Q&A With Sven

April 2nd, 2009 | by: Alan | View Comments

After the news of Sven’s perhaps untimely termination, there was a press conference where he was asked questions from the Mexican media. At the press conference Sven showed off his Spanish, and also made a admirable and respectable exit. After the jump is the full interview with ex Mexican National Team Coach, Mr. Sven-Göran Eriksson.

What was more difficult, realizing your vision for the team or maintaining discipline?
The truth is that there were a lot of cards recently, which is our fault. It’s not a problem of adapting to Mexican football, the players play well, they always play well at home. Unfortunately, the team didn’t play that well away from home and sadly this road ends.

What mistakes did you make?
The away results, they should have been better. I always said that if you have the opportunity to redo a game you’ve lost then you can make some changes to lineup or tactics, but this opportunity doesn’t exist in football. I was responsible and if someone has to pay it’s me, that’s how it is.

What’s the legacy of Sven-Göran Eriksoon in Mexican football?
I like Mexican football, I like the country. I’ve always said that the only thing I don’t like about MExico is the traffic, other than that I like everything here. Regarding what the players will remember me for, I don’t know. They have worked very well, they always have a great working mentality. Everyone I called up always worked hard. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the results away from home, at home it was fine.

Why do you think Mexico has problems winning away games?
I can’t speak about the past because I know very little about that. I can only speak about the time I was here. I think that every away game we played a bit better, and we tried to play as we did at home. I think we played the same home and away, but if you don’t score and make defensive mistakes the result will be what it is. During my months here it was a question about a different mentality when playing away.

Do you believe that the lack of discipline was one of the reasons the team didn’t play 100%?
It could be a reason because the yellow and red cards cost the team a lot. Not just during the game in which they happened but also in the following games, often I was forced to compose a team without some players who were forced to sit out on accumulation of yellows. These absences cost the team a lot.

When you first came to Mexico you were smiling, you learned the language, and it looked like you wanted to have a long career in Mexico. Based on your previous experience, did you think it was going to be easy to coach in Mexico?
I think I’m always smiling, today it’s harder because of the situation and I don’t like it, but I have to learn and accept it. Life has to go on for Mexico and me, I am not going to lose my way of thinking because of this. I don’t like this at all because I always saw myself on the sideline for Mexico in South Africa.

Do you think the players did all they could to help win the game and save your job?
The players gave everything in order to win, like always. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that we didn’t score and didn’t manufacture scoring opportunities, also we made some big mistakes defensively. Honduras scored each goal way too easily.

Do you think it’s fair that you’re being made the scapegoat for Mexico’s lack of results?
Fair or not it doesn’t matter. If you ask me personally if it’s fair, I don’t think it’s fair because I thought I was the man to coach Mexico up to the world cup and during it. The president and board of directors can’t change players, but they can change the coach. When you sign for a club team or national team, you know that you are responsible for results. So I have to accept this without making a drama about it.

Do you think your lack of knowledge about the Mexican game hurt you?
Mexican football is not that different to understand, it’s not like it’s a mystery for anyone outside of Mexico. Also, I feel that I got this job in the first place because of my international experience, and that is very important in football, perhaps more important than knowing Mexican football specifically. Football in any country has to grow, they have to do things that the great football nations do. Mexico is a great football nation, but I’m talking about the nations that go to semifinals and finals. This is why I think international experience is more important than knowing Mexican football, even though Mexican football is not a big mystery, it’s not like it’s something alien, it’s football, how different can it be?

Do you think you were unable to handle the team’s discipline?
In all of my training sessions, there was only one time that one player came in very late. All the other times it was one or two players that would arrive a minute late, it’s not the end of the world. Regarding discipline on and off the field, the Mexican players are exemplary, there was absolutely no problem with this. The only one problem was useless cards during games. We talked about this last week and I feel that there will be measures from higher up to address this issue.

I think overall Sven handled himself like a gentleman and a scholar. He was baited often by the media to rant or blame others but he never bit. In the end he took all the responsibility and had nothing but praise for Mexican football (maybe it’s because he’s had so much practice).