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Miguel Herrera out as Mexico head coach, offers apology after airport scuffle

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Miguel Herrera was fired on Tuesday as the Mexican National Team head coach, less than 24 hours after reports that he had punched a journalist in Philadelphia and two days after winning the 2015 Gold Cup.

Mexican FA president Decio De Maria confirmed the news in a press conference this afternoon, telling reporters that Herrera’s violent actions had no place in Mexican society.

“Violence does not fit in society, family and much less in any sport,” De Maria said at the press conference. “Nobody who wants to impose with aggression and not with ideas and concepts on the principle of freedom of expression can be a member of the Mexican Football Federation.

“The Mexican fans deserve respect and people of integrity that represent what we want our national team to be, a great show, family friendly, that unites us in our passion.”

On Sunday, El Tri won their seventh Gold Cup title with a 3-1 victory over Jamaica at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. On the way home to Mexico, Herrera allegedly physically assaulted journalist and broadcaster Christian Martinoli (best known to American soccer fans for this) at Philadelphia International Airport.

According to a report in AS Mexico, per Martinoli’s version of the events, Martinoli crossed paths with Herrera after the pair had made it through airport security. Herrera then allegedly struck Martinoli in the neck after Martinoli had allegedly tried to avoid confrontation, with Herrera claiming that the pair should exit the terminal and go out on the street to “fix it as it should be.”

On Tuesday, Herrera released a statement of apology, saying that his actions were wrong and not becoming of a manager.

“It makes me very sad to be leaving my position as national team coach due to this regrettable cause, especially because the results in the line of the game have been, for the most part, positive within the goals we set,” he said in the release. “I will be taking advantage of this time to enjoy my family, rest a bit and afterward, I will return as the same person and you will have in me, as always, an open door.”

Herrera was hired by the FMF as an interim manager in October 2013 to help stabilize what was a sinking ship, with Mexico in danger of missing out of the 2014 World Cup.

Herrera, coming off leading Club America to a league championship, used many of those players in his El Tri squad to defeat New Zealand in the World Cup playoff round before leading a team with a mix of domestic and European-based players to Brazil.

He won 18 games out of 36 games in charge of El Tri.

What do you think of Herrera’s firing? Who should Mexico hire as the team’s next head coach?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. He attacks a reporter and gets fired. Dempsey attacks a referee and gets 3 games suspension. If that’s not showing class I don’t know what is.

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  2. I went straight Godfather on that pezzonovante. Yeah, It’s true!!! I smacked “Mole Skin” Martinoli! On his fat baby cheeks Then I told him, “It’ll be like this each time I see you. If you see me on the sidewalk you better cross the street! Capisce?”

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    • “I will be taking advantage…I will return as the same person…you will have…an open door.”

      That’s some Godfather ISH right there! I’m taking a vaca after all this and I will come back unchanged…you know, for whenever you wanna call me again.

      So Gangsta

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  3. What’s the big deal? Did the reporter die? A man should be able to deal with a punch. I can’t believe everyone is saying this is good… He Perfectly represents the behavior of Mexican fans everywhere! The Mexican federation should be proud, as they tolerate it when they play any other country! Unbelievable!

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    • Are you saying that the American sports system has no problems? Steroid use, rape, domestic violence, drug abuse, cheating scandles, olympians that want to be woman and corruption

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  4. Come on Ives, take one for the team and help move the USMNT forward. You have a strong neck and JK has weak arms 🙂

    Seriously though, JK could probably get away with choking someone given how much Gulagi is willing to carry his water

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  5. The sarcasm is just oozing from De Maria’s voice. Does no one else see that this is just a massive deflection? FMF is trying to head off sanctions against their fans, aka “Los Urine Bags,” whose behavior is so blatantly disgraceful and disruptive that even FMF has to know something’s got to give. Get rid of Herrera, make a big, comically fatuous speech about “dignity of the game and the great people of Mexico,” and duck your head and hope that no close-door, “Los Urine Bags”-free matches are ordered by concacaf. Its all about the money, funny. Better to cut bait with Herrera and his tiny contract that risk losing a single stadium sell out payday.

