Thursday, June 5, 2008

Sven me from this mess

Hard to say that Argentina's 4-1 win over Mexico was anything but a spanking. It was a clinic in many ways as Argentina picked apart Mexico. It's clear that Mexico needs something, needs Sven to come in and take charge. I'm wondering, though, if the players were cool about his arrival and his hiring how they will react to him once he's in charge.

I thought Ricardo Lavolpe's tactics fit Mexico perfectly but Hugo Sanchez and now Chucho Ramirez have each not played to Mexico's strengths. It will be interesting to see what Sven does.

Anyway, here are a couple of stories from the game.

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune writes about the rout in a tremendous recap of the match.

Grahame Jones of the LA Times was also there and writes a bit more on the Argentines.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luis -- I have a lot of respect for you and your work (I've been reading you now for about three, four years), but I found the statement below in your latest SI column really uninformed:

"Eriksson, 60, is the most accomplished coach to ever take over the Mexican national team."

Did you forget that Menotti coached the national team in the early nineties? I mean, at that point, Menotti had won a world cup (78) and coached Argentina in a second one (82).

Is Sven more accomplished than Menotti? That's surely not what you meant, right?

saludos, d

L.B. said...

No, you're right. I should have said in recent years. I was going back to the 94 World Cup and went off by memory. That's not the best way to do things. Clearly Menotti is more accomplished than Sven when you consider his World Cup triumph.

Thanks for pointing that out. Gotta be on my toes next time.

M. Verde said...

I am not even gonna try to make excuses for Mexico, you saw what happened! But if you're are going to play Argentina, the #1 team in the world, do it with the best possible mexican team, and save yourself the trips to the cantina to do shots of Tequila!

Missing in action:

1.Marquez (Mexicos reference point!)
2.Pavel Pardo (Stuttgart's captain!)
3.Nery (with the national team, a giant!)
4.Franco (eight goals for Villareal this season!)
5.Giovani (recovering from an ankle operation)
6.De Nigris (14 goals in twelve games this year in Turkey, and a lot of personality!)

Plus Ochoa, Bravo, and "Maza" Rodriguez, the last two on their way to La Coruna, and PSV repectively!

Argentina can do without Tevez or Riquelme, Mexico cannot afford those luxuries!!!

Gabriel in Argentina said...

Well,,as usual another stupid statement Luis. So, let get this straight, Hugo Sanchez and Chucho didn't play to Mexico's strengths? So, Hugo and Chucho decided to lose games on purpose? Both Hugo and Chucho no so little about Mexican football that they purposely played to their weaknesses? How do you know what are Mexico's strengths? How do you presume to no more than Chucho and Hugo?

Gabriel in Argentina said...

M Verde..so now we start with the excuses? The only reason Argentina beat us is because we did not have our best players? Please..DeNigris, Gio, and Franco have never done anything at the full national team level. One of those three is not even Mexican. You think we would have done better if Pardo played or Maza played?

Since we are discussing players that are missing, in addition to Riquelme and Tevez, please add Veron, Crespo to your list and even Heinze. Argentina was not and is not at full strength.

Unknown said...

To Gabriel, what part of- 'I am not even gonna try to make excuses for Mexico, you saw what happened!'- didn't you understand? To me the players I mentioned, would, and should have made a difference! I am convinced it would have not been 4-1! ! What I implied in my comment, is that if Mexico ever plays any of the ten best ranked teams in the world, it doesn't have the luxuries (yet!) that they have, and can use all the help they can get. Also, you tell Franco that he's not mexican!