I don't care anymore about Mexican football. But when I was younger I tried to be a player. However, to become a player in México you basically have to bribe your way up. Also the league's format is designed very badly. There have been league champions with more defeats than wins.
Why does Mexico not have a stronger NT?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I'm talking overall results, not just face to face matches.
Mexico has a 110 million population, and you almost never pulled an upset in a knockout match like Bulgaria,Croatia,Romania,Belgium,Poland, did.
Your "surprise" matches are all in group stage, and other teams have done that as well.
Mexico has clearly underperformed for what you expect for a country with more than 100 million population which main sport id Football.
Denmark has better players...I'm talking about quality of players, not just NT level, and they don't even have 10 million population.
Mexico should do better tbh
One benefit the smaller european countries benefit from is being right next to core of club football in the wealthy big 4/5 leagues. It's not an insta-win button to a capable national team by any means, but when you have a solid system domestically and the culture of talent constantly going to the biggest leagues in the world for the final stages of their development it's a great advantage to have. Denmark, Croatia, Serbia and other smaller countries doing well all have that culture, and wouldn't be as good if the vast majority of their players stayed in their own leagues until mid/late 20s, or all of their career. Once a country gets on a roll with talent production to the best leagues, it helps immensely keep a good level, and can level out a big advantage in population if the larger country has a lot of other problems.
To add to this, there is also the challenge of work permits and age restriction when it comes to young player movement. Josh Sargent, for example, had to wait till he was 18 to officially begin his pro career. His only option was to join an MLS team which would have inhibited his ability to move to Europe. So, he sat at IMG Academy till he turned 18 and officially started at Werder Bremen. Looking at Utd, you have Garnacho (Spain passport) who could not only train at one of the greatest clubs in the world, but also debut for the first team, all before he turned 18. This could not happen for an American of Mexican player unless they could somehow qualify for a passport.
There are a lot of problems with Mexican football. Most of them have to do with prioritizing money instead of competitiveness.
Most of the national team friendly matches are in the USA against b or c level teams instead of going to Europe or south America. The liga MX does not have relegation since a few years back. The liga has two champions per year, and on every tournament, out of the 18 teams, 12 qualify to the knockout stages, which makes that you can be mediocre the whole tournament and still aspire to be champion. Very few teams are good at developing talent, the league is full of foreign players. Basically, most of the south Americans that are not good enough for Europe go to Mexico and this hinders the development of young talent.
Unlike the rest of the leagues in south America, the Mexican league pays very well, so most players don't go to Europe because that would mean sacrificing money, at least for a few years until they prove their worth in Europe. That's a risk not every player wants to take
Most of the national team friendly matches are in the USA against b or c level teams instead of going to Europe or south America. The liga MX does not have relegation since a few years back. The liga has two champions per year, and on every tournament, out of the 18 teams, 12 qualify to the knockout stages, which makes that you can be mediocre the whole tournament and still aspire to be champion. Very few teams are good at developing talent, the league is full of foreign players. Basically, most of the south Americans that are not good enough for Europe go to Mexico and this hinders the development of young talent.
Unlike the rest of the leagues in south America, the Mexican league pays very well, so most players don't go to Europe because that would mean sacrificing money, at least for a few years until they prove their worth in Europe. That's a risk not every player wants to take
The worst part is that the foreign players than Liga MX imports (who hurt the development of national talent in the long run) are mostly C/D tier players from Southamerica that aren't good enough for Europe.
PL is full or foreigners too, but at least they are top players... foreign players in Liga MX are just C/D tier players that aren't good enough for Europe, not even good enough for Eredivisie or the portuguese league.
I believe the contract to play at least 5 friendlies (‘moleros’) in the USA per year was extended until 2028. The FMF of course will defend that agreement to the hilt given how lucrative it is.
Unless the Mexican fans living the US en-masse boycott those games and stop buying the shirt, nothing will change there. In fact with Mexico not playing any qualifying games for the next World Cup, I expect they’ll play even more of those games in the build up.
San Memo Ochoa basically defending the status quo a few days was also disappointing.
Unless the Mexican fans living the US en-masse boycott those games and stop buying the shirt, nothing will change there. In fact with Mexico not playing any qualifying games for the next World Cup, I expect they’ll play even more of those games in the build up.
