By: Jonny Rico
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More than two years have passed and the Mexican National Team is about to present its fifth manager since then, but the Jose Manuel ‘Chepo’ de la Torre terrifying tenure still haunts me.
De la Torre had México on the verge of failing to qualify to the World Cup for the first time since the 1982 edition in Spain – México did miss Italy 1990 but not for a lack qualifying.
It was 2013 and ‘Chepo’ was finally let go as Mexican National Team manager. Luis Fernando Tena, assistant to De la Torre and Olympic hero in 2012 was given the chance to take over but was also sacked after one game. LIGA MX’s most successful manager Victor Manuel Vucetich was then brought on to finish the last two game in CONCACAF’s final hexagonal but was also let go immediately after.
The Mexican Soccer Federation (FMF) begged for reigning league champion manager Miguel ‘Piojo’ Herrera to come in a lead the team through the last chance playoff series against New Zealand.
‘Piojo’ came in and brought with him radical changes to that of what Jose Manuel de la Torre had been doing and Tena and Vucetich tried to continue. He left all of the European based players out of both New Zealand matches, changed the 4-4-2 formation into a 5-3-2 and gave the team a generally more aggressive out look.
Some of those changes are still in effect in Mexico today and were even the key to El Tri’s success in the 3-2 win over the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) this past Saturday night in Pasadena, Calif.
‘Chepo’ de la Torre has been know to be an overly cautious manager throughput his career. He is a big fan of having two defensive midfielders in front of his defensive line to provide extra protection and be able to control the middle part of the field with possession. But when CONCACAF teams decide to use the “Park the bus” strategy, having two defensive midfielders is not very useful.
Herrera’s more aggressive 5-3-2 system uses only one defensive midfielder with two box-to-box mids on either side. This allowed Mexico’s attack to benefit from greater midfield presence while still being able to have enough defensive protection in the back with the three center backs and one holding mid.
But the key to success in the entire scheme is the attacking wing-backs. These two players have to constantly run up the field and join in the attack, send in crosses to the strikers, and make inside runs looking to either shoot on goal or the give-N-go pass.
Paul Aguilar (on the right) and Miguel Layun (on the left) were ‘Piojo’ Herrera’s choice wing-backs since he managed them at Club America and who were vital to America’s 2013 Clausura championship run with Miguel Herrera.
On Saturday night Aguilar show cased just how old USMNT’s Damarcus Beasley is. He had the entire right wing to run freely all night long and took advantage of this.
Aguilar was with not much argument Mexico’s best player. The right wing-back was involved in all three goals including scoring the dramatic extra time volley to give El Tri the win. He played the ball to Raul Jimenez which set up the back-heel pass to Oribe Peralta who laid the ball for a Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez tap in. Aguilar also run up and lunged at a lobbed pass on the right side of the box to cross the ball in which set up Peralta for Mexico’s second of the night.
Every manage is different, and the fact that interim manager Ricardo ‘Tuca’ Ferretti surprised everyone and sent out three strikers deserves a lot of credit. But the one holding midfielder and the constant attacks through the wings with Aguilar and Layun have to be credited to the former manager that also won the CONCACAF Gold Cup which got Mexico to Saturday’s game.
Next Wednesday the FMF will officially present Juan Carlos Osorio as the new (permanent) manager. It is hard to see see the Colombian coach moving away from what Miguel Herrera has left behind.
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