Tata Martino needs a hug.The Mexico manager just led his team to victory over Peru in a friendly when a moment he had hoped would come for quite some time finally arrived: A reporter asked him something about tactics.“I’ve been waiting four years for someone to ask me a question of that nature. I appreciate you. I’d come give you a hug.” Martino said before joking he should travel to Tijuana, where the reporter is based, to offer all his news conferences.Mexico has hardly embraced Martino, and the loveless marriage is hurtling rapidly toward the date when the parties finally split. Mexico doesn’t want Martino to keep coaching the men’s national team after this World Cup, and the Argentine doesn’t want to spend any more time than necessary leading El Tri.His glee at a reporter actually understanding two relatively basic fundamentals of his style of play (Utilizing two-way midfielders who want to help keep possession and prioritizing a No. 9 who is skilled at dropping to help build attacks rather than finish off plays) show just how weary Martino has become of the questions that typically come from the press corps.That’s not to say there haven’t been extremely tough but fair questions to ask about Mexico. While the team has lost just three of the 16 matches it has played in 2022, that number is padded by friendly matches against teams like Guatemala, Paraguay on a non-FIFA date, and last week’s win against Iraq.Even then, Mexico drew with Guatemala, labored to get past Honduras and El Salvador in the latter stages of World Cup qualification and has often put in flat, uninspiring showings.Fans will still support the team, and the manager still wants to lead his men to World Cup glory, or at least to the quarterfinals, where Mexico hasn’t been since hosting the tournament in 1986. But it feels increasingly unlikely he has the talent needed to achieve that historic breakthrough.Martino is sweating the fitness of Raúl Jiménez, undoubtedly Mexico’s best No. 9 in light of the continued exclusion of all-time leading scorer Javier “Chicharito” Hernández. Jiménez has been trying to work through a groin injury since early September, making the final squad but hardly looking to be at full strength.
Jesús “Tecatito” Corona is missing out on the tournament because of a leg and ankle injury suffered in Sevilla training in August, meaning Mexico could be without two of its top three attackers when the ball rolls in the group opener against Poland next week.It’s an unwanted extra headache for Martino, who already has to deal with a group of center backs prone to individual errors and unseasoned outside backs.Even the way in which he’s choosing to confront the issue has frustrated fans and the press that speaks for many of them. Young forward Santi Giménez, who leads the Europa League with four goals for Feyenoord in 172 minutes and also has a pair of goals in league play, missed out on the roster with Jiménez, Rogelio Funes Mori and América forward Henry Martin occupying the forward places.Martino said the controversy always will be there when the distance between players is so narrow, but claimed Giménez wouldn’t even be in the frame were it not for the national team staff.“If there are two people responsible for bringing Santi into the discussion to be able to have a spot in the World Cup, one is him for everything he’s done, and the other is me because I brought him in when he wasn’t even a starter with Cruz Azul,” Martino said at Mexico’s pre-World Cup camp in Spain. “The reality is Santi is the Europa League’s top scorer but doesn’t have a lot of minutes, he’s played now and then.”
Whether or not that logic stands up to reason is somewhat beside the point. Martino cuts a frustrated figure, noting that he knows whatever decision he makes is going to generate controversy in the press.For a year after taking over the national team shortly after leading Atlanta United to an MLS Cup win, the pressure of the job didn’t get to Martino. Then came the first loss of his tenure, a shellacking from Argentina that was preceded by Mexico players being photographed enjoying brunch at an Italian restaurant/nightclub in New York City.The slog began there, a gradual trudge toward the end everyone is expecting in Qatar, whether it’s another last-16 defeat or a group-stage exit that would represent the worst finish by a Mexico team in recent memory. Since defeats to the United States in the Concacaf Nations League final and the Gold Cup final in the summer of 2021, the indications are that Martino is ready to move on to his next challenge, tired of wasting his breath explaining his desired style of play and finding the right Mexico players to actually pull it off.It doesn’t help that Mexico is struggling when it matters most, failing to win its last 10 matches against teams ranked in the top 30 of WeGlobalFootball’s propriety rankings.You can put that on Martino and the players, and you would be right. But the manager himself points out that so many of the issues he’s tried to overcome are imposed by the system. Many El Tri players stay in Liga MX rather than going to Europe because of the big money involved in Mexican soccer, which often stunts development. Club owners hold an outsized amount of power in the Mexican setup, often limiting what national team directors and coaches are able to implement.“It’s too bad we don’t look at how things can get better. It’s about the manager, the players, who he selected, who he didn’t pick,” Martino said in a fiery news conference after a 3-2 friendly loss to Colombia. “It’s not the debate Mexico needs to get better as a soccer nation.”Martino isn’t likely to stick around to see if Mexico settles on the right debate and can improve those issues. A return to Argentina, to MLS or even to Paraguay beckon as jobs that would be less frustrating but also where it would be easier to find success.But unless he can find a way to shock France (or Denmark) in the knockout round, fans and those leading Mexican soccer won’t think twice about kicking him to the curb rather than bringing it in for a cozy bear hug.
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