BSMX's Official Mexican National Team Random Thoughts Thread

Which penalty by Bravo? Sorry cant remember that one...
But i do remember the one osorio missed vs argentina on the confederaciones 2005 damn we were so close....

 

Osorio is an Argie agent.

 

vs portugal

 

This motherf*cker sucks at everything

 

I thought he was in pretty good form during La Volpe's tenure. Now he's just awful.

 

I love the Borg, but c'mon. We hold the Argies to zero if he doesn't own goal that shit.

 

it pisses me off that our most recent games against the Argays are losses that have been attributed to major fuck ups by our players

WC 2006: Borgetti's own goal to tie up the game blowing our 1-0 lead which led the game to extra time

Copa America '07: Oswaldo comes out stupidly for an air ball, misses, and leaves Heinze by himself to score right before the end of the first half

WC 2010: aside from the fact that the ref screwed us in allowing an offside goal, the dumbass Osorio put the final nail on the coffin with his dumbass blunder in giving the ball away to Higuain to score the 2-0

 

Aguirre gave away the game when he said the players had to have a perfect performance to beat Argentina.

Talk about mental midgetry.

 

Well, it's true.

We weren't going to beat them playing our game. We had to be focused and hit them on fast counters while being smart with possession.

Remember 2004 against the argies?

LaVolpe with some serious WW2 bunker style tactics.

 

The ironic thing is that he was pissed supposedly because everyone in the media were expecting Mex to lose. Which he made sure of when he put in Bofo...

Another thought:
Wouldn't it be better for levels NT quality in the long run, for Mex to miss a WC. Think about it, if Mex missed a WC, millions and millions of dollars would be lost due to the tv rights and shirt sells etc.. That would surely be a huge wake up call everyone surrounding Mex Fut. The fans would be mad and pressure by not going to stadiums when they play. The big directivos would get mauled by the big bosses who would lose the money. Everyone controlling Mex Fut, would will realize that they have to get serious when it comes to developing a good NT. Maybe a new league (more competitive) would be set up, restrictions on foreignors, build up of lower divisions, more exporting of players to europe, etc. The bosses would surely not want another disaster like missing a wc would represent and would now put more importance on football not money. It would be a good lesson for Mex Fut and in the end I think Mex would be better NT for it. Like George Lopez says if we miss a WC "that way you'll learn". Lol

 

WTF? I would hate for the Salvies/Ticos/Canucks/Jamaicans/Katrachos to take our world cup spot and stay in the group stages of a group we could've won! Besides we already missed the 1990 and 1982 world cups. The nads and Picante would have a field day with this!!!

 

I would hate it too but maybe its the best thing Mex need right now.

 

It's going to take a lot more than missing a world cup, to fix all the things you just mentioned.

 

Maybe, say if they were in the Conmebol Qualifying, and they would (at their current level) have to work their butts off to qualify. Something would have to give. Either the big directivos would do nothing (Mexico stays at current level) and they face a high level of risk of not qualifying regularly, which would suck (but eventually, imo lead to the second option). Or they would get serious and work for a better NT, to atleast increases Mex chances of qualifying, therefore having to change some of the first things mentioned.

 

Interesting...

I sat in a classroom this weekend lead by one of the FMF GK coaches Franscisco Piña Rivera and he said the most commendable thing about the Argentinos is their mentality and the mentality the coach sells to the team. Every time they step on the field the coach tells them they are world beaters and the players believe it too.

We hit the crossbar twice against Argentina during the run of play before they scored. We got the skill, physique; we are lacking mentally.

 

This is very true
I used to play on a team of Argentinos and i can vouch for this and not only that but they come on to the field y se parten la madre to prove it.
But I think it is also the reason why many Mexicans dont like the Argentines even before all of this recent futbol rivalry.

 

Did he have any insights into our goalkeepers, raw talent, level of play, if some are better suited for different team styles, etc.? Just this weekend, I was thinking how it'd be nice to have a legitimate goalkeeper analyst on some of these tv shows or writing weekly columns, not just say an ex-goalkeeper who rarely talks about actual goalkeeping. It's easy to judge goalies on their reflexes during amazing saves, but what about positioning so the saves don't have to be amazing? What about their leadership in positioning the defense?

 

Does that mentality come from being a WC champion? or is it something embedded into the argentine psyche?

I'm leaning towards the former.

Yeah, I watched the game with some Salvadorean friends and they were very impressed. We were doing well, limited their ball possession and tried to hit them on fast counters. Once we went down 1-0, the players crumbled.

