Mexico One Step Closer to Brazil Despite Absence Of Manchester United Man

During the World Cup Qualifying play-offs from the past few days I personally assumed that the matches that would catch my eye would be the UEFA ones. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to catch the Mexico-New Zealand qualifier on television. Learning all of the facts that I did prior to the match, I was fairly certain that Mexico manager Miguel Hererra was making a huge mistake, and that his nation’s World Cup hopes were all but finished. However, Mexico ended up winning that that match 5-1 and it turns out Hererra knew what he was doing.

Mexico has had quite a difficult journey to the World Cup, barley qualifying for this play off round, El Tri have seen quite a turn around of managers as well, they have had four different managers during this whole World Cup Qualifying madness - Four managerial changes in only a matter of months is obviously not a very good sign.

This match against New Zealand was the first for newly appointed manager Miguel Hererra, and his first decision was one that was a bit eye opening for me. Hererra decided ahead of the match that he was not going to call up any European based players, and only use Mexican nationals that were local. To me, this was crazy! No Chicharito? No Giovanni Dos Santos, Rafael Marquez, or Guillermo Ochoa? Nope, none of those super stars were called up.

The logic behind that move was that players that were already in Mexico would get a full two weeks of practice time together before the match, as opposed to players flying from Europe, who would be jet lagged and only be able to commit a few days at most. The game was played in Mexico, so the Mexican players didn’t have to travel at all.

When I first heard this I thought that Hererra was crazy. If he wanted to win this match he needed the best players. Chicharito is an amazing player, playing in the best league in the world, in my opinio, and his talents would surly be needed in this match I had thought. I was proved wrong by this team.

Sure it was against New Zealand, not much of a threat to begin with, and not to mention a team that had to travel halfway around the world just to play this match. The Mexican team played exceptionally well and was already up by two at the halftime whistle.

The final score ended up 5-1 and it looks as if the Mexican national team is going to sail easily into the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. If they continue to play like this, I would love seeing them there, and hopefully they have finally found a more permanent manager in Miguel Hererra. 

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