🇲🇽 Where have all the 'unbalancers' gone?
🇲🇽 Where have all the 'unbalancers' gone?
Tata Martino's World Cup roster is missing another jugador desequilibrante
Getting CONCACAFed is a newsletter sharing stories and analysis from the Concacaf region.
I write and report on stories others overlook, whether they be happening in Mexico, Saint Lucia or somewhere in between.
During the better part of the last decade, a significant part of my job has been taking things people say about soccer in Spanish and translating them into English.
That part of my work is generally enlightening, making me think just that little bit harder about the idea being expressed, and it usually isn’t that difficult.
Sometimes, though, you hit a bit of a speed bump, whether it’s because a manager speaks in a distinctive way, layering in slang or regional terminology (looking at you, Miguel Herrera) or because something just doesn’t quite translate.
One of these ideas is a jugador desequilibrante, literally an ‘unbalancing player’ or a ‘destabilizing player’.
Since we don’t say either of those things, I usually try to add a bit of context, sometimes saying “a player who can make things happen” or the more dry “player with attacking skill.”
As you can see from FIFA’s official site and the 2011 Copa América website, I’m not the only translator tripped up by the term.
None of these definitions are quite right, but you know a jugador desequilibrante when you see one.
They’re players with a bit of magic in their boots, who are unafraid or eager to take on defenders with a dribble. They try tricks. Quite often, they’re the players who are chopped down most often, victims of fouls from defenders who can’t think of any other way to stop them. They break lines, ruin defensive schemes and usually are the most fun players to watch on the field.
This is something Mexico is used to having in large numbers. That’s why the lack of these unbalancing players in the final roster for the World Cup unveiled yesterday by Tata Martino is so surprising.
Don’t get it wrong. There are still two - or at least one-and-a-half - jugadores desequilibrantes in the squad.
Hirving Lozano is in great form with Napoli and absolutely is the kind of player who can create chances for himself and his teammates, even if he didn’t do so as often as Mexico fans would’ve liked in World Cup qualification.
And with Jesus “Tecatito” Corona, perhaps the “jugador most desequilibrante” currently in the Mexico setup, ruled out because of an injury, it should be Chivas winger Alexis Vega on the other side of Lozano. Vega will wear the 10 at this World Cup, and it’s a big step forward for the 24-year-old. We’ve seen him be that player in Liga MX, with three goals and four assists last tournament, but never against stiffer competition.
Beyond that, there are some players who have decent skills. Uriel Antuna is quick and has good vision and a nice touch. Roberto Alvarado is versatile and gives more defensive muscle than other players in the pool.
Both made the roster over Diego Lainez, and they’ll serve as those ‘change options’ for Martino. Yet, neither bring the same jolt to a team a player like Lainez does.
Don’t take my word for it, though.
“Diego has this unique characteristic, yes. He’s a great player in tight spaces, and he also doesn’t have fear - of the ball, of taking people on. He has that particularity,” Mexico manager Tata Martino said in September after a friendly defeat to Colombia. “We want him playing more in Sporting Braga, but he’s always been a player who can change the course of a game for us.”
I’ve seen some people argue that Martino never really took Lainez seriously. After all, as ESPN Deportes noted, the Mexico boss tried to cut Lainez three times: The 2019 Gold Cup, when Uriel Antuna stepped in as an injury replacement, the 2021 Nations League, when Lainez scored in the final after coming on as a substitute having made the roster as an injury replacement, and this World Cup roster.
The club minutes always were a concern for everyone, but Lainez did what he could by moving to Braga in Portugal and trying to find more time than he had than with Real Betis.
But whether he’s played often enough at the club level or not, he fits the profile of a player even Martino knows he needs. That’s why reports the manager called Carlos Vela in hopes of convincing the LAFC star to come out of international retirement ring true.
With Vela preferring to enjoy the World Cup from his sofa in Southern California, Laiez is the player who seemed most likely to be able to fill that role, to be an inverted winger cutting onto his left foot from the right side of the attack.
“If the idea is to have a player who fits with the idea of play like Carlos Vela did against Germany or in the whole World Cup qualification cycle, there’s no more similar player than Lainez,” former Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio said on ESPN yesterday. “I’d have taken him.”
The other attacking absence is a bit easier to explain, though still a choice that will open Martino up to plenty of questions if the attack is punchless in Qatar. Martino said Santiago Gimenez, who is tied for the lead in Europa League goals this season, hasn’t played enough minutes and went with América forward Henry Martin over the 21-year-old.
This may just be a question of preference here, but we’ve seen what the 29-year-old Martin can do at the international level and it isn’t dazzling. While he had a great tournament with América, Gimenez regularly is scoring against defenders of a higher caliber than the ones Martin beats in Liga MX. Considering that fact and the eight-year age difference, taking Gimenez to this tournament seems to set Mexico up better going forward.
Yet, Martino’s goalkeeper selections show he isn’t worried about what happens in the future. His job is to find success now, and he’s selected the roster he believes will allow him to do that.
Maybe he’s right, but for all the shortcomings in the roster the biggest one feels like the lack of those jugadores desequilibrantes for which Mexico is so famous. Leaving one at home may mean opposing teams are able to stay far more balanced than Mexico would like.
Back Thursday with what will likely be the last newsletter before the World Cup starts!