🇺🇸🇲🇽 Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss? Despite tweaks, a 1-1 friendly draw showed familiar problems for the US, Mexico

After two games in charge, this is the one in which Mexico manager Diego Cocca decided to put his stamp on the team.

From former manager Tata Martino’s 4-3-3, Cocca shifted into his preferred three-man back line, trying to make the players work in his system rather than finding a system that works with his players.

It’s not crazy. El Tri finds itself with a lack of goalscorers but plenty of modern center backs, capable fullbacks and the knowledge needed to switch up the system.

The result? A 1-1 draw with the United States in a friendly that at times brought echoes of the 2022 cycle and the frustration fans experienced during it, even as each nation looks to move on.

Anthony Hudson doesn’t need to put his stamp on the United States. No one expects him to be the manager in three months, and rather than representing fresh blood on the bench, he represents a safe pair of stands who slid over from an assistant seat.

Yet, he also tried something a bit different. Like his club manager FC Dallas’ Nico Estévez, Hudson asked Jesus Ferreira to slip a bit further back in a more creative role.

via @USMNT

Once Ferreira slipped back up to the No. 9 position, he scored the equalizing goal, finishing off a move started by fullback Sergiño Dest moments after Mexico came inches short of doubling its lead.

“A lot of good moments happened, too. I’ll say it again, and I won’t get tired of saying it, I still see the glass as half-full and I think there were a lot of good things, starting with the team’s personality,” Cocca said. “When you have a day and a half with the team, you’ve got to be really specific, work on only a few things and we were up to the task.”

At worst, Cocca will be able to say he started establishing the team’s identity. Is that an identity fans want? For a moment it looked like Mexico would accomplish one of the ‘three g’s’ demanding supporters look for: Ganar gustar and golear¹

Uriel Antuna took advantage of a series of poor American decisions and stayed cool under pressure to open the scoring.

But while Mexico hadn’t been poor at all in the first 45 minutes and controlled the second half well, it hadn’t exactly been 2002 Brazil.

Of course, how many games did Mexico fans watch with Tata Martino’s teams not only playing boring but failing to find the type of breakthrough Antuna had or the chances Erick Sanchez nearly converted from outside the area?

There were plenty. And the attack, utilizing Jesus Gallardo and Julian Araujo to get depth and allowing Luis Chavez to function almost as a playmaker when going forward, had more ideas than in the games against Suriname and Jamaica.

via @MiSeleccionMX

If Cocca can win games in any way, especially against the U.S. which now is undefeated in its last five matches of any type against Mexico, he’ll be seen as an upgrade on his Argentine colleague.

Yet, those same issues from the past regime reared their heads once more: Mexico wasn’t creative enough, it couldn’t defend a lead, it wasn’t clean in the details and it ended up without a win to celebrate.

The U.S. also would’ve preferred to be more creative. Ferreira couldn’t find the ball in dangerous spaces, nor did Alan Soñora produce moments of magic when he slotted in and pushed Ferreira up. While the U.S. was able to cope with Mexico’s press, the game sometimes stalled out in its defensive third with the center backs unable to find a midfielder or Ferreira and defaulting to low-percentage balls over the top.

When the game seemed to be shifting hard in Mexico’s favor with a second goal coming, the U.S. was able to dig in and create its best moment of the match, securing a result and keeping its unbeaten streak against Mexico alive.

“In these types of games, you can’t keep your head on what you did wrong,” Ferreira told the Turner crew after the game. “You have to flip it and keep working.”

Both teams will need to take the positives from this meeting and look forward.

The next one, June’s Nations League semifinal between the North American rivals, actually matters.

With stronger rosters and more time to prepare, both managers will hope to show they’re doing something different to move their squads past the frustrating habits that have plagued them in recent history.

1. Win, enjoy, blow them out