When El Tri becomes an emoji (🤷♂️🤷♀️)
You can say expecting the worse, but you can also say expecting the unexpected because it sounds nicer
I really had the idea that things were going to be different on Thursday night. Crazy me.
I thought that playing against one of the best South American sides was going to get the best out of El Tri. In front of a home crowd, it made sense to think that they had everything in their favor to go out and give a complete effort, but it was sadly not the case.
Prior to the game, Gerardo “Tata” Martino made this assessment in regards to El Tri’s reality:
“In reality Phoenix, Dallas and all the U.S. cities that we visit and play in, it’s because there are a lot of Mexicans and we feel great. It’s being in a comfort zone, we need to get out of it more often.”
Right now, Martino is public enemy number one. He’ll be the first one to to blame for every bad performance that matches last night’s.
But he does have a point, El Tri needs to live more situations where it clearly isn’t favored. Situations where everything is against it.
They used to live those situations when playing in Copa América and guess what? They weren’t losing 3-0 to Uruguay; heck, they beat them several times.
El Tri and Mexican clubs are desperately missing that competition that CONMEBOL tournaments once offered.
Yesterday’s performance had many similarities to El Tri’s 7-0 defeat to Chile. It was alarming how quickly this derrotista mentality took over once Uruguay got the first goal. The lack of reaction and ambition after Edinson Cavani’s 2-0 was even worse to see.
What happened in the halftime chat, that made the team come out so defeated in the second half? Martino needed to make changes at the half to see if new faces could possibly change the direction of the game.
Take Uruguay as an example, and how Diego Alonso has deposited so much trust in Facundo Pellistri. Pellestri hardly played this season with Alavés, a Second Division bound Spanish side. Pellestri’s quality is well known and although he lacks those club minutes, Alonso has given him the keys to Uruguay’s offense, and how has Pellistri repaid him? With performances like last night’s; he didn’t get on the ball many times, but when he did, he was unstoppable.
Now explain to me why Martino hasn’t done something similar with Diego Lainez, who has clearly been one of El Tri’s best offensive sparks in recent months. Yesterday, Martino didn’t even include him on the bench and opted to give minutes to Rodolfo Pizarro, who at 28-years-old, is living an astonishing descend to his career.
Players need to play more responsibly. Tienen que respetar más la camiseta. Yesterday, it felt like the national team attended the game to fulfill a contract. Like when Televisa actors/actresses come to Cinco de Mayo festivals to say Viva México and then get off the stage. There’s no real consequences if they falter the way they did last night. Even if they continue to give these awful performances like the 7-0 against Chile, the 4-0 against Argentina in San Antonio or yesterday’s defeat, the crowd will always step up big time.
And that’s the sad part. The normalization of bad performances in front of 50,000 plus pro-México crowds.
Let’s see if yesterday’s whooping makes a lot of players have uncomfortable conversations. It’s 2022, and this is the state of El Tri and Mexican football: 🤷♂️🤷♀️