Nobody will save this team!

It’s been 3 years since the moment it all began. That defeat against the United States in the 2021 Nations League final, which unleashed a historic crisis in the Mexican national team that seems to have no end in sight.

That day in Denver, the team led by Gerardo Martino already showed some weaknesses, but we never imagined it would reach such low levels.

I have taken on the task of recounting the defeats, draws, and victories of the Mexican national team since that unfortunate episode.

Let’s start with the victories. Mexico has won 32 matches since the summer of 2021 up to today. Of these triumphs, 25 were against CONCACAF rivals, 2 against CONMEBOL, 2 against Asian teams, and 3 against African teams. It’s worth noting that victories against CONCACAF were achieved against teams like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Suriname, Jamaica, Haiti, etc. Interestingly, Mexico hasn’t managed to defeat the United States since that date. When it comes to victories against CONMEBOL, they were against the two weakest South American teams as of today.

Moving on to the draws, there isn’t much good news either. There have been a total of 18 draws divided as follows: 10 against CONCACAF teams, 2 against UEFA and Asian teams each, 1 against an African team, and 3 draws against CONMEBOL teams—two against Ecuador and one against Chile. The dramatic data comes next: Mexico has suffered 17 defeats since June 6, 2021. These include 4 losses to the United States, and 2 each against Uruguay and Colombia. The rest are spread among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Sweden, Canada, and Qatar.

The analysis is quite simple; today Mexico can only defeat low-level teams. There’s nothing more to it. Over these past 3 years, the Mexican national team has failed to defeat any medium-to-high level teams. Perhaps the most notable result was the draw against Germany a few months ago in Philadelphia, when the team was already being managed by Jaime Lozano.

Apart from that result, every higher-level national team has surpassed the Mexican team, whether from CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, or UEFA. All of this has happened under Gerardo Martino, Diego Cocca, and Jaime Lozano. The conclusion? Regardless of the coach, the crisis has persisted.

In addition to more data that paints a broader picture of Mexican football, it turns out that Mexico has the most players playing in its domestic league, second only to Bolivia. This seemed to me a truly alarming statistic.

Days of great uncertainty lie ahead. Duilio Davino and Ivar Sisniega have confirmed Jaime Lozano as coach until 2026. However, this is the executives’ stance, and we are still awaiting the owners’ response.

It’s no secret that the Mexican national team is driven by priorities, with the foremost being economic considerations. Missing out on the Copa América means, first and foremost, losing out on the $2 million USD provided by the tournament organizers. Then, it means losing out on broadcast rights, and consequently, advertising revenue for Televisa and TV Azteca. The same applies to sponsors, and so on.

This hurts the owners, deeply. That’s why we’ll have to wait a few days to learn about the future of the national team’s coaching staff.

Personally, I believe that a new coach won’t change the reality and the current state of Mexican football. Today, the situation is very complicated, the talent pool is limited, and no coach will be able to bring forth a new generation before the 2026 World Cup. The data supports this theory.

Jaime Lozano has made some progress; this team proposes, competes, and gets closer to results much more than when managed by Cocca or Gerardo Martino (in his last two years). It’s true, he is still young and in many aspects appears to lack experience, but that can be complemented by an assistant, whom they are close to defining. But his players believe in him, and achieving that is much more challenging than we might imagine.

Bringing in the trendy coach? The current champion? The one who achieved the best results recently? We’ve already tested that theory with Meza, Chepo, Hugo Sánchez, Miguel Herrera… and the results have been the same. Let’s try something different.

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