🇲🇽 Mexico's 'youth movement' falls short in Copa América elimination

Patch the tires, baby, the LamborJimmy is still rolling. PLUS: Jamaica's manager leaves, Uruguay's misses USMNT showdown

This morning, we’ll look at Mexico’s elimination from the Copa América, Jamaica’s departing manager and Uruguay’s suspended boss!

The reaction to Mexico’s Copa América elimination from the Mexican press was the same reaction as the Mexico fan base and the reaction most anyone who has been paying attention to El Tri had after seeing Mexico bow out as the third-place team in Group B.

“Not a surprise,” wrote MedioTiempo. “Empowered but eliminated,” read Record’s front page, making light of the social media posts the Mexican federation made after the scoreless draw with Ecuador, followed by a list of things the editors are “fed up with” including “inconclusive projects, overrated players, deceiving generational changes - and being the laughing stock of the continent.”

That FMF statement rankled plenty of fans, understandably so. And manager Jaime Lozano’s opening statement in his news conference, highlighting the chance to get young players minutes in an intense competition rather than bemoaning the elimination, wasn’t exactly a crystal-clear reading of the room.

“I think a lot of players who hadn’t participated in a tournament this big, which is obviously below a World Cup and some guys were there but didn’t have the roles they had in this tournament, (got opportunities),” Lozano said. “There are results or goals we didn’t reach, the most important was advancing, but I think the team gained a lot in a lot of aspects.”

His analysis of the team was clear-eyed: “The team always pushed forward, it tried to find the goal. We were defensively solid but couldn’t finish. We maybe needed to create a few more chances and be calmer to be able to continue in this tournament.”

Was there a youth movement in this tournament?

If so, it’s one that didn’t work.