Mexico’s soccer team gets another chance to work things out
Stuttgart, Germany — The World Cup opener is less than three weeks away yet Mexico’s team remains a work in progress.
Which qualifies as both good news and bad.
It’s bad news because it means there are still some questions that must be answered. With its final group of European-based players having spent just a week in training camp, Mexico remains unsettled on the back line and inefficient up front.
But that’s good news, too, because it means the team is, well... it’s making progress.
Take the 3-1 loss Monday to England. On the scoreboard, it matched Mexico’s most one-sided loss in nearly two years.
In other ways, however, it was a valuable learning experience -- one whose lessons Mexico hopes to put to good use Wednesday night in Freiburg, Germany, against the Netherlands, another top World Cup contender which will be playing for just the second time since November.
“I am bothered that we lost,” Mexican Coach Javier Aguirre said. “I’m not going to make excuses. But I am satisfied with some things. We showed confidence, character, personality.”
Mexico also showed what could be a good part of its World Cup starting lineup when Aguirre sent Rafael Marquez, Efrain Juarez, Carlos Salcido and Francisco Javier Rodriguez out together on defense for the first time this year. And for Marquez, who rejoined the Mexican team from Barcelona last week, that was important.
National teams never have enough time together, he complained, which make friendlies like the one against England important. A mistake there, he said, gives teams time to make corrections before the World Cup.
Look for Mexico to also try correcting a few things on the offensive end against the Netherlands. Because although El Tri controlled the ball for nearly two-thirds of the England game and got off nearly twice as many shots, they scored one goal.
And that, Aguirre said, simply won’t do.
“We played man to man with England. Every one of the lines played very well,” he said. “But they had five scoring chances and converted three. We had five [chances] and scored once.
“The difference was efficiency. If we want to be one of the favorites, like the English, we need to be better at putting the ball into the net, not having it be kicked into ours.”
Aguirre said Mexico would be without 33-year-old striker Guillermo Franco against the Netherlands. Franco, who scored Mexico’s goal Monday, did not play in the second half against England after an ankle strain.
“Holland is very dynamic, very fast, they have a lot of talented players,” Aguirre said of his team’s next test. “For sure we’re going to have to make a lot of changes to compete.”