 

What's the more appropriate mental approach- us against the giant "Buckle down, if we play a perfect game we can win this, they're not invincible" or a business as usual "They're just another team, here's our gameplan"?

I think we've come a long way from where we were before in terms of mentality, where we'd have faith in playing at the Azteca, but not so much on the road.

The Argentina situation is interesting. The uneven matches (say the last 3, CA, San Diego friendly, WC) were not that common before. In official competitions, 2006 was an overtime loss, 2005 went to penalties, 2004 we won, 1993 was a tie and a loss.

 

He commented on a few goalies. The one I remembered was the guy that was at Atletico Madrid and now at FC Dallas.

He did mentioned the ideal height for an FMF goalie is between 1.85 and 1.90. He also said they aren't discriminating the shorter goalies and will promote them if they stand out. He gave Conejo's jumping ability as an example.

His answers were roundabout. He mentioned our goalies are better than Spanish goalies when it comes to playing the ball with the feet. In his opinion Valdes was a better goalie than Casillas because Barca requires Valdes to be able to play with the ball at his feet, and there was not a big difference in their goalkeeping technique. Of the Argentines he said, "with all due respect [since they have won the world cup] their goalies aren't as good technically but their mentality is incredible." "Cuando pisan la cancha ellos se creen los mejores del mundo"

Of the US goalkeepers he said he admired their work ethic in particular. He did a clinic and used 5 girls about u18 to work with and complemented on their learning ability and work ethic. He also mentioned the US goalkeepers were good in the technical aspects of goalkeeping.

Considering a professional will make a mistake once in every 10 plays. Asking players to play perfect game is unreasonable.

What I would say to the team is after doing my homework and having a good gameplan, "We are the better TEAM, lets execute our gameplan and we prove it." Maradona, Menotti and Bilardo won the world cup. What World Cup has Tevez and Co won? Youth cups? We have one of those. Nigeria was one many, what has that youth success brought them on the senior level?

To those saying we haven't done the work. I think it was genius of the FMF and Mexican teams to hire past Argentine World Cup winners to teach us the game from their perspective. Can we improve? Of course.

 

I don't buy into that.

When you win World cups at the senior level, dominate them at the U-20 level, export talent to that many top teams around the world and also have a top tier domestic league that can put several clubs in libertadores title contention, then you are bound to believe you will win when you step on the pitch. I know I would.

Sounds like a lazy way to analyze why they are winners.

 

Obviously the mentality is not only reason just the aspect that was being focused on, but it is interesting to look at that fact that after so much success Argentina is is always striving to be the best.

 

Interesting read on the mental aspect of the game.. IMO, I also think that culturaly Mexico is still lacking when compared to the likes of Argentina and Brazil. Just going back to the early 90's we could see how the atmosphere, with the exception of UNAM, was very different in the majority of MFL stadiums compared to what it is now.

It was common to see matracas and the mom and pop chiquitibum chants. All of the barra bravas, ultras, rebel's etc are very recent. I use this as an example just to pin point one aspect of the game that we have seen changed in recent years. Very similiar to how the core of Mexico's squad now plays abroad.

In this sense there are many aspects of the game that Mexico has not or has yet to fully develope in. So, yes the mantal aspect also plays a role and we have seen a change at least in the Youth teams where we can compete (with the belief) to win the Youth Tourneys compared just showing up to see how far the team can get; like the Sr Nat team's 5th WC game mentality.

 

What I don't like about the Mexican Nation Team (note i'm a Mex fan) is that like stated before their mentality isn't very good. They are more likely to underachieve rather than over. For example, in WC 94, they were playing Bulgaria, Mexico was widely considered superior to them. In a documentary I saw, a Mexican American waiter was working at the restaurant/bar where the Bulgarians had decided to go the night before the game. He then tells the story. They were expecting to lose the next day so they decided to enjoy themselves and started to drink heavily. Many of them got drunk and they spent a large portion of the night awake having fun at the bar.

The Bulgarians; a lot of them (if not the whole team) were crudos and desvelados the next day for the game. Not only was Mexico better than them in football, but they weren't even in the best conditions.

However, in the match against Mexico in a stadium painted green, in a stadium full of Mexican Americans and Mexicans. Having their best player ever in the bench (inexplicably) . Mexico, while playing at home virtually and in the best form they could be; lose.

Mexico managed the incredible feat of losing to them. How? Why? A lot of the big long time stars of the Mexican League missed the penalties horribly, while the Bulgarians still a bit dizzy from the night before didn't. It's something that gets me to wonder.Why? How? How it it that Mexico managed this incredible feat of losing to a lesser team under such favorable conditions. I still scratch my head.