Orbelin Pineda shows his frustration as Mexico are held by Ecuador (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Davino had alluded to Copa America being a shop window for Mexico’s younger players; if that was the case, it is now boarded up and carries a sign saying: ‘Nothing to see here’.
Even Santiago Gimenez, who has scored prolifically for Feyenoord of the Netherlands for the past two seasons and attracted the attention of Europe’s top clubs, toiled in a Mexico shirt.
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Losing Edson Alvarez, the captain and lynchpin of the team, to a serious hamstring injury inside the first 30 minutes of the opening game was a huge blow, and Lozano is also entitled to wonder how differently things might have panned out had Orbelin Pineda scored from the penalty spot against Venezuela — but neither of those moments will change the narrative around Mexico’s performances or influence the post-mortem back home.
A penny for the thoughts of the old guard, who had been discarded as part of a rebuilding programme that Lozano describes as ‘renovation’. Raul Jimenez, Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano and Henry Martin — 60 international goals and 217 caps between them — were all left out as part of ‘the process’.
Lozano was asked after the Ecuador game where exactly that process was going, which felt like a fair question in the circumstances.
“We have improved a lot defensively, but now we have to find that balance, and work on that patience, that final touch in the attacking third,” he replied. “We’ve gained a lot from these players in this tournament and it’s an experience that will help us.”
Few would dispute that an out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new approach wasn’t needed after the 2022 World Cup, where an ageing Mexico team were eliminated in the group stage for the first time since 1978, but are we really witnessing ‘generational change’?
Mexico’s Brian Garcia tussles for the ball with Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie (Chris Coduto/AFP via Getty Images)
The average age of Mexico’s Copa America squad was 25.7 years, down from 28.5 years in Qatar 18 months ago, which sounds like a significant difference, but the average age of the team that started the opening group game against Jamaica in Houston was 27.2 years.
Only five of the players in Lozano’s squad were aged 23 and under — and three of the five had never featured at Copa America. To put it another way, the roster has become a lot younger but the age of the team on the pitch hasn’t altered much at all. As for the quality, the results tell a story.
Last summer, the FMF outlined a series of initiatives to bring about long overdue change to help the national setup: steps that involved the federation working more closely with clubs of Liga MX (the top division of domestic football), tapping into the wisdom of experienced overseas voices, playing more high-calibre opponents in friendlies, and forming relationships with European teams to open up opportunities across the Atlantic for young Mexican players.
All nice ideas for the future but, with a (partially) home World Cup on the horizon, it’s the here and now that is a worry — a worry that lots of people in Mexico saw coming long before a ball was kicked at this Copa America.
(Top photo: Mexico striker Santiago Gimenez; Alvaro Avila/Jam Media/Getty Images)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5607276/2024/07/01/mexicos-copa-america-exit-world-cup/
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Publish date : 2024-07-01 07:07:51
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