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  6. “The Mexican fans deserve respect and people of integrity that represent what we want our national team to be, a great show, family friendly, that unites us in our passion.” — Ha! The Mexican fans deserve respect? How about they try extending a little courtesy and respect toward opposing teams, those managing facilities/venues,…and their host country.

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    • agreed. perhaps this is a way for that message to be sent and maybe it resonates…at least I hope it does. But in my opinion there will always be those who yell the same thing they always yell on goal kicks, for example, and toss urine bags, etc.

      and I know many Mexican fans who are nothing but respectful, and I feel bad for them getting tossed in with the punks

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  7. I don’t know the details of this situation? What did Miguel do that was wrong? I liked the enthusiasm he showed for soccer.

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  8. Congrats to the Mexican FA for a quick, classy response that has reverberations outside of futbol with such. A well worded statement.

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    • Either that or made the best possible case for the consequences of polemic knee-jerk over-reacting.

      We don’t have near the resources or player pool yet of Mexico. Their own soap operas are what’s allowed us to catch them, with about 5-6 other CONCACAF teams hot on our heels.

      We go that way, things will go south for us in a hurry.

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      • well, if it’s their soap operas that have allowed us to catch them, they were forced onto them in many respects

        specifically, our continued ascendance and the numerous dos a cero results challenged their self perception of football superiority in our region with factual dissidence…and their macho men have struggled with the new reality. Their soap operas were forced on them. That is, the USA winning in 2002 at the World Cup, and the subsequent butt kickings they were forced to endure since, MADE them self doubt, made them soap opera it up, made them

        Herrera actually found success as a manager. I think bottlecaps’ take here is on target

        and another thing…Mexico has repeatedly enjoyed beneficial officiating within our region imo, which is why I have always argued they struggle in general internationally…because they do not enjoy the same officiating outside our region

      • beachbum,

        Mexico has a lot of players in Europe

        They also have a lot of really good talent period.

        But their performances in the World Cup ultimately are no better than the US’ and arguably worse since they usually do have better talent.

        Your point about the officiating is interesting especially the idea of them being spoiled wussies.

        It reminds me of what I’ve read elsewhere that the Mexican team as a unit suffers because they really don’t adjust well to being anywhere outside the CONCACAF region. When they play in the US, their greatest rival, it is like a home game for them.

        And I am reminded of the fact that they seem to have a very ambivalent xenophobic attitude towards their Euro guys, sort to like the attitude the Americans on SBI have towards their Euro guys which is strange given how bad off Mexico would be without Guardado and Dos Santos the younger.

        It seems that there is more than a little validity to your idea that Mexico is a little soft. .

      • hey GW, when I said internationally, I misspoke. I meant outside of our region as the Mexican National team and not as international players. Lots of great international Mexicans, some great players

      • Totally disagree. They have the most trouble in CONCACAF. They have struggled there for years even when they win their games are always ugly.Teams play defensively and if Mexico doesn’t have good shooters from outside they have to open up space on the ground where there is a lot of traffic. They play good against teams that open up and attack because they have space (i.e. Jamaica in this last instance). In South America with their full team they have pretty good records against most teams except for Argentina and they often outplay Brazil. As far as the biased referring I would think the Mexican federation would disagree ( this last Gold Cup excluded of course ). In general central american teams hate the Mexican team with a passion. Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica are specially aggresive, and probably for good reason based on the comments of the Mexican Media for years. Mexico is terrified of refs from those areas. Mexico against European teams is another story but in the world cup they have played pretty good against teams like France, Italy, Holland, Norway, Croatia,even Germany which they haven’t beaten but have played pretty well against.

      • I’d agree. For the most part when the US has beaten mexico its because we sat back, made it hard for them to break us down and caught them on counters. They had no answer to it. There have been exceptions, like that half where Bradley ran riot on them. Mexico are a quality side but not one that can adjust their style of play much to the opponent. We have the opposite problem. We (USA) have no style of play and always adjust to the opponent.

      • Eavesdropper,

        If you are Barca you force the other team to play “your style”..

