a tactical genius for the timely substitutions he made against Iran, turning a close game into a relatively easy victory. One wire story even spoke of Lavolpe’s “tactical nous,” as if he or many other coaches could differentiate between nous and gnu.
Truth be told, it is Mexico’s players who are carrying their country on its World Cup journey, just as they did when Mexico reached the semifinals of the Confederations Cup in Germany last year, defeating Brazil along the way.
Lavolpe calls the shots, but the real brain behind the team is assistant coach Jaime Ramirez.
Tonight, Ramirez’s task is to figure out how to cover for the absence of gangly striker Jared Borgetti, Mexico’s all-time leading goal scorer. Borgetti suffered a muscle tear in his left thigh in the Iran match and is sidelined at least until the second round.
“It is no longer difficult for him to walk,” Jose Luis Serrano, the team doctor, told Reuters this week, “but we are still going slowly.”
The loss is not insignificant. Borgetti has scored 38 goals for the national team, and his height makes him a definite aerial threat. Now, corner kicks and free kicks will have to be planned differently.
If Lavolpe and Ramirez had concocted a plan, they were not sharing it. Training games have been closed to the media this week.
It was Francisco “Kikin” Fonseca who replaced the injured Borgetti on Sunday and it probably will be Fonseca who lines up alongside two-goal scorer Omar Bravo, and fellow forward Guillermo Franco, tonight if Lavolpe employs a three-man front.
Not that Fonseca was saying that.
The Iran match was tied, 1-1, when he entered the fray. Then things changed. The insertion of midfielders Luis Ernesto Perez and Zinha into the lineup seven minutes before Borgetti’s injury made a huge difference, but Fonseca hinted that he might have been the catalyst for the victory.
“I’m happy with my World Cup debut and happy that my team won,” he said with a smile.
Meanwhile, another more-than-capable forward, Jesus Arellano, who has yet to see a minute of World Cup playing time, waits on the bench, hoping his turn will come.
Lavolpe praised his players’ “good use of the ball” against Iran and said he wanted to see more of the same. “We have to have that for 90 minutes, not only 45 like we had in the first game,” he said.
Mexico closes first-round play against group favorite Portugal on Wednesday in Gelsenkirchen.
Said defender Rafael Marquez, who won the European Champions League title with FC Barcelona this year: “We have to stay calmer for the next games and make fewer mistakes.”
Angola Coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves, whose team was edged, 1-0, by Portugal in its opener, described his side as “one of the most humble” in the field. “We recognize Mexico are very strong, but we will complicate things for them.”
Angola needs at least a tie today to stay alive in the tournament. A win for Mexico, combined with a tie or a loss by Iran, will send Lavolpe’s team through to the next round.
In that case, the taciturn Lavolpe might revert to his usual attire of blue jeans, blazer, white shirt, red tie and scowl. He might even light up.
Lightening up is another matter.
