1. In World Cup, Mexico Believes
Anything Can Happen After Rough
Road to Brazil
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/in-world-cup-mexico-believes-anything-can-
happen-after-rough-road-to-brazil
In the eyes of the Mexican writer Juan Villoro, a frequent commentator on soccer and, thus, a
person with a keen sense of narrative structure, the Mexico national team’s undulant path to this
city unfolded much like the plot of a telenovela. There were shifting loyalties and interpersonal
squabbles, immoderate despair and moments of ecstasy, several near‐deaths and a last‐minute
salvation. Now, fans will witness a resolution to a final cliffhanger. On Friday in this city along the
northeastern coast of Brazil, Mexico will play its first game of the 2014 World Cup, against
Cameroon. After an unsteady and emotional roller‐coaster ride through the qualifying stages in
the Concacaf region, there is a feeling, as in any good story, that anything can happen. “For me, it
is not a matter of how you get there, as long as you get there, and the real challenge starts now for
our team,” said Alfredo Domínguez Muro, a radio host and sports columnist in Mexico. “Whoever
gets lost in that superficial drama forgets that the 32 teams that get to the World Cup got there
however they could.” What drama it was, though. The country’s performance at the Olympics two
years ago in London, for the sake of storytelling, is widely seen as this Mexican squad’s formative
phase. It beat a Brazilian team that featured the likes of Neymar, Óscar, Hulk and other players on
the World Cup team, 2‐1, in the gold medal game, solidifying the notion that the country was
cultivating a generation of stars. (Olympic soccer is essentially an under‐23 competition, and 10 of
the 23 players on the Mexican Olympic squad were included on the World Cup roster this month.)

2. But the subsequent maturation process did not exactly go smoothly. Mexico compiled a 2‐3‐5 win‐lose‐
draw record in World Cup qualifying last year, failing to score in half of its games. This stunning
mediocrity plunged the team into a dizzying crisis. Over that 10‐game span, the country’s soccer
federation cycled, rather amazingly, through four coaches, who in turn tried almost 50 players. Fans,
meanwhile, began to ask existential questions about the state of the sport in the country.
Villoro said the structure of Mexico’s domestic league, which has
two short seasons, promoted volatility. He said the league’s teams
were more interested in selling players than developing them. And he
said the national team’s ability to play poorly in the region and
still qualify for tournaments — and, more important, earn revenue
(Mexico’s federation has a lucrative contract with Soccer United
Marketing, an arm of Major League Soccer, to play exhibitions in the
United States) and sponsorships — had bred complacency up and down
the sport.
It was only a deus ex machina that saved Mexico from wreckage. On the
last day of qualifying, Mexico was losing to Costa Rica and was
seconds away from missing the World Cup. But in a concurrent game in
Panama City, Graham Zusi of the United States scored a goal in
second-half injury time,which lifted Mexico back into fourth place in
the group, which meant it would face New Zealand in a two-game
playoff for a World Cup berth. (It alsobirthed the nickname San
Zusi among Mexican fans.)
That night, a video of a Mexican television commentator thanking the
United States and bashing his country’s players became popular
online. The team, saved from the dead, won the playoff handily.
After all of that, Mexican fans remain passionate about the team. It
helps that they have a charismatic coach, Miguel Herrera, who seems
to have earned the trust of players and charmed the news media. He is
an emotional orator and an unabashed tweeter.
Herrera and the team captain, Rafael Márquez, repeatedly use the
phrase “make history” to characterize their ambitions. (Contrast
that with the comments of Jurgen Klinsmann, the United States coach,
who said his team could not realistically win the tournament.)
“We have a team that can be world champions,” Herrera said. “We
are convinced of this.”
Such eagerness, though, may have some basis. The team finally
received a stroke of good luck when it was drawn into Group A.
Brazil, ranked No. 3 in the world, presents an obvious challenge as

3. the tournament host and popular favorite to win. But matches against
Croatia (No. 18) and Cameroon (No. 56) are seen as manageable tasks.
An analysis by The New York Times last week determined that Mexico
wasthe World Cup’s luckiest team, meaning its first-round grouping
was calculated to be easier than 99 percent of its other
possibilities.
But question marks linger. It has been acknowledged, for instance,
that the roster is suboptimal. Carlos Vela, who is seen by many as
the country’s top player, has not played for the national team since
2011, the reason for which remains unclear. And Luis Montes, a key
midfielder, fractured his right leg in an exhibition game on May 31,
dealing an emotional blow to the team.
As stable as the team has been under Herrera, it obviously could have
used more time to grow familiar with his system and ideas. It is
unclear how cohesive the unit will be when faced with extreme
pressure, and questions remain about how the team will score.
“This team does not have a character,” said Domínguez, the radio
host and columnist, who suggested the team would need to sacrifice
the attractive style of collective play that has been its hallmark to
hunt goals. “This time, a great deal of individual capacity and
talent will have to emerge because this group is not really a team.”
Whatever has happened, whatever issues still exist, Domínguez said it
was now time for the Mexican team and its fans to set them aside.
The melodrama hardly matters anymore. Improbably, the Mexican team is
here.
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