Rotated players fail to impress as Mexico loses to Qatar

Mexico interim coach Jaime “Jimmy” Lozano took his first important threat with an altered beginning XI on Sunday’s group stage nearer of the Gold Cup, and in return, he was given his first defeat after dropping 1-0 to Qatar.

With a spot within the knockout rounds of the event already assured by two statement-making victories earlier within the group stage — 3-1 vs. Haiti and 4-0 vs. Honduras — Lozano rotated his XI by six modifications.

On paper, one might forgive the supervisor for doing so. The 44-year-old needed to give a handful of his normal starters a break, and in that course of, he additionally had a chance to give minutes to backups. Despite his familiarity with a powerful core of the roster that he beforehand led within the 2020 Olympics, the coach was nonetheless making an attempt to piece the whole lot collectively after being employed just some days earlier than the beginning of the Gold Cup.

“It was to see other players, give rest [to some starters], also being careful with some of the [yellow] cards we had,” Lozano stated postmatch about his modifications. Following two video games in a row with the identical lineup, Lozano introduced on Santiago Gimenez, Ozziel Herrera, Carlos Rodriguez, Gerardo Arteaga, Israel Reyes and Julian Araujo.

And to be honest to Lozano, it wasn’t as if his alterations failed to create possibilities within the remaining third for Mexico.

While Qatar wanted only one shot to rating that arrived from a defensive error from El Tri, Lozano’s players racked up a complete of 25 efforts on aim with an xG of two.27. As for Qatar, they earned a tally of solely 0.05 but gained the match.

Mexico 0-1 Qatar

Mexico xG: 2.27
Qatar xG: 0.05#ElTriEng pic.twitter.com/8anYhpznZA

— Cesar Hernandez (@cesarhfutbol) July 3, 2023

“There were very, very clear opportunities, from Santi [Gimenez], from Edson [Alvarez], also not sure if it was Diego [Lainez] or someone else there. I think there are five, six very, very clear opportunities, which I’m sure that in any other game would have gone in, and today in the end, we ended up taking a defeat,” Lozano stated.

The players ought to earn among the blame for the loss. Lozano, whether or not or not it’s by his 4-3-3 setup or his determined second-half modifications that actually threw on each midfield and ahead choice from the bench onto the pitch, did the whole lot in his energy to push his players to get not less than an equalizer. Even with that main to an attention-grabbing complete of 19 photographs from inside Qatar’s 18-yard field, not one El Tri participant was ready to discover the again of the web.

Defensively, on the lone aim allowed, Mexico’s backline was a large number within the Twenty seventh-minute present to Qatar. With two central defenders, Alvarez and Reyes, out of place, Qatar simply roamed into the ultimate third after intercepting a ball from Alvarez. Right-back Araujo then had two players to mark on a cross that he awkwardly backed away from, leaving Hazem Shehata with a golden likelihood to join with the ball off a header. Goalkeeper and captain Guillermo Ochoa, not having the velocity he as soon as had in his youthful days, then wasn’t fast sufficient to maintain it out.

“That goal, surely in a club [situation], wouldn’t have happened,” Lozano stated. “These defensive questions and of the defensive area are very workable, it’s something that we focus a lot on as coaching staff.”

And but, it is Lozano himself who determined to take these dangers. It’s comprehensible to need to combine issues up after already claiming a spot within the knockout rounds, successfully as group winners due to their aim distinction, however there isn’t any actual room for experimentation if you had been simply given the job on the week that the Gold Cup began.

For the pessimists and skeptics on the market, there’s additionally an argument to be made for sticking with the very best XI doable by the event and gaining no matter cohesion you possibly can alongside the way in which. As unfair as it’s for Lozano, the expectation and hopes from these in cost on the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) would be the Gold Cup title. No matter the restricted time to put together with their new coach, El Tri must be the favorites when you think about that fellow title-contenders Canada and the United States despatched “B” groups to the event.

Keyword there: Should be the favorites. Gold Cup winners want depth, and on Sunday, most if not the entire alternate players failed to make a terrific case for themselves. Araujo, Reyes, Rodriguez and Gimenez had been all extremely questionable with their decision-making and affect. Herrera and Arteaga had been higher total, but it surely was Arteaga alone who completed as the lone backup that would declare that they took their likelihood.

Elsewhere within the XI, there have been additionally worrisome moments from normal starters such as Luis Romo, Orbelin Pineda, Alvarez and Ochoa.

However, going ahead, the large query now’s if that is merely a storm in a teacup. We can also’t neglect Lozano is just right here due to a Mexican soccer construction that has been in a disaster. The points seen with El Tri stem far past the Gold Cup and 2023. Now, it is Lozano’s unenvious job to change that narrative as he enters the knockout spherical.

With 5 days to put together for Mexico’s quarterfinal — with the opponent to be found on Tuesday — El Tri will want to bounce again. Crisis or not, ambitions are excessive for one of many Concacaf giants which have made not less than the semifinals within the final eight editions of the event.

Recently dropping floor to the extra imposing U.S. males’s nationwide group setup, dropping 3-0 in final month’s Concacaf Nations League semifinal, Mexico are in determined want of a regional trophy as nicely.