San Memo Ochoa basically defending the status quo a few days was also disappointing.
Isn't more money always good? Why do they need to go to Europe when they have a lucrative contract to play friendlies in the US?
Other points @rojo81 brought up were interesting. No relegation, easy knock out stages etc. I personally don't think having foreign players is a problem. If the national players are good then they'll compete. Otherwise foreign players come in and raise the standards for everyone. You don't get better by being shut-ins. IMO some blend requiring certain % of starting team being home grown is enough.
If someone else has offered a similar reply, I apologize, but I couldn't go through 4 pages of replies in hope someone pointed this out. Yes I agree we are dire on the international stage, but what you seem to have left out is the fact let's be honest, footie is NOT a first choice sport here in Ireland.No need to get offended I think he meant in the way that yous have a very small population but are always competitive, sure I’m in Ireland and we have 4,7m people and we are woeful
Take away (from the 4.7 million) the young, the old and those couldn't give a flying feck about sports and then add into the mix, Gaa Hurling and Gaa footie are more favoured due to the fact young and into their 30s have more of a chance of glory than in English footie, add in boxing, where we had more winners there then in footie, our clubs are not professional or offered the same level as too what young English kids get and the English clubs don't have the same level of wanting or willing to give them a chance like in the 70s, 80s and some of the 90s, and till that changes we will always be weak on the International stage, also add in Rugby that has seen it compete with footie since the 91 WC as most point to the game against one of the then kings Australia and how we ran them so close, also add in golf, running, MMA, horse racing, and you are not left with a very large pool off people to choose from.
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Could it do with their diet?
The Mexico diet tastes great to be really influential to a society whilst I don’t hear much about an Argentina or Brazilian diet at all.
The Mexico diet tastes great to be really influential to a society whilst I don’t hear much about an Argentina or Brazilian diet at all.
Versus the well know healthy, low carb, low fat diets of say France and Italy?
Athletes the world around now train the same way and eat the same way. I don't think the top talents in Mexico are rolling up to their favorite taco joint every night for some al pastor.
Much of the team play in Liga MX. I believe the Apertura 2022 season finished at the end of October, and that's only for teams that got to the final. Some teams wouldn't have played a competitive match when the WC started since around mid-October, possibly before. Might explain the slow start. Probably a factor along with the others mentioned.
But they can join a European academy before 18 unless the rules have changed in past years. Kirovski was at United at age 16, not professionally but on some school visa type status in the academy. Many other American youth moved overseas before 18 on academy status and in some leagues on professional terms, like Germany used to allow such (Donovan for example).
True, but Kirovski was also denied a WP by the PFA and had to leave England. Things must have changed, because a couple of recent guys Sargent (WB) and Jonathon Gomez (Sociedad) had to wait till 18 to move to Germany and Spain. The other guys (Pulisic, Reyna, Menez, etc.) all had EU passports I think. Donovan is also a Canadian citizen, so not sure if that helped him back in the day when the UK was in the EU.
I vaguely recall they changed the professional terms rule to be age 18 for anyone of non-EU status across Europe, though I may be wrong. I do recall the issues with work permits in Britain in those days and possibly still to this day although more relaxed now. Kirovski did remain at the club for four years in the academy and reserves without getting a work permit. I think the rule was changed to allow for NT 'B', U23, U21, etc. caps to count as it was difficult to expect a teenager to gain 75% full NT caps in a two-year window. There was another kid that joined Barcelona a few years back, De La Fuente.
From what I recall from 20+ years ago, some countries permitted pro contracts before age 18, like Germany and Netherlands and I think Turkey (as Gus Kartes signed pro terms at age 15 in 1996). But I recall others like France, Italy, and Spain mandated age 18/19 and that is one reason the club were able to lure Pique and Rossi away, amongst others - could give them pro terms on EU status before age 18.
That was Konrad and he was a special case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_de_la_Fuente#cite_note-6
Konrad de la Fuente - Wikipedia
Good foreign players are good. There are some of those in Liga MX. They come, they do raise the level of the league and the level of competition. Those are great. Mediocre players that come just because clubs doesn't want to develop young talent and instead of forming a youngster bring a not very good foreign to fill a spot is not good in the long run imo.