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It’s A Mexico Story, Just Say Yes

April 1st, 2009 | By: Al | 25 Comments »

Honduras 3 – Mexico 1

Pathetic. Disgusting. Degrading. Sad. Unbelievable. Disappointing. A flat out “what the f*ck!”. What hurts most is that I’m not surprised or shocked.

I don’t know what happened. This is probably the worst version of the team that I’ve seen since Sven took over. Worse than those crap United States friendlies and worse than the match against the USA. The team wasn’t doing too bad, but three, count ‘em, three easy goals were three easy goals too many. There has to be somebody at fault, but that’s up for debate. I’ll leave the blame to the players, for now, as it was them who lost the game. But it was everybody’s loss.

Lineup:

Ochoa – L. Lopez (A. Galindo 26′), Salcido, Magallon, F. Pinto – Leandro, Pardo, L. Perez, Guardado, Carlos Vela, Omar Bravo (Castillo 69′)

Things started well. When we got a free kick opportunity in the opening minutes, it was the moment that we thought “cool! Starting the game off with a good opportunity”. The first three minutes were nice, until the moment we realized who the hell we were facing. Now, it pains me to admit it, but Honduras are absolute beasts. Their defense or midfield could easily slot the ball down the field and then someone like “El Rambo” or Costly would just zip down the field like The Flash. They’re tall, they’re fast, they’re Honduras. Did I mention that they’re fast?

They’re so fast that after one of our corner kicks, they scored their goal. Carlos Costly completely shook off Leobardo (with a very obvious handball when the ball was bouncing) and was able to nutmeg Memo Ochoa. Just wow. This is the kid with the afro that was supposed to have signed for Man United last year and now he wasn’t showing up to a big game like this one, letting a ball in through his legs and then laying on the ground thinking about what the hell just happened like the rest of us were doing. Simple mistake but this isn’t a first-choice goalkeeper that I was seeing. Thanks, Memo. And thanks Telemundo for completely missing the goal.

There was fouls everywhere, and we were given four free kick opportunities outside of the box from all the fouls in the first half. Rambo was the dirtiest of the Honduran eleven and should have been sent off with two yellows, but he only got carded for his first foul. These free kicks were the only danger that Mexico could give Honduras, because in actual play they really did nothing. I realized that Omar Bravo was playing after I looked up the rosters on ESPN Soccer Net. Seriously, I was shocked that he was even on the pitch because he was invisible the whole time. Carlos Vela gave the team an ounce of threat only by getting fouled. Guardado tried but only ended up getting his ass beat by the Honduran defenders.

Was this the time that we realized how much better the defense is when Marquez is there? I don’t know who else to put the blame on for the second goal. Maybe Magallón for standing flat on his feet for the goal but maybe I’m just crazy? It shouldn’t be that easy to slip the ball through our defense. They scored a goal but it was offside, and the second actual goal simply floated over all of our players and Pavon was allowed to score a crazy ass goal.

When Mexico is down a goal or two, they give themselves two options:

a) Play desperate and overpower shots.
b) Lose their head

Guess which one of the options they took? You guessed it… both. Two for one. These vatos don’t change one bit.

Vela was the first to show that the team was deteriorating when he had a decent shot at goal but shot it into the stands. He can slot in a cool chip shot with Arsenal over Burnley but he can’t control a shot when being unmarked. It’s not because he’s inexperienced, or because “he’s not ready”, it’s because he was no different than anyone on the squad and at this moment we saw that the team had no chance of winning the game.

Alright, I didn’t mean that. Or maybe I did. I’ll always have faith in our team, but I was being realistic here, could they score two goals and grace us with a majestic comeback to replenish our dwindling hope? The whole time I was thinking “bring in Nery!” and when Nery came on I thought “yeah go Nery!” but the man isn’t a god.

The third Honduras goal wasn’t just a punch to the stomach, it was a pitchfork up el culo courtesy of the Devil himself. The game finished right then and there. Nery scored a penalty a minute after and then he committed a terrible foul that he should have gotten carded on. The rest of the game was just a blur, and after Salcido got the red card after getting owned by that dude that looks like Frank Rijkaard, the game felt like “whatever”. I didn’t care. The match could have been 4-1 but thanks to Memo Ochoa’s good work that he decided to do after 87 minutes of bullshit, the score remained 3-1.

This was easily the worst 3-1 loss that I’ve seen in my young life. And I’m an Atletico Madrid fan and am no stranger to complete ownage. I knew that this version of Mexico isn’t that good, even after a convincing win over Costa Rica, but I’m done talking about how bad they did. Honduras is a good team, but they’re not better than us, and they still made mincemeat pies out of us.