        Most every other team adjusts their style of play based on who they are playing and the nature of the game. It may not be a lot but there is usually some sort of adjustment.

        For example if you are playing Honduras and it is 100 degrees and it 90% humidity and you only need a point, you might want to slow down the game a bit.

      • in the WC they fall apart at the first sign of trouble, something Herrera’s team actually wasn’t so weak at but Mexico is known for (see WC 2002, WC 2010 as recent examples–remember the Argentina game, the Tevez offsides goal, and Mexico’s subsequent and pathetic meltdown?).WC 2006 saw them win a whopping 1 game in 4 tries
        in our region they have been the dominant team forever until the USA arrived on the scene, but they still run roughshod over CONCACAF (officiating BS included) save for the dos a cero stuff

  9. I think they wanted him out and this gave them what they needed to justify firing him. If not this then what does it say if the guy that won the Gold cup gets fired while our delusional coach, manages our second worst outing ever, loses the 3’d place match badly, but still manages to get the full support of US Soccer. Something is wrong here

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    • Rickster

      “If not this then what does it say if the guy that won the Gold cup gets fired while our delusional coach, manages our second worst outing ever, loses the 3’d place match badly, but still manages to get the full support of US Soccer. ”

      What does it say?

      It says JK, who is no fool, negotiated a great deal for himself before taking the job.

      It says Herrera, who made only 250,000 and who obviously did not have a strong support in the Mexican FA or whatever they call it, is nowhere near as good a negotiator as JK.

      If you want the USMNT to operate like Mexico then fire JK now and replace him with Berhalter. Then when Berhalter loses the playoff game and hits Grant Wahl in the back of the neck in frustration in an airport, fire him and replace him with Mike Petke. When Petke has a bad Copa America fire him and replace him with Jay Heaps. And then when Jay runs into trouble with World Cup qualifying fire him and bring in Olsen. And then when Olsen has a sub par World Cup fire him and replace him with Bruce Arena.

      And the US will still be way behind Mexico in terms of managers fired as they have gone through 14 or 15 since 2000.

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  10. Part of the problem lis in the way the football in Mexico is structured. The Mexican FA president has very little direct power of hiring or firing the head coach. That power is vested with the Board of Governors and the Liga MX owners. There is a lot of infighting and, as dire as the position Mexico was in in 2014 and in danger of missing WC qualifications, the Mx federation was at a standstill on naming a new coach. They hired Herrera in a last ditch effort, who used practically his whole Club America team to hold off New Zealand and qualify The problem was he was not very well liked by a lot of club owners and could not wait for him to fail. He didn’t, won the Gold Cup as he promised. but his temper and the Mexican press go the better of him

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    • the alleged punch, did this even happen?

      so glad we don’t have this level of internal fighting and tearing each other down within the US Soccer scene!

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    • Josh, I’m not sure if you are joking or not.

      Joe’s argument was Mexico’s coach was fired for allegedly punching someone, therefore JK should be fired. Those things aren’t even remotely related.

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    • The didn’t fire him for the results, they fired him because he punched a journalist. Just a dumb comparison…

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      • nah, i’m betting if he had consistently good results, they wouldn’t have been so quick to fire him. this gave them exactly the opportunity they needed.

  11. I follow the US and Mexican team, the firing of herera is a kiss of death for the US, they might just get better and finally go to the real level.
    All Mexicos players are barbies in their life and need some serious nick saban talk or Bobby knight.
    They want a strict coach with no strings attached and US needs a real coach,not a front office buffoon.

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    • Mexican players have been historically coddled and one of the raps against them were there reluctance to head overseas. only in the last 10-20 years have more of the better Mexican players emerge and seek Euro teams instead of staying home. This has immeasurably raised the quality of tMexican football especially on the international stage.

      It use to be that Mexican players abroad were often overlooked or not called up. As the Mexican FA controlled the hiring of coaches, there was strong pressure to use only Domestic players on the international squads as this added prestige and $$ to the coffers.

      Herrera was the last in the long line of Mx coaches who encouraged players to go abroad and encouraged them to come back and play, especially Vela, who passed on the National team often because of the chaos.

