What was happening in between those youth tournaments at the senior level? And more importantly what would happen in the future? Those who won the 2005 U17 World Cup and those who won the gold in 2012 would soon be at their best to compete at a senior level. If all turned out as planned, these boys would still be the best in the world when they reached their prime and Mexico would be on their way to have a strong tournament in 2014 and a real candidacy for the 2018 Cup in Russia.

But that’s not what happened.

Fast forward four years after their Olympic gold medal and… Mexico lost their most embarrassing game in all of their history. A 7–0 loss against Chile in Copa America(2), practically on home soil. The game seemed as though Chile was playing a pre-season hype match against a high-school team before their season opener. And a year after that, Mexico lost another embarrassing 4–1 to Germany’s C team(3) in the Conferdations Cup where Germany scored twice in the first eight minutes(4).

And finally, the place where we were just a few months ago, the 2018 World Cup. Only six summers after the gold medal in 2012. Why do I particularly recall this date? Remember who Mexico played in the finals when they won the gold medal? Do you remember who were the players representing Brazil? Well, Mexico lost to a very similar Brazil team they had beaten not too long ago to win that gold medal.

Tough luck in 2006 against Argentina in extra time. In 2010, Mexico lost after, again, Argentina was awarded the most controversial goal of the tournament(5). In 2014, the referee awarded Netherlands a penalty after Robben clearly flopped.

Mexico, always, almost there. But the sad part is there wasn’t a referee mistake this year. There was no incorrectly called penalty. No bad luck. Nobody to blame. This time Mexico lost… well because we’re Mexico.

It’s important to note that although Mexico has continually failed to make the fifth game at the World Cup, they have had some seriously impressive group stage performances. The most recent and clear examples — in 2010, Mexico played an inspiring and near perfect game against France in their second group stage match. They defeated one of the tournament’s favorites 2–0 which essentially eliminated The Blues. In 2014, again, Mexico played one of the best matches I’ve seen any team play — not only did they beat Croatia 3–1 but they did with various referee mistakes in Croatia’s favor. Again, El Tri eliminated a strong team from the tournament. And this year, Mexico beat the World Cup favorites in the first match of the group.

The point here is — in 2010 Mexico eliminates France. Four years later they eliminate Croatia. This year’s final? France vs Croatia. How did these, and other, teams recover over the years, bring in new and efficient managers, change the morale of the team, build a new squad and dramatically change their performance only two tournaments in the future? Croatia went from earning only three points in 2014 to making it all the way in 2018.

Football changes. I get that. But why hasn’t Mexican football adapted the way others have been able to? Other teams can change for the better and do it all the time. But how is it that Mexico has performed exactly the same every four years? In the entirety of the tournament’s existence.

Where did it all go wrong? Smaller countries like North Korea, Senegal, Cuba, Costa Rica, Denmark and Hungary have all made it to the quarterfinals. But how has a team that has continually had everything to win never made it to the infamous fifth game?

Lack of Playing Style

The main fault Mexico has is the lack of a concrete structure. Like other Mexican’s I criticize the team. A lot. But I have seen El Tri play great games and seen Mexico rise to the occasion countless times. The problem is they have done it a different way each time — the team that played in Copa America just two years ago was vastly different than the one that played this summer. Might not necessarily be a fault as a sign of a good sports team is the ability to adapt and be comfortable with adversity. Take Spain for example. They win the World Cup in 2010 but don’t make it out of the group stage in 2014. A large part of that has to do with the inability to adapt to new playing styles as other teams formed strategies against their tactics.

But at least they had a style. And they still do.

The best teams in history have had a notable and distinct way of playing that have made them successful. The ability for players to buy into a strategy and have a continuous mindset allows teams to develop a structure they know in and out that can make them very difficult to penetrate. Not even club teams, for example, who play up to ten games per month really change their lineups very often.

International teams meet maybe six times a year and usually have less than a week together. Successful teams need to have a structure and a style of play they swear by to allow players to quickly get in rhythm when they reconvene. Mexico players are confused. It’s not their fault. It’s not easy to play for Mexico; I’ve seen players do well in club but not be able to perform with the national team time and time again.

In the fifty games leading up to the World Cup, when Osorio (Mexico’s coach (he’ll be brought up later)) was in charge of Mexico, he didn’t repeat a single line up. Not once. Players literally didn’t know what formation they’d play or who would even play days before the biggest game of their life. When Mexico played against Germany, Osorio formed a strategy to compete against them — a hyper-offensive counter attack team to respond to the Germans’ offensive style. When Mexico played Korea in the second game, they played a possession game to combat the Koreans’ high-pressure strategy. And when Mexico played Sweden they had a different plan to adjust and eventually a different strategy was constructed to face Brazil.