At this moment, I’m not the one to say whose fault it was for the loss. The players? What about Sven, or Compean, or the FMF? There is something wrong with this team, it’s not anything little either, it’s a sickness. We are sick. The team doesn’t have a winning mentality and it doesn’t seem like Sven can write the happy ending to the Mexico Story. Some of the fault could have been put on him but we’re still strangers to what the exact problems could possibly be.

Do you know who we are? We are Mexico. We shouldn’t have been scored on twice by a guy that plays for the English Championship. We were never perfect, but it’s just wrong for a team to let down a country so much. We have el futbol in our blood, and we have a team that can only show inconsistency and shame.

The press will have a field day with this loss, the players will be thinking hard in their cold showers, and the fans will just keep on hoping for brighter days.

Don’t reserve your South Africa tickets just yet.

Tags: CONCACAF, Group D, Hexagonal, honduras, Mexico, Review

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Comments

By Nolan | April 1st, 2009 at 11:22 pm

I don’t understand this Mexican team. They seemed to be constant improving up the the Copa America, even with Hugo’s poor coaching, but then after that everything went to hell. What has happened to all the talent and promise?

Posted from Canada

By Andrea | April 1st, 2009 at 11:35 pm

Oh jeeze. This was horrible. The refereeing was…I can’t even put words to it. There’s Honduran guys who should’ve been sent off but they got off with a warning, but Mexico committed some fouls and out came the cards. Honestly, I think at this point the refereeing upsets me most.

Let the Sven watch begin…although I don’t think it’s completely his fault. Yeah, the team is horrible right now, but poor guy.

Words basically fail me right now.

By Al | April 1st, 2009 at 11:41 pm

A “stimulus package” would be nice. Something that isn’t alcohol…

Posted from United States

By Alan | April 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm

I don’t think the ref was that bad, until the end of the game when things got a bit out of hand. Nery needs to never play for Mexico again, yelling at a teammate for playing the ball out when there’s a man injured? For shame

Posted from United States

By Andrea | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 am

Maybe that’s passion. When Nery took the ball though all I thought of was the headline that they had the headline on theoffside.com of the “penalty stealing Mexican.” Where everything went wrong and he was banished to Man City and Sven before they became rich. But I think him not playing again is a bit harsh.

Ahhhh, now I have Taylor Swift stuck in my head.

By X-ino | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:45 am

It’s a shame how Mexicans cant accept a loss. Why do you have to blame the handball, offside, that Hondurans are dirty players. That is something that ALL Mexicans lack off. Honduras is a good team and they’ve proven to be a challenge to Mexico. Mexicans don’t dominate the concacaf anymore like they used too. Honduras now plays with heart and passion. Another thing is, that it is incredible how the Mexican players cant handle being down on the scoreboard without losing their heads. Last game in Honduras there was 1 red card, this game another clearly red card that would’ve been a clear goal. ALso you did not metion that the penalty was a present from the reff. Even the ones in telemundo said that it was far from being a penalty. But oh well, honduras deserved the win. Honduras to the world cup. See you guys back in the azteca!

By Jose | April 2nd, 2009 at 2:13 am

“Do you know who we are? We are Mexico.”

So? It’s 2009, not 1993.

Posted from United States

By vic | April 2nd, 2009 at 2:17 am

what a bunch of crybabies. Honduras won fair and square. Mexico were completely dominated. You shouldn’t even talk shit about the ref cause he gave you a goddamn goal. It should be a 3-0. You played your usual shitty game, the only difference this time is that Honduras played a hell of a game and exploited all of your weaknesses. Oh, and I find this extremely funny:

“The rest of the game was just a blur, and after Salcido got the red card after getting owned by that dude that looks like Frank Rijkaard”

For how long have you been a soccer fan? Or are you going to tell me that you don’t remember when that dude that looks like Rijkaard scored THREE goals against Mexico? Maybe this will refresh your memory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzWxc0pR_dg

By Andrea | April 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 am

X-ino- Maybe you didn’t notice that the ref didn’t have the same standards throughout the game? And Yeah, you bet you’ll see us at the Azteca!

Jose- Do you know what blog you’re on? A MEXICO centered one. Do you know who writes on here? Mexico fans. You know what we’re allowed to do? Insert our opinions. Guess what? Whoever is posting the entry will be posting whatever they want with a Mexico-centric twist on it.

Vic- “You shouldn’t even talk shit about the ref cause he gave you a goddamn goal.” So what’s the excuse with handball goal? Because that should’ve not been a goal at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3y1rBDiNek
And it’s not like there’s any controversy on whether it was a handball or not. Costly admitted that it was. Props to him for doing that. But in case you’re still being stubborn look at that video.

And getting owned is saying that he was dominated.

Salcido was sent off near the end of the game…it’s not like a lot is being blocked off.

Al-Feel free to delete this if you want.