      It will be interesting if Dos Santos and Cubo Torres get called up on a regular basis. They should be, but if Mexico hires a coach who prefer domestic league players, the MLS clubs will be happier in not losing player,s but Mexican football will regress.

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    • The thing is, what has happened before will happen again. They’ll get a hardass, the players won’t like it and will play badly to get him sacked; the they’ll get someone who is player-friendly and succeed enough to get to the WC and finish in the last 16.

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  12. “Violence does not fit in society, family and much less in any sport,” De Maria said at the press conference. “Nobody who wants to impose with aggression and not with ideas and concepts on the principle of freedom of expression can be a member of the Mexican Football Federation.”

    —>Should we even begin to dissect this statement?

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    • To be fair, I assume that’s a (poor) translation. Or if he said it in English, English isn’t his first language.

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      • I think we all agree with the statement….its just the double standard or not enforcing this same standard in other places (fans, players)

  13. Pretty sure this came as a blessing to the Mexican football heads. After mexico was pathetic the entire tournament and were gifted two wins over Costa Rica and panama they jumped on the chance to fire barney rubble.

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  14. Haha. Herrera gets the boot for punching a journalist, yet MEX fans suffer no repercussions for their actions during GC. Let the circus continue…

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  15. Mexico is still the best team in our region with the most class and the best, most faithful, most law abiding, most lovable, most well behaved fan base. Oh yeah, I am a US national team fan BTW.

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      • If they get Bielsa, we are screwed – he is a world class coach. Hopefully, they will do their usual hiring routine and come up with a guy who will be fired within a year or less.

      • Bielsa, apparently, has in the past been very critical of the way the FMF is run so I doubt he’ll accept any offer from them.

      • Tuca Ferretti is a good guess. Caixinha from Santos is kinda an outside candidate. Luis Fernanado Tena is probably the most likely.

        realistically anyone who has coached in LigaMX or el Tri is a possible candidate.

        Bielsa, Bradley.. ya right!

      • Some reports out of Mexico and Chile are saying the FMF is aggressively courting Sampaoli, which if true, would be a major coup for Mexico if he accepts.

  16. There was a link posted via Twitter by a writer earlier today that showed part of the incident. There was nothing in that video that looked too bad for Herrera. Most reports that I read sounded as though that the accusations were coming from just the journalist in question and his colleagues from one of the TV stations (Azteca?). I suppose the FMF decided the accusations were legit and/or there are some politics going on. From what I saw of Herrera, he was a good manager and Mexico could do worse (and have done worse). I suppose every manager who takes that job realizes that they will be fired at some point and their term will be measured in months and not years.

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  17. From top to bottom the Mexican National Team lacks class-coaches, players and fans. Glad to see this guy get sacked.

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    • Of course your comments show how classy you are. You would think they had some American style rioting like all Kentucky or Laker fans… Oh that was not all Kentucky fans or it is not all Laker fans. Silly me I was pretty sure it was all of them.

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      • Not a Mexican fan AT ALL, and I know most there’s fans and players a are classless, but Herrrera always gave respect to the U.S. and gave them their props. Went so far as saying it would be good for some Mexican players to play in MLS ( which I disagree with, they wouldn’t get anything but hurt in hack a man
        MLS)

      • Very True. Herrera was the best part about the Mexican team but the fact is they were also playing poorly and the Mexican FA seems to like switching their coaches out rather than give them a chance to work through the ups and downs of coaching a national team. Either way if you’re a coach and you sucker punch a reporter you should be fired.

        On a related note there is some irony that Blanco also sucker punched a reporter off the field and still was treated like a hero and given a testimonial match. He was a fantastic player but a real d1ck.

    • Careful now…. if you keep talking about Mexican fans like that and people are going to think you’re Donald Trump.

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    • True, like US fans. I was in Boston when Red Sox fans died during celebrations of their World Cup. And have seen Patriots fans beat up on fans from other teams. Typical. But I understand, you’re from the U.S., double standards are kind of your thing.

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    • Unfortunately, stereotyping and leaping to conclusions is all too common these days. A total lack of nuance which indicates lazy thinking, or, more likely, no thinking at all.

