Is the Mexican Players Mentality Changing?

remember the interview with chucho, when he was asked how his team would do, and he said he expects them to win it. he was then told to be a little more realistic and say perhaps quarter-final.

it begins right there.

it begins by not being scared of the traditional powers and not being scared to say you're going to win.

if you go in thinking you're going to lose, you will.

 

Ratones Verdes Revisited

I noticed the change for a while now ; This goes back to the Copa America finals appearance in 93 and from there the players mentality slowly built up. In WC USA 94 Mexico won the group over Italy, in France 98 they made some sweet comebacks against Belgium and Holland, a year later Mexico defeated Brazil to win the Confederations Cup.

All the younger generation players that grew up watching the exploits of the above mentioned Tri-Color now have a diffrent mentality, they see Mexico beat Brazil to hoist a trophy not once but twice : Gold Cup 95 and Confeds Cup 99 so theres the 'Si se puede' attitude.

When the U-17 mnt reached the final I was confident that they had a good chance of winning the tourney, and I seriously cant recall ever feeling as confident for a mexican nt when facing a historically superior national team.

Not many (noobs) here rememeber the Mar de Plata 95 games, which Mexico lost to Argentina on penalty kicks but that side was a joy to watch, some very silky passing from Braulio Luna and Cuauh. Anyways, that generation of players maintained a good level of play for Mex, sans the Meza era, so we should be confident of what the Golden Generation has in store for us, these kids know what it is like to be in a winning team.

Also I would like to contribute the change in mentality to Rafael Marquez, unlike Hugo Sanchez who was unreal, Marquez is a player most can relate to, if we look at his qualities overall we get a smart player who works hard, and he has been very sucessful.

Hugo set the bar quite high but Marquez has proven you can be just as sucessfull withouth being a phenomenal player. I believe this influences younger Mexican players to go abroad. Also having Gio at Barca since a young age give the kids back home more role models.

 

Player's mentality has been changing.. wether it is slowly or not, we can all notice the difference..havent heard anyone call us "Los ratones verdes".. in years now.

 

I agree will all your comments since Mexico started playing agaisnt the South American the level has gotten better!

Now, it is time to show with a Copa America or COPA Libertadores win.

But the most important is for los "directivos" to learn how to do business properly and handle players.

I have said before Are you telling me in a Country of over 100 million we can only count with are fingers above average players?

SOmething to think about!!!!!!!!!1

 

No, Chivas won cause they had talent. Didnt matter if "no one thought they were gonna win", like you say or if everyone thought they were gonna win.

Mentality is the least of our problems. We just need more talented players like Marquez, Giovanni, Guardado, Salcido. That's it.

 

you underestimate mentality.

you can have loads of talent , but that doesn't guarantee anything (holland, spain,portugal for example.)

as far as anyone thinking they were going to win, it doesn't matter who believed in them, as long as they believed in themselves.

a loser or conformist won't get you anywhere, even with talent.

 

The Mexican game has improved because of better scouting and better fuerzas basicas. The clubs are doing a better job. That's it.

Has nothing to do with mentality. We just have better pools to choose from now. The talent has been there. Like a diamond in the rough.

 

México ya tiene tiempo jugándole de tú a tú a cualquier potencia. Ahora está a punto de -en vez de decir "les vamos a jugar de tú a tú"-poder decir, "les vamos a partir toda la madre".

 

you can have a bunch of stiffs with the best mentality and that guarantees you even less. Take Iran for instance, say they had the best mentality in the world, they still AIN'T winning JACK S H IT. Say Iran with the BEST mentality or Brazil with not the greatest mentality but the BEST talent. Brazil kicks their AZZ up and down the field silly. Not even close.

So yes, way overrated.

 

u just contradicted yourself... brazil hold the most talent in the world but only made it to the quarter finals in the last WC ... u just havent thought things thru... its all about mentality regardless of what u all think. just look at kikin... he has no talent.. but he works hard and has the right attitude and he succeds! hes now at benfica... even jurgen klinsman said it once in an interview pre-WC. he brought in a team psychologist and look at were they went!.. they went far and entertained... he even mentioned that a team psychologist should be administered during the u-15 teams and over.. to start from the beggining to motivate them and to give them the right work ethic .. its all about mentality

 

Its really a combination of things, mentality is one thing, but talent is another thing. If everything was won on mentality then I would be playing in the NFL right now, but I am not. I have a winning mentality, I have the mentality that no one is better than me, but we all dam well know that there is always someone better no matter what mentality a person has. Like Jimmy said, Iran could have had the best mentality in the world, but the bottom line is, without the talent there was no chance in hell they would have done anything in the WC.