Germany has precision. England has pace. Spain has tiki taka. And Brazil plays quickly. But what was Mexico’s playing style?

It’s All About Money

Soccer makes the world go round in Mexico. And just like in other countries — the biggest form of entertainment has been packaged, wrapped, and monetized.

The Mexican soccer league is so infamously corrupt and oddly monetized that Netflix has created a show all about it called Club De Cuervos. There are all sorts of rules that govern the league that revolve around making sure team owners and league officials continually pocket their share of the wealth. There’s even an unspoken agreement between team owners where other teams aren’t allowed to buy players when they’re on free agency after serving a full contract. As if that’s not enough, many second division teams are not even allowed to ascend to Liga MX because their stadiums aren’t ‘at capacity’ while first division teams sometimes pay a lump sum of cash to stay in the league.

Have you ever watched a Liga MX game? What team did you like? Who was the player you think stood out the most? Did you notice he probably wasn’t Mexican? Soccer is different than other sports in that a player can still have a few transfers left in his career after his prime (take Zlatan, for example, who has been on four teams after his stint in Barcelona). The Mexican league really takes advantage of this. Mexico loves sensationalism and for some reason it makes more economic sense to sign 36-year-old Landon Donavan than investing in youth teams or academy’s.

Names sell tickets. This is a business just like any other and owners need to make money. I get that. But Mexico is the only nation in the world where the best players they produce are left in an awkward situation where they don’t get playing time. See, the strongest players in the Mexican league are either South American who use the league as their stepping stone to a European club or they are Europeans who are close to retirement.

There’s no stepping stone for Mexican players. It’s either Liga MX or Europe for them. That leaves Mexico is this really weird gray area where it simply doesn’t make sense for a good player to play in his home country or abroad. They’re not getting playing time in Europe and they’ve outgrown the domestic league. Take Marco Fabian for example, who hasn’t played for Eintracht Frankfurt at all this season, not even being registered for most games. While he’s too talented to not play in the eastern side of the world, it’s too late in his career for him to try and find a rhythm in Europe. Keep in mind that he is a player that’s won the gold medal at the Olympics and been to two World Cups. But he’s still also a player that can’t really find a team.

What ends up happening in Mexico is the national team is full of players who haven’t had playing time in their respective club teams.

It’s important to remember that the owners of the clubs or the Mexican Football Federation aren’t necessarily evil or more corrupt than other business owners in Mexico. They aren’t volunteering their time to try to make soccer better. They own a business and they treat the teams/league as such. But in Mexico it’s not unheard of for club owners to be as famous as their own players because in Mexico, soccer isn’t about the sport.

It’s about money.

Partidos Moleros

One reason for Mexico’s poor performance in big tournaments is rooted in the shock factor when they play big teams. The truth about why Mexico doesn’t beat teams like Brazil or Netherlands is because El Tri isn’t used to playing against powerhouses. The majority of our players don’t play in the Bacelonas, Dortmunds or Liverpools of the world. The only chance they have to get valuable experience is with the national team. But that doesn’t happen.

This is partly because Mexico is part of Concacaf, a region that isn’t as competitive as other parts of the globe. But it’s also because Mexico chooses to play friendlies that frankly don’t do much for the team. You ever notice all of Mexico’s friendlies are usually played stateside? Why? Well, because those games sell. In fact, they do more in sales than a game would do in Mexico, typically. The Federation cashes in more from a game in the United States that can be filled with both Mexican fans and a few fans from whatever country they decide to play as well as selling to more powerful sponsors.

Mexico needs to play against countries like France, Argentina or Spain when they have the chance, but they don’t.

As a case study, there’s a young defender that plays for America and performs exceptionally well in Liga MX. It took him a while to adapt to the league when he debuted at nineteen-years-old but he quickly earned a starting position two years ago for Club America. His name is Edson Álvarez. He does well against his opponents domestically. But frankly, he seemed lost when Mexico played Sweden. He didn’t do that well against Brazil either. But I don’t think its necessarily his fault. He just needed experience. He would’ve adapted like he’s done before. He’s proven to learn quickly. But instead, days before the tournament, Mexico played a sold out game against Scotland.

The same way Alvarez needed to play a friendly against a quicker team, the team as a whole needed to play a more aggressive side too. It makes sense that Mexico doesn’t perform well in the World Cup when they play Brazil or Sweden. A friendly in Kansas against Israel months before the start of the tournament doesn’t really prepare them. Just like France played Italy, or Portugal played Belgium, or Croatia played Brazil days before the tournament, Mexico needed better opponents than Scotland or Wales.

But instead, they spend three years leading up to the tournament only playing against teams like Haiti and Denmark while the other powerful teams of the world are getting real tribulations and simulations of what the real experience will be like.