Jaime Lozano pulled up a seat at NRG Stadium in Houston for his press convention forward of Mexico’s opening Copa America 2024 group recreation and the primary query from the ground set the tone for the 9 days that adopted.
“Jaime, after teaching the crew for a yr, aren’t you uninterested in listening to all of the questioning relating to your stick with the nationwide crew?”
Lozano shook his head and smiled, after which did what the Mexico coach does: answered politely, selected his phrases fastidiously and steered the dialog someplace else.
However that line of inquiry by no means went away throughout a quick Copa America journey that deepened the doubts about the way forward for their 45-year-old coach, in addition to the path of journey for Mexico forward of co-hosting the 2026 World Cup finals with neighbours america and Canada.
The Copa America draw had been form to Lozano and his players. There was no footballing powerhouse with them in Group B, nor any nation ranked greater than thirtieth on the planet — and but Mexico had been nonetheless unable to safe the top-two end wanted to succeed in the quarter-finals.
Copa America has unquestionably been a failure in that respect — a phrase that Lozano didn’t like getting used after the defeat in opposition to Venezuela within the second of their three matches — but it surely was additionally not a shock. As brutal because it sounds, that is affirmation of what worldwide football seems to be like for Mexico in 2024.
Mexico head coach Jaime Lozano (proper) consoles Luis Romo following Sunday’s draw with Ecuador (Omar Vega/Getty Photos)
Their place in soccer’s pecking order has slipped. They’ve lengthy ceased to be the preeminent drive of their CONCACAF area (it’s almost 5 years since they defeated the USMNT) and, on the proof of what we’ve witnessed at Copa America, it’s now a problem for them to compete with even second-tier CONMEBOL nations.
Mexico misplaced 1-0 to Venezuela on a chastening evening in Los Angeles, then drew 0-0 with Ecuador in Glendale, Arizona, the place 98 minutes wasn’t lengthy sufficient to give you the one aim they wanted to progress. In fact, Mexico might have performed all evening and nonetheless not have discovered a method over the road.
Issues additionally turned ugly off the pitch throughout Sunday’s draw, as supporters had been instructed to cease a homophobic chant or the match can be suspended, with three separate bulletins revamped the stadium’s public-address system as a part of world soccer governing physique FIFA’s three-step protocol designed to fight discrimination from the stands.
The important thing query now’s whether or not the Mexico Soccer Federation (FMF) stays true to its pre-tournament message that Lozano is in place for the lengthy haul as they prioritise constructing for the longer term, or if the meek method of the crew’s exit at Copa America — Mexico scored just one aim throughout their three matches — allied to all of the background noise from the media and the general public, sways their considering.
“It’s troublesome to work within the quick, medium and long run if, each time you lose a match, you ask for a training change,” Duilio Davino, Mexico’s sporting director, stated earlier in June. “The challenge doesn’t finish within the Copa America or Gold Cup (subsequent summer season’s CONCACAF championship). We are going to make an evaluation on the finish of the 2026 World Cup.”
Regardless of whether or not the FMF sticks or twists, there isn’t any fast repair to Mexican soccer’s underlying issues.
Chief amongst them is the dwindling expertise pool. Solely seven of Mexico’s Copa America squad play their membership soccer in Europe and simply three in that continent’s prime 5 leagues (England’s Premier League, La Liga in Spain, Italy’s Serie A, the German Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in France) — these numbers aren’t going to vary in a single day, even when that was Davino’s hope on the again of performances on this event.
Orbelin Pineda exhibits his frustration as Mexico are held by Ecuador (Omar Vega/Getty Photos)
Davino had alluded to Copa America being a store window for Mexico’s youthful gamers; if that was the case, it’s now boarded up and carries an indication saying: ‘Nothing to see right here’.
Even Santiago Gimenez, who has scored prolifically for Feyenoord of the Netherlands for the previous two seasons and attracted the eye of Europe’s prime golf equipment, toiled in a Mexico shirt.
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Dropping Edson Alvarez, the captain and lynchpin of the crew, to a critical hamstring damage inside the primary half-hour of the opening recreation was an enormous blow, and Lozano can also be entitled to surprise how in another way issues might need panned out had Orbelin Pineda scored from the penalty spot in opposition to Venezuela — however neither of these moments will change the narrative round Mexico’s performances or affect the autopsy again dwelling.
A penny for the ideas of the previous guard, who had been discarded as a part of a rebuilding programme that Lozano describes as ‘renovation’. Raul Jimenez, Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano and Henry Martin — 60 worldwide targets and 217 caps between them — had been all unnoticed as a part of ‘the method’.
Lozano was requested after the Ecuador recreation the place precisely that course of was going, which felt like a good query within the circumstances.
“We have now improved so much defensively, however now we have now to seek out that stability, and work on that endurance, that closing contact within the attacking third,” he replied. “We’ve gained so much from these gamers on this event and it’s an expertise that may assist us.”
Few would dispute that an out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new method wasn’t wanted after the 2022 World Cup, the place an ageing Mexico crew had been eradicated within the group stage for the primary time since 1978, however are we actually witnessing ‘generational change’?
Mexico’s Brian Garcia tussles for the ball with Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie (Chris Coduto/AFP through Getty Photos)
The common age of Mexico’s Copa America squad was 25.7 years, down from 28.5 years in Qatar 18 months in the past, which seems like a big distinction, however the common age of the crew that began the opening group recreation in opposition to Jamaica in Houston was 27.2 years.
Solely 5 of the gamers in Lozano’s squad had been aged 23 and below — and three of the 5 had by no means featured at Copa America. To place it one other method, the roster has change into so much youthful however the age of the crew on the pitch hasn’t altered a lot in any respect. As for the standard, the outcomes inform a narrative.
Final summer season, the FMF outlined a collection of initiatives to result in lengthy overdue change to assist the nationwide setup: steps that concerned the federation working extra carefully with golf equipment of Liga MX (the highest division of home soccer), tapping into the knowledge of skilled abroad voices, enjoying extra high-calibre opponents in friendlies, and forming relationships with European groups to open up alternatives throughout the Atlantic for younger Mexican gamers.
All good concepts for the longer term however, with a (partially) dwelling World Cup on the horizon, it’s the right here and now that could be a fear — a fear that a number of folks in Mexico noticed coming lengthy earlier than a ball was kicked at this Copa America.
(Prime photograph: Mexico striker Santiago Gimenez; Alvaro Avila/Jam Media/Getty Photos)
