Mexico's World Cup honeymoon over as Rafa Márquez's El Tri slump to 3-0 defeat by USA and 2-0 loss to Chile
When a new coach ascends to lead Mexico's national team, fans say he is sitting in "la silla más caliente" – the hottest seat in town; one that can also burn. Rafael Márquez has discovered just how quickly it heats up. Only a month into his tenure as El Tri head coach, the former captain and Barcelona legend is already the subject of scathing headlines and think-pieces questioning whether his hiring was the right decision, after a post-World Cup friendly window that collapsed from optimism into nightmare.
The sequence could hardly have been starker: a 1-1 draw against Colombia, another 1-1 draw against Peru, then, on Saturday in Arizona, a 3-0 defeat to arch-rivals the United States, before Tuesday's 2-0 loss to Chile rubbed salt in the wound. Four matches, one downward spiral. First, Colombia: optimism. Then, Peru: unease. Then, the United States: despair. And finally Chile: nightmare.
From World Cup high to '¡qué horror!'
The contrast with the summer could hardly be sharper. Márquez was part of the coaching staff working under manager Javier Aguirre that oversaw Mexico's best World Cup performance in decades. On home soil, the team overcame a psychological barrier that had haunted them since 1986 by beating Ecuador in the last 32 – their first knockout-stage win at a World Cup since that year – before a brave defeat by England. As reported in September, when Aguirre was appointed head coach of LaLiga strugglers Valencia, Mexico were beaten 3-2 by 10-man England, ending their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since 1986. Aguirre had announced before the tournament that he would leave, with Márquez installed as his successor.
Since then, a starkly different picture has emerged. "It is difficult to recognize this team from the one that played just a few months ago," TV Azteca analyst Álvaro López Sordo said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. "One might think that the World Cup was an illusion, that playing at home favored Mexico, the altitude, the support of the fans."
Though these games were only friendlies, López Sordo said they delivered a cold "dose of reality", summing up the bewilderment of Mexican fans flooding social media to complain about the team. It is not just the heavy defeat to the United States – it is that the triumphant World Cup team seemed to have found something special that El Tri are now desperately seeking to regain.
Is Márquez really to blame?
The first temptation in the Mexican football world is to see the results as a referendum on Márquez. His appointment made sense: he knew the players, he was part of the leadership during the World Cup, and a long career – captaining the national team, playing for Barcelona and excelling on some of the most important stages in European soccer – made him one of the biggest names in the history of Mexican soccer. But he also inherited an obvious challenge: his experience as a top-level coach is limited. Shortly after his appointment, his former national team coach Ricardo La Volpe told Claro Sports: "Not all good players are good coaches; without getting into a debate, there's the case of Maradona or Pelé."
Márquez knew he was inheriting high expectations and immediately tried to temper them. "I adapt to what I have," he said at a press conference in late September, before the friendlies. "It's not that I'm going to impose a style of play, because obviously, who wouldn't want that? I was a Barça player, I want to play like Barça. But you don't have the raw material, so you have to adapt to that."
For López Sordo, these first few matches should be read less as an evaluation of Márquez's coaching than as an X-ray revealing the problems he will have to overcome. "Mexico's problem is not that they don't have good players, it's that they don't have enough of them," he said. "I think Pep Guardiola or José Mourinho could come to Mexico, and it wouldn't change much. Because, ultimately, the game belongs to the players."
A shallow talent pool and a thin bench
Mexico has spent years searching for the ideal coach, as if the manager were the missing piece. Meanwhile, the supply of elite players has changed: there are fewer established Mexicans in the major European leagues than in previous generations – 16 now, none of them playing for a top team in their respective league. The national team's bench is shallow, and an injury, a suspension or the poor form of one or two players can significantly alter the team's level.
"That reduces Rafa's margin for error," López Sordo said. "I think a solution will require him to scout the players more closely and carefully. It's tough because there aren't many options, but he'll have to be more assertive. This defeat against the United States is a burden Rafa has to carry, and if you keep adding burdens, the load becomes very heavy."
Signs of life amid the gloom
The friendlies were not all bad news. Against Colombia, Mexico played with a different style, possessing out from the back and creating attacking opportunities; after Colombia scored first, the teenager Gilberto Mora – who became the youngest goalscorer in the national team's history – responded as the match ended 1-1. Against Peru, Márquez surprised everyone by changing the entire starting XI to distribute playing time and reserve his best players for the United States game. The decision made sense: the point of these friendlies is not simply to win but to offer a controlled glimpse of what players might look like when the stakes are higher. Mexico drew 1-1 again.
Then came the game against the neighbor to the north, where it was clear that without three key figures – Raúl Jiménez, Julián Quiñones and Mora – the team lacked striking power.
The cycle begins all over again
Mexico know this script. Defeats become doubts. Doubts become crises. A crisis requires someone to blame, and the coach becomes responsible. The questions are already swirling: why continue with Márquez? If he continues this losing streak, should the team try someone new? And Mexican football starts its cycle all over again.
The real test will be whether Mexico can learn, for once, to distinguish between a coach who is just starting out and a system that has been searching for answers for years.