Patience
Posted on February 11, 2009 18:53
Patience is an attribute that I rarely relate to Mexican futbol. Front offices get impatient when their club’s coach loses a few, leading to his premature exit. Fans get impatient when the national team doesn’t look like Brasil82 in a friendly and vow to never support the Tri again. National Team players get very impatient when they fail to crack a defense. More often than not comes a careless mistake, the other team scores, and then spend the post-game press conference explaining why they were the better team, the score was unjust, and deserved to win. Patience may be preached, but it is not practiced, but when it does make its rare appearance, the results surely follow.
For better or worse, if there was one country that is most associated with Mexican football, that country would be Argentina. Most of the foreigners in the league are from there. If there is a foreign coach, chances are he is from there as well. When club supporters were looking to enhance the game atmosphere, they turned to las barras in Argentina for direction and chants. Diving? Well, let’s just say that Mexicans didn’t need any help there, but Argentines are still the virtuosos in that area. Sadly, the virtue that I most associate with Argentine footie, patience, hasn’t been fully assimilated into the Mexican football culture.
In the last Copa America, the US jumped to an early lead vs. Argentina. The albicelestes didn’t panic, they didn’t change their game plan, they just pressed on, passed, passed, and patiently passed. They US grew tired from chasing, and then the floodgates opened. Believe me, I don’t think Mexico is anywhere near the level of Argentina. A 7-1 aggregate over their last two matches makes that emphatically clear. But since they like to emulate them so much, it would do wonders for their game if they learned to be a little more patient.
I don’t get it
It’s Mexico’s attempts at passing and to walk the ball in that does us in. The US just happens to be more patient about getting that one ball to slip through on the counter-attack, gotta love American “soccer.”
QFT
As a US fan, it does seem like El Tri gets frustrated when they can’t break down our defense. I think the US has confidence from the past few years that the quick individual counter attack or set piece will eventually work (plus it’s about all that’s in our arsenal). We don’t have the individual skill of Mexico’s players, but we patiently stick to the game plan. I agree that if Mexico were able to be patient and adhere to the game plan until the 90+ minute, they would have more success against us. You can visibly see how many of the Mexican players start to shut down when the attack gets stifled multiple times in the first half. The Argentina game from the Copa America is a perfect example of how El Tri could enjoy more success against the US. I just hope they don’t figure that out…
Forgot to mention, TexMex, I enjoy your blog and learning more about Mexican soccer in general. I try to pick out a style or league each year to try and understand in greater detail (I coach youth and college) and this year have chosen la primera division. I try to especially watch Pachuca due to their recent successes and because of ‘el gringo’ Torres. But I really enjoy watching it and make a point of doing so every weekend. Thanks again for your insight.
Join Sven, with your theory of “patience” in mexican soccer. And good luck in that enterprise.
I’m glad Sven is leaving!
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