Jaime Lozano‘s unbridled optimism shouldn’t surprise: Mexico, with better precision, would have pushed through Wednesday night to the Copa America quarterfinals, no matter the glaring, growing deficiencies in its game.
This isn’t among the brighter eras in El Tri annals, far from it, but there were more than enough opportunities, in front of vibrant, pro-Mexico crowd of 72,773 at SoFi Stadium, to take down Venezuela and march into the final eight for the ninth time in 11 tournament appearances.
That those chances were squandered speaks to greater troubles — significant ones threatening to strip Mexico’s long-held spot among the region’s powers — but in the moment, they’re just missed chances, a few more atop a growing pile of them.
And so the 1-0 defeat, built largely upon Venezuela manager Fernando Batista‘s halftime adjustments and punctuated by a missed El Tri penalty kick, wasn’t a “failure.”
At least, that’s how Lozano sees it.
“If you generate opportunities as we did, if the Man of the Match is the opponent’s goalkeeper …,” the Mexico boss responded in Spanish when tossed the F-word on the first query of his postgame media conference. “Yes, things weren’t as we expected, but there are 90 minutes ahead, no one is getting off this ship, and we will make it.
“[That] view is pessimistic to me, but to each his own. But I do think we will make it.”
To the quarterfinals? It will require a victory in Sunday’s Group B finale against Ecuador, which nudged past El Tri on goals difference after bouncing back from its Copa-opening loss to Venezuela with a 3-1 win Wednesday over Jamaica. If they finish a couple of chances, why not?
To greater things, beyond the Copa, toward the 2026 World Cup and whatever comes next? That’s something else entirely.
Lozano is using this tournament, he says, to push the “renovation” ahead of the World Cup and as the last remnants of a terrific group near their ends. It’s reflected in some curious omissions: 28-year-old future San Diego FC winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano; forwards Henry Martin, 31, and Raul Jimenez, 33, and Toluca outside back Jesus Gallardo. 29. They add up to 315 caps and 62 goals.
Throw in legendary goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, still Mexico’s best at 38, and it’s 465 caps and 62 goals.
“Before we set the roster, we thought about getting here with the strongest national team,” Lozano said Tuesday. “Of course, we are interested in winning each match, but we think the World Cup will be an incredible event, playing for the third time in our country, and we want to get there in the best shape possible.”
Copa America, he said, provides a landscape for lesser experienced players to build the needed “mindset” ahead of 2026, a correlation as “one of the most important tournaments for the players in their career.”
This “renovation” seems mostly cosmetic. Eleven from the 26-man roster were part of the El Tri side that failed to emerge from group play at the World Cup in Qatar, and 14 were in the group that won last year’s Concacaf Gold Cup, when the powers did not field their best teams.
There are 11 players who arrived with fewer than 10 caps. Six of them are 26 or older. Only two are younger than 22. Of the group, goalkeeper Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, and Colombian-born winger Julian Quiñones, 27, started both matches. Guillermo Martinez, 29, came off the bench in both, and fellow forward Cesar Huerta, 23, got in 25 minutes Wednesday.
This isn’t a youth movement, for good reason. Mexico is failing to produce the kind of talent that has worn the green shirt over the past four decades — too few players (and more so young players) in Europe, too little Liga MX playing time behind foreign stars, the all-powerful club owners’ loyalty to their brands rather than to the federation, the failure to modernize operations — and so Lozano has only so much material at hand, and less so ahead (for his successors, likely).
The rest of the region is steadily advancing, greatly through the presences of young players in Europe, and the Mexicans is in danger of falling behind. It’s been creeping forward for a couple of years now and shows no sign of retreat.
The El Tri no longer carries that swagger; its game is pedestrian and largely ineffective, the defending suspect — how much Ochoa has meant the past few years! — the options off the bench suspect. Too many domestic players in the pool do not play meaningful roles for their clubs. That impacts everything, especially in a major tournament and against opposition the quality of Venezuela, which behind its finest generation sits fourth six games into Conmebol’s 2026 qualifiers, on target for its first World Cup.
