U-23 loss to U.S. not all bad for Mexico
Brent Latham
By ESPN INSIDER
It was a little too easy when Mexico's Olympic team won the Pan-American Games gold in Guadalajara last fall. Maybe a wake-up call was just what this group needed.
On Wednesday night in Frisco, Texas, Luis Tena's squad got that wake-up call -- and then some. Thoroughly outplayed by a lively American U-23 squad for much of the evening, Mexico suffered a 2-0 setback, this team's first since Copa America. The loss to the archrival U.S. was frustrating, humbling and eye-opening. It's clear now that adjustments will be needed, perhaps not for El Tri to make it to London, but certainly for the team to achieve the explicitly stated goal of medaling at the Games.
"It hurts everyone to lose to the United States, mostly the players," Tena told media after the match. "But the game was really useful in that it left very clear that our players need to improve individually, and that we need to modify the organization of our team."
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The organizational problems began from the opening whistle, with the selection of a dual holding mid formation pairing Jorge Enriquez alongside Ricardo Bocanegra. Miguel Ponce and Javier Cortes manned the flanks, with Marco Fabian and Jeronimo Amione up top. But the early wing play was disappointingly tepid, and the deep-lying mids failed to generate a consistent link between the defensive block and the forward line. For too much of the half, Fabian resorted to running alone at the American defense while Amione wandered aimlessly around the attacking third, as Mexico failed to get numbers into attack.
Meanwhile, in the Mexican end, the defense was being overrun by the American attack, with no answer for the flank speed the Americans threw at the back four. Wide defenders Darvin Chavez and Israel Jimenez were simply not up to the task of dealing with Freddy Adu and particularly Joe Gyau -- much of the half saw the wingers running by at will. That kept center backs Nestor Araujo and Hiram Mier busy covering the flanks, and left the middle of the field exposed for the marauding Juan Agudelo. As if the troubles in open play weren't enough, set-piece marking was poor as well, costing El Tri the opening goal and nearly another a few minutes later.
Things only got worse as the second half kicked off, when the Americans opted to press Mexico high up the field. For the first 20 minutes, El Tri had difficulty even getting the ball out of the defensive end, with Enriquez particularly off in his distribution.
But it wasn't all bad for a Mexican team that fought back later in the second half, and controlled much of the play after Tena had time to tweak his approach at halftime. The defense held firm and refused to let the damage worsen, and Mexico slowly regained control of the match as the second period wore on. The central play of Hector Herrera, on at the half for Bocanegra, became key in getting the forwards and wingers involved and the introduction of Javier Aquino for Ponce also added a dimension of pace and variation that the attack had been missing. In the closing half-hour, Aquino got forward aggressively and created plenty of danger, and Fabian earned what looked like a clear penalty by pressuring the American defense into a turnover.
If things did get somewhat better late, though, overall it was a forgettable outing for El Tri. But forgetting this game is probably not the best course of action. A hard-fought loss to what shapes up as a very good American team is nothing to fret over, but the way the competitiveness of the opponent seemed to sneak up on the Mexican team -- and Federation -- is.
It now seems a little on the grandiose side to have set that goal of medaling in London before Olympic qualifying even kicked off. The other teams at qualifying will have more immediate goals, and knocking off El Tri will be at the top of that list. The best idea for the Mexican Federation and Olympic team is clearly to temper expectations a bit, and put a priority on making sure to avoid a repeat of the 2008 qualifying disaster.
In that sense, Wednesday night was a blessing. El Tri's qualifying group opponents are nothing a team this talented shouldn't handle, but a top-heavy foursome that includes potentially dangerous Panamanian and Honduran sides had the potential to surprise an overconfident Mexico the same way the U.S. seemed to. After Wednesday's loss, there's no way that will be allowed to happen.
"It was a very useful game," Tena said. "The United States has players that are just as good as ours, and I'm convinced that in individual ability we're even. Right now, they have a better collective game than us, and we need to work a lot on details like how to stop their distribution, get our attack started better ourselves and get deeper into the final third."
Add to those lessons the coming out of a useful player like Herrera, and the improved understanding Tena will take away of what the team needs to do to cause damage -- in general and should it meet the U.S. again -- and the loss was hardly all downside.
Clearly, there's still plenty of work to be done, and some serious deficiencies to address if El Tri is to compete with the top teams worldwide at this level. But with three weeks left to qualifying, the time left to prepare for the first goal -- making it to London -- will now be taken all the more seriously.
"We're still on schedule," Tena concluded. "We have three weeks until the beginning of the qualifying tournament, and we're going to be together ten days beforehand, which will be very important to get better-organized on the field. It was clear today that the U.S. beat us in collective play, not in individual skill, where we're even."
Even with the U.S. or not, the potential of this group hasn't changed. Mexico still has the talent to qualify with ease, and go far in London. The biggest threat to those hopes was for an overconfident group to waltz into qualifying not expecting a fight from the region's other powers. On Wednesday night, at least that possibility was eliminated.
