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Herrera named Mexico head coach through 2014 World Cup

MiguelHerreraMexico3-NewZealand (AP)

By DAN KARELL

The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) liked enough of what they saw from Miguel Herrera to decide against finding what would have been the fifth coach of the Mexican national team since September.

Following a meeting of the Liga MX owners, many of whom make up the board of directors of the FMF, national team director Héctor González Iñarritu announced that Herrera would take over as head coach on a permanent basis when his season ends with Club America. In addition, Herrera is expected to work not just through the World Cup next summer in Brazil but also possibly through the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

“The proposal of Miguel Herrera as Mexico head coach and the incorporation of Ricardo Pelaez (as sporting director) was accepted in the (owners meeting),” González Iñarritu told reporters at a press conference following the meetings. “Here (the) contracts are open, there is no expiration date. I’ll talk with Miguel to review the planning and objectives. The plan is to start the project Miguel Herrera Brazil 2014 and continue with the coaching staff (through 2018).”

González Iñarritu also revealed that in addition to the scheduled match on Jan. 29 against South Korea and the FIFA date on March 5, Herrera will have five games between May 12, when they open World Cup camp, and the start of the World Cup on June 12, to further get to know his players and grow the chemistry within the squad.

Herrera was originally appointed interim head coach of El Tri on Oct. 18 in a bizarre case that essentially involved him and Peleaz being loaned to the national team from America until after the World Cup qualifying playoffs series against New Zealand finished. Herrera led a solely domestic-based side that including many members of his America squad to a 9-3 aggregate victory, earning a place at the World Cup in Brazil.

“El Piojo” Herrera is the third head coach of El Tri since the FMF sacked Jose Manuel “Chepo” de la Torre following an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at Estadio Azteca against Honduras. De La Torre’s assistant coach, Luis Fernando Peña lasted just one match before he was replaced by former Monterrey title winner Victor Manuel Vucetich.

The veteran coach only lasted two games as El Tri only earned a place in the CONCACAF-Oceania playoff match by the skin of their teeth, thanks to two goals from the U.S. Men’s National Team in Panama to knock out Los Canaleros from contention.

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What do you think of this selection? Think Herrera was the correct choice? Believe that Herrera can lead Mexico into the knockout stages? Think there’s any chance that Herrera is still El Tri head coach come 2018?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. He desirves it, should have been the coach a while ago.

    Now the difficult task.. 1 midweek friendly in March to reintegrate whichever European based players he wants back into the squad before the summer.

    Reply
  2. The more you examine Mexico’s situation, the more fascinating and perplexing it becomes. I know they are two very different national federations, but imagine that the US had struggled, fired Klinsmann, and then beaten New Zealand with Peter Vermes at the helm and team drawn exclusively from a couple of MLS clubs? Would we be feeling confident going forward?

    Reply
    • If you want to draw the situation using the US it would be:

      Fired Klinnsman after the first September game
      Fried Porter after the second September game
      Fried Vermes after the October qualifiers
      Hired Kreis who only called MLS players; leaving Howard, Bradley, Jozy etc out for the game that final got them into the WC!

      Imagine if USSF burned that many bridges in one summer!

      Reply
      • Do we have time to make this happen before the World Cup? Please say yes. There’s far too little hysterical overreaction in US Soccer (excepting me, of course)

    • You’ve obviously never seen World Cup games. Mexico, no matter what group they’re in always makes it out. Round of 16 is another story tho

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      • Mexico sucks. And that little fat Mexican Barney Rubble is going to help-three games and out. You’re on dope if you think Mexico is getting out of their group. You must think it’s the Gold Cup.

      • You don’t know anything about soccer. You say Mexico sucks but just one year ago they made every usmnt fan piss themselves with how good they were. Who knows where they will be come brazil

      • I think there was an arrogance in Mexican soccer coming into the current WCQ rounds. Having great success in the youth WC’s and the Olympics, the Mexican National team, the players and coaches, expected to “coast” through the qualifying rounds and so, were poorly prepared. Add to this, the resurgence of Central American futbol with Honduras and Costa Rica leading the way, you had very little cannon fodder in the hexagonal. Panama which has always had a strong presence in the WCQ, only lost out because of a US “gift” to Mexico. Even Jamaica played tough.

        Looking at the rankings of the CONCACAF teams in the Hexagonal, only the COMEBOL teams faced tougher overall opposition..

        But the Mexican team was sent a BIG wake-up call and I seriously doubt we will see any arrogance in the players selected to the Mx team. In fact, there will be several outstanding Mx players left off this team for the sake of bringing in a TEAM instead of a collection of talented players.

      • Mexico has struggled through qualifying before and still made it out of the group stage. Wouldn’t be anything new.

      • The yanks probably won’t make it out of their group either.

        People are thumping their chest now, we’ll see if they continue to do it on Friday.

  3. El Piojo may end up being a formidable opponent. He was shrewd in his latest selection, and got his tactics right. I like what he did with Las Aguilas del America. I assume that Mohamed will be coming to replace Piojo Hererra in the Apertura.

    Reply
    • “He was shrewd in his latest selection, and got his tactics right.”

      against new zealand. and he played the same tactics with almost the same players as he does at his club, so who knows if he can adapt? i’d love to see him field that team at the cup.

      sure, it’s possible he could end up being formidable, but then again, he could just as easily be a disaster.

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      • I get that. He may or may not succeed.
        He has been a good manager at the club level, and made the right choices to totally dominate in the play in match against NZ. I’ve seen better sides than Mexico struggle against bunkering weak teams.

  4. With him, we could see fewer foreign-based players in El Tri- and the team going farther.

    That said, I hope they go 0-0-3 at the WC. But that would be the officials’ fault, of course.

    Reply
    • Hey, Maybe you can start the SBI Spanish speaking clique. You have to translate random news in Spanish for us though.

      There’s kinda Germany one already. Well okay its pretty much Biff.

      Reply

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