Do you honestly believe that the problem with Brazil in this WC was mentality?? I can dam well guarantee that not one player on that brazil squad thought for one second, that they could lose a game this WC. Imo, the Mexicans mentality hasnt really been changing, for a long time im sure they have felt that they could beat anyone. The difference these days and in the future is that we have better youth programs that are putting out some great talent. Obviously Kikin has to have talent, if he had no talent he would have never been a pro player. Kikin didnt make it to benfica just on mentality, kikin made it to benfica because of talent, hard work, attitude, and i guess you can say because of mentality also, but like said mentality isnt everything.

 

Yeah that Mono Gallardo really nailed his penalty in that Panamericana final.

The one thing, small thing I noticed this time around with the players for WC 2006 and somewhat in 2002 was when the media asked a player how far they thought they could go in the tournament, most player (if not all) didn't give an exact round in where they thought they would bow out and finish the tournament. The players would just say they came to win it or were playing to go as far as possible taking it a game at a time.

As the years keep passing you hear less and less players give more cold water in the face replies. Years before you would hear various players on the team prior to the tournaments in 94 and 98 saying they would be glad getting out of the group stage or getting past the round of 16. I mean on one hand they didn't come off as delusional and get laughed at if they went down in 0-3, but it also seemed somewhat like they were limiting themselves mentally.

Though it always seems like culture is also brought up as one of the factors for why the players think like they think.

 

I hope from here on Mexico can build on this

 

no no no no jimmy....

i never said it was all you needed.

but talent without mentality will limit you.

think of those national teams i listed.

think greece 2004.

fluke? maybe.

but they showed talent is not everything.

 

Iran had the best mentality?? So some dorks who post on a message board are overconfident about their chances and that means Iran had the best mentality?

"Mentality" is not limited to thinking you will win a game. I'm sure most teams go into a game with the intent to win. "Mentality" can be used to describe one's self confidence, one's ability to handle pressure, one's ability to work well with teammates and a bunch of other stuff. Mentality, or confidence in yourself and team is very important and can play a big part in how you use your talent.

A good example of "mentality" (or lack of good mentality) is Landon Donovan in the last World Cup. Many US fans noticed that late in the game against Ghana, he had a chance to make a play on his own and try to score, but instead he passed off the ball. It showed that he didn't seem to have confidence in his ability to score. That's just one facet of mentality. Successful athletes are the ones who can combine their talent with a positive "winning" mentality.

 

The real answer to the question is Unfortunately NO !!!

We continue to see that when it counts we have a mental lapse or breakdown!!! It happened during the world cup against Argentina, although some put the blame completely on the coach, the players simply do not have character or that wining mentality and even Maradona pointed that out.

And it happened again in the Libertadores where Chivas went from playing a great game at Velez only to play their worst two games of the year the following week against Sao Paulo and when I watched those 2 games one thing was evident and clear, there was NO EFFORT on the part of the players!!

When you lose but you give it your all you can live with that but when you lose and dont even put up a fight, when you let pressure get to you to the point that you cant even compete I would say that it is a mentality problem and a character issue !!! that is exactly what Ive seen from Mexican National teams in World cups, Copa Americas and others. Same result Ive seen from teams at the club level once they compete at the International level wether its the Libertadores or the Sudamericana.

And im also tired of excusing a loss due to penalty kicks !!! that is a mentality issue as much as it is lack of practice and poor studying on the opposite teams......

 

No one here ever said Iran had the best mentality, notice he said, say they had the best mentality. They were just used as an example.

 

"Mentality" is not limited to thinking you will win a game. I'm sure most teams go into a game with the intent to win. "Mentality" can be used to describe one's self confidence, one's ability to handle pressure, one's ability to work well with teammates and a bunch of other stuff. Mentality, or confidence in yourself and team is very important and can play a big part in how you use your talent.

The menatality of the game is changing everywhere. Mexico needs more confident players...starting with the youth.

 

Bollocks, Chivas went balls out against Sao Paolo, the Brazilians just made better shots of their chances. Give credit where credit is due, their coach was able to hold down Chivas at Jalisco and their keeper was massive in both games.

In the second leg Chivas created the oportunities to tie but were unlucky. A missed pk, a missed sitter ect ect. Other than that Sao Paolo played a better match and justly won.

And dont forget that Chivas is one of the few clubs in Libertadorers that goes into any venue and plays all out, that takes balls and confidence.

 

Its not fair to use the Libertadores as a gauge of mexican mentality. Mexican teams have done very well in that tournament with Chivas, Cruz Azul, and America all doing very well in the recent past.

The main hurdle seems to be in international play. in the world cup the team played all out. There was no impresion that they were just happy to be tied with arentina. I will say though that mexico has traditionaly brought their A game when playing Brazil or Argentina. Where I feel they need to improve is against strong opponents away from home. No matter how different the mentality is, Mexico needs to get some results in europe, south america, and maybe even africa to solidify this new mentality.