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Brent Latham
By ESPN INSIDER
It was a little too easy when Mexico's Olympic team won the Pan-American Games gold in Guadalajara last fall. Maybe a wake-up call was just what this group needed.
On Wednesday night in Frisco, Texas, Luis Tena's squad got that wake-up call -- and then some. Thoroughly outplayed by a lively American U-23 squad for much of the evening, Mexico suffered a 2-0 setback, this team's first since Copa America. The loss to the archrival U.S. was frustrating, humbling and eye-opening. It's clear now that adjustments will be needed, perhaps not for El Tri to make it to London, but certainly for the team to achieve the explicitly stated goal of medaling at the Games.
"It hurts everyone to lose to the United States, mostly the players," Tena told media after the match. "But the game was really useful in that it left very clear that our players need to improve individually, and that we need to modify the organization of our team."
<offer>
The organizational problems began from the opening whistle, with the selection of a dual holding mid formation pairing Jorge Enriquez alongside Ricardo Bocanegra. Miguel Ponce and Javier Cortes manned the flanks, with Marco Fabian and Jeronimo Amione up top. But the early wing play was disappointingly tepid, and the deep-lying mids failed to generate a consistent link between the defensive block and the forward line. For too much of the half, Fabian resorted to running alone at the American defense while Amione wandered aimlessly around the attacking third, as Mexico failed to get numbers into attack.
Meanwhile, in the Mexican end, the defense was being overrun by the American attack, with no answer for the flank speed the Americans threw at the back four. Wide defenders Darvin Chavez and Israel Jimenez were simply not up to the task of dealing with Freddy Adu and particularly Joe Gyau -- much of the half saw the wingers running by at will. That kept center backs Nestor Araujo and Hiram Mier busy covering the flanks, and left the middle of the field exposed for the marauding Juan Agudelo. As if the troubles in open play weren't enough, set-piece marking was poor as well, costing El Tri the opening goal and nearly another a few minutes later.
Things only got worse as the second half kicked off, when the Americans opted to press Mexico high up the field. For the first 20 minutes, El Tri had difficulty even getting the ball out of the defensive end, with Enriquez particularly off in his distribution.
But it wasn't all bad for a Mexican team that fought back later in the second half, and controlled much of the play after Tena had time to tweak his approach at halftime. The defense held firm and refused to let the damage worsen, and Mexico slowly regained control of the match as the second period wore on. The central play of Hector Herrera, on at the half for Bocanegra, became key in getting the forwards and wingers involved and the introduction of Javier Aquino for Ponce also added a dimension of pace and variation that the attack had been missing. In the closing half-hour, Aquino got forward aggressively and created plenty of danger, and Fabian earned what looked like a clear penalty by pressuring the American defense into a turnover.
If things did get somewhat better late, though, overall it was a forgettable outing for El Tri. But forgetting this game is probably not the best course of action. A hard-fought loss to what shapes up as a very good American team is nothing to fret over, but the way the competitiveness of the opponent seemed to sneak up on the Mexican team -- and Federation -- is.
It now seems a little on the grandiose side to have set that goal of medaling in London before Olympic qualifying even kicked off. The other teams at qualifying will have more immediate goals, and knocking off El Tri will be at the top of that list. The best idea for the Mexican Federation and Olympic team is clearly to temper expectations a bit, and put a priority on making sure to avoid a repeat of the 2008 qualifying disaster.
In that sense, Wednesday night was a blessing. El Tri's qualifying group opponents are nothing a team this talented shouldn't handle, but a top-heavy foursome that includes potentially dangerous Panamanian and Honduran sides had the potential to surprise an overconfident Mexico the same way the U.S. seemed to. After Wednesday's loss, there's no way that will be allowed to happen.
"It was a very useful game," Tena said. "The United States has players that are just as good as ours, and I'm convinced that in individual ability we're even. Right now, they have a better collective game than us, and we need to work a lot on details like how to stop their distribution, get our attack started better ourselves and get deeper into the final third."
Add to those lessons the coming out of a useful player like Herrera, and the improved understanding Tena will take away of what the team needs to do to cause damage -- in general and should it meet the U.S. again -- and the loss was hardly all downside.
Clearly, there's still plenty of work to be done, and some serious deficiencies to address if El Tri is to compete with the top teams worldwide at this level. But with three weeks left to qualifying, the time left to prepare for the first goal -- making it to London -- will now be taken all the more seriously.
"We're still on schedule," Tena concluded. "We have three weeks until the beginning of the qualifying tournament, and we're going to be together ten days beforehand, which will be very important to get better-organized on the field. It was clear today that the U.S. beat us in collective play, not in individual skill, where we're even."
Even with the U.S. or not, the potential of this group hasn't changed. Mexico still has the talent to qualify with ease, and go far in London. The biggest threat to those hopes was for an overconfident group to waltz into qualifying not expecting a fight from the region's other powers. On Wednesday night, at least that possibility was eliminated.
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