By vic | April 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 am

Andrea, I think you need to re-read my post. What I meant to say when Al referred to Pavon as the dude that looks like Rijkaard is that Carlos Pavon has caused enough damage to the Mexico NT, enough that anyone who calls themselves a Mexican should know who he is. I wasn’t talking about THIS game, even though he did score a great goal and got a player sent off.

That handball was so fast NO ONE could have seen it during regular play and I doubt that even Leobardo Lopez noticed the handball. It was completely unintentional, he didn’t use his hand to control the ball or to move it away from Leobardo(like he did later on). Leobardo still had the ball in his control after that, but he fucked up and Costly stole it from him, which would have happened anyways without the handball.

By Jose | April 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 am

“Jose- Do you know what blog you’re on? A MEXICO centered one. Do you know who writes on here? Mexico fans. You know what we’re allowed to do? Insert our opinions. Guess what? Whoever is posting the entry will be posting whatever they want with a Mexico-centric twist on it.”

Just because this is a Mexico blog, any discussion that doesn’t presuppose that Mexico is God’s gift to football is “trolling.” My intent is to criticize the author’s assumptions.

Here is my take. The blogger is simply falling for the same trap that other Mexico fans (and myself once) fall in: that Mexico was once the best team in CONCACAF and that ergo it still is and always will be. The team has problems, some psychological. The region as a whole is getting better. We have to stop believing that we’re somehow ENTITLED to win these matches, that Mexico is such a proven power that it is expected us to steamroll the smaller fish in CONCACAF. It’s simply not the case. (In my opinion) If you’re scored on by “someone who plays in the Championship”, you don’t lament how this shouldn’t be happening to a team of “Mexico’s stature”, rather you talk about how Mexican football still has a long way to go. We like to think that we’re just almost up there with Argentina and Brazil, that our European players should be winning these games with half-efforts, but that’s not the case. We haven’t proven anything on the international stage thus far (save that Conf. Cup, and even that wasn’t much). We should stop thinking of ourselves as the “Giants in waiting” and more the “Football power that needs to work hard at becoming better”.

Case study: The USMNT would never have reached their current level in the last 20 years (and still be growing) if they went into this effort thinking “We’re the U.S., we’re one of the greatest powers in sports, we’ve got the money and the talent pool, it’s just a matter of assembling the right team” they wouldn’t be the team they are today. Sure, Mexico is probably, accounting for the popularity of the sport and the resources (population and money) available to it, one of the most underachieving sides in the world, but we have to stop thinking that this is going to be fixed with a different starting XI or a simple change of attitude. *sigh* What frustrates me, in a nutshell, is how we assume that we’re already *there*, when we haven’t actually *proved* anything yet.

All respect to the author, he probably didn’t mean half the things I’m attributing to him, this was more of a rant in general against what I’ve heard from some Mexico fans.

Posted from United States

By Al | April 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 am

The Pavon comment was simply my sense of humor in action. Of course I know who he is. In the heat of a loss one tends to think “oh dear we got scored on by THAT guy”. Maybe if I had written the blog today I would have been a bit more modest.

I’m bitter about the loss but I never said that Honduras didn’t deserve the victory. They played a bit dirty but they weren’t the ones that made two red card worthy fouls. They also weren’t the team whose defense was in a jumble.

I never intended to say “we’re Mexico so we should have dominated this game because we’re Mexico”. It was more of how bad we looked on the pitch, how bad we’ve been looking recently (especially in the last round), and how we lost the game already when it was half time. I did mention that we were never perfect and that I wasn’t surprised at the loss, but damn did we look bad yesterday.

As of now, it seems like the qualification to the World Cup will be like the last round, where we win all the home games and maybe squeeze out a draw. We were never invincible, but we were able to put up a fight. There was no fight yesterday. No matter how good we once were, the team needs to build their way up again, even if some are overhyping our European based players and think that this is the best Mexico squad. It’s only a truth that myself and many other fans need to believe, as you mentioned Jose. We fans lose our heads too.

Posted from United States

By Alan | April 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 am

I think that having that mentality is true for fans of any team in any sport. Did you see the Craig Bellamy video? Ever heard of the Monday morning quarterback?

There is a difference between what you say in the heat of a loss or win, and what you truly believe. Also, I’ve never been a big on people who make a generalization about a large group, in this case “That is something that ALL Mexicans lack off”

One of my first thoughts after the game was “if Mexico doesn’t make the World Cup I won’t be surprised”. I am a Mexican fan and I can say the team is shite

