Rumor: MEXICO out of the playoff due to ineligible player? [update: nope, they're fine]

Well Nigeria is going for U17 title #4, so maybe the winner of the game can also get the Title "Best youth (male) program in the world"

If Mexico wins, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico will all have 3 U17 World Cup titles. (Mexico would get the upper hand because they would have the 2 most recent titles).

 

Since 2010 Mexico will have had two U17 titles, a 3rd place finish at a U20 tournament, and a U23 Olympics title.
[If they beat Nigeria]

It doesn't tell you they're about to win the World Cup or dominate CONCACAF or any of that stuff. It just tells you that they have a good talent pool to build from. They have all the talent and organizational fire power at the FMF to completely screw it up, however.

 

I think that has been the Nigerian problem, Mexico has tons of resources but the FMF is still incompetent (too many chiefs IMO), The Nigeria FA is just incompetent. (Nigeria also has 2 second place and 1 third place finishes in the U20 and 1 Olympic gold).

 

Whoa dude! You're the one who was putting Mexico and best youth program in the world into the same sentence. I think they're good but mostly they're good at the youngest division. Like I said, the countries who have a true pipeline from youth to national team tend to do best at U-20. That's not the case with Mexico.

As for Ghana, we've met twice and they've beat us twice but that's really just about all they've ever done. That pretty much sums up their world cup record. It's not like they have a truly elite youth program either.

 

Youth = Youngest right.
Is the U20 also called youth? (Maybe it is).

I don't think there is anything crazy about saying Mexico has one of the best (maybe the best) youth system (U17 if you prefer) in the world right now.

Ghana is not elite for sure, they do not belong in the same category with Nigeria, Brazil or Mexico, at least not in the U17, but you were the one that brought them up.

Ghana has done well in the U20; 1 Championship, 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze.

Argentina and Brazil are the elite in the U20.

 

The under 20 tournament used to be known as the World Youth Cup until 2005. It got that name only because when it was established in the 1980's it was the only tournament for youth. I think a nations youth programme now covers both under 17's and under 20's, with many players progresssing through both tournaments. Most people I know would refer to both tournaments as youth tournaments.

 

Good background, although the inaugural World Youth Championship was a bit earlier than that (1977).
http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/u20worldcup/tunisia1977/index.html

 

It is a combination of different factors, from the ridiculous way the federation is run (with the team owners in charge) to the day to day management and coaching of the team. By the time this team lost to Honduras, this team was emotionally shot and the FMF took a very long time to make a change.

However, there is another factor that to me is very important that I feel no one has talked about. Mexico had such a big home field advantage because playing here in Mexico City is very draining. In the 90s we rarely had any players in Europe making the trip to play at home in the Azteca. In 2006 and 2002 we only had Marquez. In 2010, we had 3 players that play in Europe and had solidified themselves on the team (Gio, Guardado and Guille). During this cycle we had, on average, 6 players starting at the Azteca . It is almost as if the thing that made this stadium such advantageous has now made it so difficult to play in because our opponent only have to get used to the altitude once every hex, where half of our team has to go through the same process 5 times.

I think Mexico has to look very seriously at the possibility of moving qualifiers out of here and maybe somewhere closer to Europe. Maybe New York?

 

Some refer to the U23 Olympic tournament as a youth tournament as well.

On Big Soccer it is, as that is where the Olympic team is discussed.

If you factor in the Olympics, then Mexico has finished AT LEAST 3rd in 4 of the last 5 major youth tournaments (2011 and 2013 U17, 2011 U20, and 2012 U23). They've also won a bunch of other major youth tournaments, such as the last two U18 Milk Cups and the 2012 Toulon tournament.

It's one of the many reasons why this Mexico swoon was quite shocking.

[At the youth levels its actually the US that's been struggling recently................failing to qualify for the 2011 U20WC, 2012 U23 Olympics, and 2013 U17 World Cup]

 

Fortunately for us, the Germany youth levels are still churning out talent.

 

Spain sees a need/opportunity to naturalize players.

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1608854/diego-costa-called-spain-squad?cc=5901

 

And this is what scares me. The top nations starting to do this.

 

Starting?

Puskas? Pizzi? Senna?

 

True could go back to Di Stefano, and even in the 1930's Mussolini just imported a bunch of Argentinians. But hasn't been as much of the case in the modern area (that I am aware of but maybe there are a bunch I have never heard of).

 

Which is it? In the first paragraph you say that the U-20 is a better indicator of future national team success. Then in the second paragraph say that a team that has 1st and 3rd place finishes in the last 3 U-20 World Cups hasn't really done very much of note.

 

Exactly. Mexico naturalizing players and bringing in guys who may or may not have had youth appearances for other nations is not a "panic move" (in and of itself) -- it is just in line with the standard operating procedure in international football.

 

It's never going to become all that commonplace, because Spain produces better talent than most of what they'd be able to poach. The Costa situation is very unique, since it's incredibly unusual that a Brazilian would turn down a call-up from Brazil, and that's one of the only nations that is producing players that Spain would even have an interest in taking.

 

Not trying to start a fight. But these were cases where these guys had been capped by there home country (just not cap tied)? And where they all stictly naturalized or where any eligible for passports through parents?

 

I think the "panic" part may come from the observation that these naturalized citizens, particularly Gimenez, are no better than they have now.

 

None of those situations are exactly like Chaco. And I agree it is somewhat puzzling and disheartening.

However, no country is putting some plan together to bring in players to naturalize them.

It's just not happening. And it likely won't happen. And if it does, FIFA will likely do something to combat it.

But I agree FIFA needs to clarify here.

 

The same argument could (likely) be made about any ("foreign/naturalized") player acquisition or use by any national team.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Had heard about this case before and it bothered and seemed another step beyond the norm. Just checking if this had become common I just hadn't noticed.

And I agree that FIFA really needs to clarify.I am concerned about it creeping in. What is just a few players now becomes the norm in 20 years and nobody is really sure when the shift was made.

 

Here's what is wrong with Mexico....................................

From Sven-Goran Eriksson's new book
==============
But the thing Eriksson returns to repeatedly is his incredulity that owners had such power to meddle in his job.

"It was more or less the club owners that decided how the national team should be run, at least that's how things ran before I got there," he writes.

Eriksson reserves particular ire for Chivas owner Jorge Vergara, whom he had to meet to explain the Feb. 11, 2009, loss to the United States in Columbus, Ohio.

Eriksson says, "It was almost like I was answering accusations at some kind of tribunal," and adds that Vergara demanded to know why the goalkeeping coach hadn't been fired and why the team stayed in a certain hotel.

"Each question was dumber than the next"

 

Oh Jorge.....................

Tom Marshall ‏@mexicoworldcup 13h
Chivas collapse! A fitting end to a disastrous season. Monterrey take the lead in the 90th … MTY 2-1 Chivas.

Tom Marshall ‏@mexicoworldcup 13h
The end of the Apertura for Chivas: 17 games played, 2 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses. Major changes expected in the offseason.

Not content with only destroying Chivas and whatever hope ChivasUSA had of being successful.................he's been turning his attentions to the Mexican national team.

They should put the phrase:

"Each question was dumber than the next"

.............on the top of the Chivas and ChivasUSA crests. It makes no sense, just like the decisions made by those clubs.