Things have not worked to Lozano’s plan so far. Ochoa’s absence is meant to elevate America’s Luis Malagon, the future at goalkeeper, but a gluteal injury forced him to miss the tournament, leaving the duties to Pumas UNAM’s Gonzalez. Then Mexico lost captain Edson Alvarez, a West Ham United center back, to a hamstring injury a half-hour into the opener. He’s done, too. And then center back Cesar Montes, who inherited the armband from Alvarez, departed at halftime Wednesday with a “muscular” injury. Says Lozano: “We cannot be sure we will have him.”
El Tri prevailed in its opener on a marvelous 69th-minute strike from Monterrey’s Gerardo Arteaga, getting starts at left back, but it didn’t come to life until Jamaican Michail Antonio‘s headed, 50th-minute opener was erased on an offside call. It was hardly an impressive performance.
Mexico looked sharp at the start Wednesday, getting into Venezuela’s box just 21 seconds in, with Uriel Antuna‘s feed just missing Santiago Gimenez at the left post. Carlos Rodriguez fired just wide in the 10th minute. And then the best of chances, with Gimenez one-on-one in the box with goalkeeper Rafael Romo from Luis Chavez‘s brilliant long ball.
Gimenez, at 23 Mexico’s most revered youngster, has scored 49 goals in 86 games, 38 of them in league play, the past two seasons at Feyenoord.
He whiffed. Took a swing, made some contact with the ball, and watched Romo easily knock it down and cover up. It epitomized Mexico’s failures — and Gimenez’s.
Gimenez hasn’t scored in his last 11 games with El Tri.
“There are matches where we’re not able to get Santi the ball as much as we wanted …,” Lozano said the day before. “He has to be calm, he has to flow, he doesn’t have to obsess with scoring. He’s contributed when we have the ball and when we don’t have the ball.”
But he must score goals and he’s proved, at least in the Eredivisie, that he can. Lozano, as always, is an optimist.
“He had a great adaptation in Holland,” Lozano said, “so we’re waiting for him to be a great forward for the national team. It will come in time, and I’m sure he will be scoring plenty.”
In its previous official competition ahead of the Copa America, Mexico fell to the USA last March in the Concacaf Nations League final: Uriel Antuna can’t stop Gio Reyna. (Photo: Concacaf.com) Credit: Concacaf.com
El Tri was the more dangerous side the first 45 minutes but lucky to be even after Venezuela star Salomon Rondon hit the right post in the 34th. That changed when Batista brought on Cristian Casseres Jr. — formerly with the New York Red Bulls, now at Toulouse — at halftime to offset Mexico’s midfield advantage. It was La Vinotinto’s game from that point.
Venezuela, driven by Casseres and wingers Yeferson Soteldo and Eduard Bello, applied steady pressure and came close through Soteldo, testing Gonzalez from the left five minutes into the half, and Rondon, his shot deflected just wide in the 53rd.
Venezuela took the lead four minutes later on Rondon’s penalty kick after Quiñones brought down Jon Aramburu in the box, charging in from the right after Bello fed a nifty, leg-splitting Casseres pass.
Mexico ought to have shared the points. Aided by some poor Venezuelan defending, it created three excellent chances in the box. One of which led to the PK, which Oberlin Pineda, among El Tri’s most experienced players, weakly hit toward the left corner. A diving Romo made a simple save. Another put Martinez one-on-one with Romo at the right post. The keeper made the stop.
And so Ecuador and a potential first-stage exit loom. And that might be the least of Mexico’s problems. Lozano must know this, but he has a job to do — with whatever talent he’s provided— and a role to play.
“This team performs very well in adversity,” he said. “This is what Mexicans do best, [prevail when] in adversity.”
Source link : https://www.socceramerica.com/downward-spiraling-mexico-faces-early-copa-america-exit-yet-coach-jaime-lozano-remains-the-optimist/
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Publish date : 2024-06-27 15:28:24
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