Posted from United States

By Aaron | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Well honestly I would like to start saying I’m very dissappointed. I was watching the game on justin.tv becuase I don’t get Telemundo and as I watching this game, all these kids online are chatting at the same time. Caling each other putos and perros. These kids don’t appreciate the game, these kids just straight up suffer from ego centrisim. They think they are better than one another. Its not about them, its about the game. I was one after the game thinking what next?
I believe the NT has suffer so many changes; for the worse. It seems these guys don’t play with heart or humility anymore. These guys think they won the game before they even set their foot on the field. Nery Castillo, very bold guy. Clearly, he was upset about the score and about things off the field. The thing that dissappointed me about him is that he was getting into everyone face. Not in a positive reinforcement manner, but sort of taunting them. He’s steals the ball from Pavel to take the penalty that shouldn’t have ever happen and scored it. Alright great he made it, but for himself to quiet his critics. They going to talk ab him in the morning for doing that anyway. He also taunts Guardado and believe me, Guardado was one of the best on the field the whole damn game and always is. You never do that to your own team. As far as Sven, I like him as a guy to drink a beer with, but I believe he is done with being the coach with EL tri. There’s absolutly no chemistry on the team and no disipline. I will admit there’s some players that play with their bodies on the line (Pardo,Guardado, Sanchez and yes Salcido) but some of these guys do whatever they want bc they know they will get called. It shouldn’t be that way bc there are players in Mexico wishing to have the oppurtunity. I think the whole team needs a makeover. New coach,players and FMF officials. Yes it sounds crazy and they are running low on time but if they don’t make it to the WC, then they don’t simply becuase they wernt at their best this time around. I believe this needs to happen in order to move forward. I know that many people will give me thumbs down for this but if you really appreciate Mexican soccer and the NT, then you know this needs to happen. As for Honduras, my hat is off to them. We will have their number when they come to the Azteca. Hopefullly by that time, our team will be mentally and physically prepared.

By Andrea | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm

I don’t think the people that write on here think that Mexico is God’s gift to football. Look at past posts, and I’m sure you’ll be able to see that.

Aaron- Thanks for brining up the whole FMF officials thing. I WHOLE HEARTEDLY believe that they need to be let go. Compean and De Maria are utter and complete wastes of space. They are corrupting this game in large part. The whole system is just troublesome. I mean why should the club owners be able to pick the national team manager? Yes, they might own a club but it doesn’t really mean you know much about football. If I had all the money to buy I club I’m sure I would but I know that picking someone to lead the national team would be beyond my abilities. They’ve let so much corruption go on(like the gentlemen’s agreements) that a cleanse to the system needs to happen. I give you a thumbs up on that.

Posted from United States

By Jose | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Sven’s been replaced.

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/blogs/index?entryID=791369&name=futbol_picante

Posted from United States

By Jose | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Javier Aguirre will be the new DT.

Posted from United States

By Alan | April 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm

My vote goes for Aguirre, or the special one

Posted from United States

By Andrea | April 2nd, 2009 at 2:03 pm

Poor Svenny. I think he was pretty cool.

It’ll be Aguirre. There’s pretty much no doubt about that. People have begged him to take over already, but he said not while Sven was there.

I’d like the special one. Especially puppet Jose. Team talks would be inspirational. “Be Champions!” would really get team spirit up. Guaranteed win.

Posted from United States

By Al | April 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm

I’d be glad to see Aguirre back. Even though he turned Atletico into a turd overnight, I expect him to do great things.

3 coaches in 3 years, shit.

Posted from United States

By RP | April 3rd, 2009 at 2:23 am

I believe, the worst of all is that Mexico the ego too high to accept that a small country with a improving team to win them. Lets be realistic, is Honduras won Mexico the last three matches; do you believe it is a pure casualty? no, either mexico’s foot ball is in the down ward curve, or Honduras is in the up ward curve. The more we accept our realities the better we will improve our positions regardless of the fiels of action. I watched the game and to be honest, I saw a Mexico desperate, weak, it was not the Mexico I have seen before. This time definitely Honduras was over and beyong Mexico and the refery discusting at the end of the game.

Posted from United States

By GTF | April 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm

he entendido muy poco rayos necesitor entender el ingles xD

Posted from Mexico

By hec | April 3rd, 2009 at 11:40 pm

RP…….YOU ARE FULL OF SHIT YOUR HEAD IS FULL OF SHIT…YOU HAVE SOME ANGER AGAINST MEXICANS MAN…WHAT HAPPENED DID A MEXICAN TAKE YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER AWAY FROM YOU OR WHAT THE HEC….YOU SOUND BUTT-HURT….

By Mike | April 20th, 2009 at 2:28 am

Al, let me give my most sincere condolences to you and every other Mexican who finally realized the faults of their squad. It was about time you guys recognized your inferiority to at least two other CONCACAF teams. It is not a reason to lament, nevertheless, as you are definitely going to the World Cup, as always.

By Joga91 | May 12th, 2009 at 10:08 pm

Man this is so true..
What happened to the old mexico that would go balls to the wall and bust their ass.
It isnt the same the players dont have the attitude before they cared more about the shirt instead of the money and now thats the total opposite.
there needs to be serious changes in the FMF and coaching staff it seems to me its all business and they dont care about futbol anymore.

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