🇲🇽 ¿Ya pa' qué?
Amelia Lopez reflects on Mexico's WCQ failure & what it means for the women's game in the country
SAN NICOLÁS DE LOS GARZA, Mexico — In front of a record crowd of 20,522 fans, Monica Vergara entered her final group stage match of the CONCACAF W Championship tournament with a lineup as close as possible to what those fans in the stadium would have wanted - at least by the standards she has set so far in July.
And, for the first time throughout the entire tournament, with that ‘almost-solid’ lineup, the Mexican National Team went the first 15 minutes without conceding a goal (a very close opportunity from Midge Purce fortunately hit the post around the 14th minute of play).
Then the 20-minute mark passed.
Then 30.
Then 40.
In fact, Mexico fought the World Champions the entire first half.
And did it again in the second half.
Yet, for all the very hard work Mexico put forward over the course of 89 minutes, a potentially offside goal from Kristie Mewis stood. Any help Jamaica started to give Mexico with the goal differential as they dominated Haiti no longer mattered.
It’s hard not to focus on time when you think about how much of it Monica Vergara - for lack of a better phrase - wasted.
It was all too late.
It was too late for the fans to decide to show up.
It was too late for Vergara to decide to play a team that held possession, challenged their opponent and showed an honest connection on the field.
Even before the match started, as fans sang along to the national anthem, a wave of sadness came over me.
There was a Spanish phrase that started going around as the lineup was announced.
Ya pa’ qué? (What for now?) (Jon’s note: Sort of a, ‘Why even bother, it’s too late…’ vibe)
It felt like such a disservice to witness such an exciting and tightly fought 90 minutes of soccer, with a decently filled stadium, given everything that had already happened ... and everything that wouldn’t happen.
It feels like we’ve seen a lot of close calls in Mexican soccer over the last couple of years.
Whether it was Graham Zusi receiving Sainthood thanks to a last minute goal in 2013, a late penalty awarded in the 2019 Gold Cup semifinal against Haiti or a number of stumbles in this recent cycle leading to Qatar, the Mexican senior men’s national team never has had to pay for its close calls.
While I didn’t want to see this unstable Mexico side, one that hadn’t won a game or even scored the entire tournament, receive a playoff berth in this way - off a miraculous close call - that saddening feeling of disservice did linger inside me.
Why did it have to be women’s soccer that suffered this harsh consequence?
Sure, the men’s U-20 side also had failed to earn its own ticket to its respective World Cup, as well as the Olympics. But no one in Mexico questions the need to invest in men’s soccer after disasters of that nature or begins to doubt its validity.
For more than 50 years, Mexican women’s soccer has worked to prove its validity. Even when history shows the team’s capacity to be one of the best in the world, some hurdle shows up to stand its way.
Sometimes it is men who make false promises. Sometimes it is a system that treats the women’s game as a secondary responsibility. Sometimes it is a coach that won’t let go of her experimentation until it is too late.
This is now the second consecutive Women’s World Cup that Mexico won’t make it to, but the first time they miss the tournament having so much structure, so much media attention and so many talented players available.
Many will ask, Ya pa’ qué?, about Mexican women’s soccer after Monday night.
And there will be many that will continue to stand up, fight the good fight and answer that question as the league grows and more girls gain access to properly develop their skills.
It’s just hard not to think of time right now.
All that’s been wasted and all that will pass until we get another chance again.
 | A guest post by
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Nice job on the guest post! Hope to see more content from you in the future here.
"Why did it have to be women’s soccer that suffered this harsh consequence?"
Hits home when you remember the FMF (allegedly?) wanted to use the women's team as scapegoats, having them incur the empty-stadium sanctions that FIFA imposed on Mexico after the crowd incidents in men's WCQ matches.