🇲🇽 What can Mexico expect from the Copa América?
How high should El Tri fans put their hopes? PLUS: Thoughts from Peru-Chile
When Mexico kicks off its Copa América campaign today against Jamaica, expect a hush around the national team.
Well, that won’t be quite right. Houston’s NRG Stadium will, as usual, be full of fans wearing El Tri’s green shirts - or the suave peacock-inspired shirt the team is sporting this tournament. Those fans will sing, they’ll cheer, but few of those who have been paying attention to Mexico’s most recent matches enter with hope.
Often among the Americas most optimistic supporters, few Mexico fans feel their team will make a run at a first-ever Copa América title.
Yet, even if expectations aren’t where they have been for Mexico heading into major tournaments, the pressure is still there. The first question at manager Jaime Lozano’s news conference was whether or not he’s tired of every match being utilized to debate whether or not he should continue to be employed in that position.
“Honestly, no. Look, the truth is when you’re focused on what you have to do, what your job is, what your goals are or what you have to achieve, that demands much more of my time,” Lozano said. “I try to help the players have things clear on the field, achieve the goals we have as a national team and federation, that’s what takes a huge part of my energy.”
And it should. Lozano has been consistent since taking over last summer ahead of the Gold Cup: He’s knows his time leading the national team he represented as a player likely will be short. Yet, he is going to live the dream and do what he thinks is best while he’s in the job.
After defeat in March’s Nations League final, Lozano hinted that he’s doing something that at least approaches the best he can do. What he needs, he said, is more players who are playing in top leagues. Instead of a European exodus this summer, players continue to move within Mexico - or in the case of Hirving Lozano leave Europe for MLS when they’re still at their maximum value to a team in North America.
While national teams are constructed from far more than simply the clubs where their players play, it’s tough for Lozano to create a better collective from individual pieces that aren’t there.
Mexico fans can ask to see more from forward Santi Gimenez, who scored 23 goals for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie this season. They can ask for West Ham midfielder Edson Alvarez to be even more dominant in the midfield. But it’s difficult to escape the feeling that what you see is what you get with Mexico’s player pool at the moment.
The pre-tournament friendly matches did little to inspire, either. Lozano utilized an alternate lineup against Uruguay and, as you’d expect from a Mexico B team against an A team from a Copa América contender, took a lopsided 4-0 defeat. With something approaching Lozano’s top squad, Mexico performed better against Brazil but still wasn’t able to dominate the match or get a result.
“It’s not an excuse, but for me and us, it was clear that in those games we needed to see people. How do those people perform against opponents of that level?” Lozano said. “Now, the important part starts and … we’ll see. It’s the best of every confederation, and we’ll see.”
We will.
It’s not that Lozano goes into this tournament on any hotter of a seat than he generally sits on. The loss to the United States in March doesn’t help. Yet, as Lozano himself has noted a number of times, no Mexico manager sticks around too long.
And it’s certainly not that Lozano is a dead man walking, either. He’s a smart coach who has a team talented enough to get out of the tournament’s most open group. The path for success is simple: Beat a Concacaf rival tonight, ride a fervent Southern California crowd to victory against a traditionally mid-tier CONMEBOL team in Venezuela next week and a quarterfinal place already could be sealed before the Ecuador game.
It’s not in the bag, but it isn’t out of the question - and it’s something that would get Mexico fans believing again.
More on Mexico
For The Guardian: I wrote a big-picture piece about why Mexico finds itself in a continual struggle to break out of the cycle it finds itself in.
Chile & Peru bring Clásico del Pacífico feeling to DFW
From Arlington, Texas
With both teams in poor form and the match being played more than 3,000 miles away from either country, it was fair to wonder how much of a Clásico the Clásico del Pacifico would feel like.
Those questions were answered quickly, with the first foul happening within moments, the first card coming in the 18th minute (and another in the 22nd) and
They fought to a scoreless draw that both managers agreed was the right result after the bruising battle.
“Beyond being an important game for both, I think it was very tactical, very strategic,” Peru manager Jorge Fossati said after the game. “We both knew if we let the opponent run, if we let them feel comfortable, it was a weapon that we’d be giving to them.
“It’s not that we were more aggressive or the ones who stuck the leg in harder. It was a faithfully played game, but I expected it would have as much friction as it did. I think that also speaks about mutual respect.”
After Chile carved up the Peruvian midfield in the first half, Fossati made modifications to his press that saw Chile struggle to put together attacks, and Peru looked like the team more likely to score.
Even so Chile manager Ricardo Gareca, who received a less-warm welcome than I expected from the boisterous, pro-Peru crowd at AT&T Stadium, felt his team was the one trying to string attacks together for most of the match, differing slightly from Fossati’s perspective that both teams were happy to commit a foul to slow things down.
“Chile tried to play,” Gareca said. “Logically, Peru did a good job stopping us from getting out of the back, of pressing, breaking up the game. The referee was really lenient in that sense. There were always a lot of (fouls) cutting up the play. So, it’s logical that it was tough for us to create and to find associations.”
In the end, it was a Clásico in two ways: A contest with the bite of a typical rivalry game and one that will go down in the books not as a classic match but as a classic example of the style, a tight meeting of South American teams who refused to give their opponent much of an opening to do something marvelous.
Saturday’s matches
Ecuador-Venezuela - 6p ET
Mexico-Jamaica 9p ET
Friday’s scores
Chile 0-0 Peru