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  18. Lucky to qualify for the WC, two horrific calls to heLp his team advance in the Gold Cup, I can see why they let him go.

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    • You spoke without knowing what you are talking about. -1

      Herrera had nothing to do with Mexico being “lucky to qualify for the WC”. He took over after all of that had already happened. His first official games were against New Zealand in the playoff. Mexico won those games easily.

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      • after reading my comment back I see it is harsh.

        Disregard the first sentence M. Nobody knows everything.

  19. Although I’m not a big fan of their coach, the quotes from the Mexican FA president are worse. Urine bags, gay slurs and laser pointers don’t exactly showcase the Mexican fans as “respectful and people of integrity.”

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    • I think the point of the sacking is that the Mexican Federation would have been fine if Herrera tossed a urine bag or battery at the reporter or used a laser pointer — such conduct is encouraged. In contrast outright punching someone who is in a position to punch you back cannot be tolerated.

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      • If I recall correctly, Aguirre kicked an opposing player in the nuts on television during an El Tri game and was not sacked. They must have been looking for an excuse to sack Herrera.

      • Aguirre tripped the Panamanian player during the run of play and it set off a brawl if I remember correctly. To me that was just as bad this, if not worse since it was during an international competition and being broadcast across North America. So I agree, Mexican Federation probably wanted a reason to get rid of Herrera

      • I can see him chunking a car battery…but it would needed to have been used in a GMC Gremlin or Ford Pinto

    • Typical comment from a hateful US fan. Here’s the Mexican federation actually taking a stand against bad behavior and you choose to highlight the moronic Mexican fans that no self respecting fan tolerates. A bunch of drunk people who couldn’t care less about supporting their team and instead go to the matches in the US to act like fools. And yes, we get some of those too at the Azteca, though folks are cracking down on that behavior. But what about your teams? The US teams line up players who beat their family members and behave in completely despicable ways on the field like Dempsey ripping up a referee’s notepad. And what do they get? Starting positions and captain’s armbands. Selective memory suits you.

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      • Barca, I totally agree with you defending the Mexican FA in the very classy statement. However, you then do exactly what you (correctly) complain the US fan above does when you go on to smear the US team. Too bad you couldn’t match the class shown by Mexican FA.

      • If the Mexican FA really cared, than they would crack down on the fans. Perhaps a few games in the Azteca with no one watching? And if my selective memory is correct, I believe that Dempsey was fined for two years from that Cup. But I guess your selective memory forgot that.

      • …. and then Dempsey also lost his captaincy….selective memory. And I think its fair there is some debate about the actual severity of the incident. No one is defending his behavior but there is a difference between saying “that’s out of line” and that’s it equivalent to punching a reporter or throwing a bag of urine.

        So basically you’re saying the US is just as bad because of Hope Solo? Pretty weak argument.

        Also not sure how the Mexican FA can crack down on fans in games hosted in the USA. That is the job of the stadium and tournament sponsor (CONCACAF).

  20. An mls team shoul get him before he heads to Spain. Usa should fired klins if they lose to Mexico,mexico might end up with a better coach.
    Javier Aguirre should be usas new coach, that would take usa to the next level and put Mexico in the spotlight.

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    • An MLS team hire Herrera? You’re crazy. Herrera is a loose cannon with a short temper; there’s absolutely no way he’d tolerate MLS’ crazy personnel “rules”, with all the loopholes, lack of transparency, etc. He’d go ballistic all the time. (Not that *I* think he’d be wrong to react that way, actually; but he wouldn’t want to put up with it and the League wouldn’t want to put up with him)

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      • Pretty much exactly my thought.

        MLS is a game for the patient coach. You gotta be, considering how thin your roster is and how thin the margins for error are, margins that get slashed right to the bone when International call-ups happen while the league keeps right on playing.

    • I hope Herrera can get on with another Concacaf country- maybe Central America, or even Canada (I hear his French is immaculate).

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    • I hope Herrera can get on with another Concacaf country. His French is immaculate, so maybe Canada or even a Central American country.

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