The former coach of the national team of Mexico Juan Carlos Osorio made various bold statements on what went wrong during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where it has led to many to question what Osorio was doing with the team during the time.
During the tenure of Juan Carlos Osorio coaching the national team of Mexico, many critics and fans were not up to par on the movements and tactics the Colombian coach would place from 2015-2018. But really who could blame them because it was not up onto the World Cup that still Osorio did not have a set lineup in the tournament, as El Tri beat Germany 1-0, then beating South Korea in a tight 2-1 victory but then lost to Sweden in a devastating 3-0 score.
If that was not a bad taste for the Mexican fans, Osorio’s team went on to face Brazil in the round of 16 and lost in a fashionable 2-0 manner, that once again left the El Tri reaching the infamous 5th game of the World Cup. At the end of the game, Osorio blamed various situations on why Mexico lost, blaming the refs and as well the theatrical flops of Neymar but never really mentioned that he lost the faith to say or the trust of the Mexican players right before the game versus Brazil.
Osorio recently went on air with ESPN Brazil and had hard statements declaring that the players did not have faith within themselves.
“When we took on Brazil I got all my players together and I asked them if they were ready to play against Brazil and the answer was silence. I answered I’m prepared because I’ve been working for 30 years to play against the best.”
That was not really what stirred up the pot of the conversation but what really sparked the debate was stating that he did not have the same top players as Brazil had on the field.
“When Mexico played against Brazil I knew that all the Brazilians played in the best leagues in the world. With the very good group of players that we had Carlos Vela, Hector Herrera, and Hirving Lozano we needed others like Brazil had in the forward line like William, Coutinho, Neymar, Gabriel Jesus. In Mexico, we only had one similar to them, we had Carlos Vela.”
Although these are strong statements from the former coach of the national team of Mexico, it is hard to rethink if he was the right man for position during his tenure as the coach of the team. Yes, we can relieve that Mexico qualified to the World Cup with “ease”, compared to other years and yes we can say that beating Germany was the most iconic moment for Osorio and the national team.
But sitting down now and taking the shots at your former players, the players you choose for the World Cup, well really there is no one to blame but yourself, Osorio! Also, if the silence in the room was stronger than words, maybe it is that if in 20 times Mexico faces Brazil, at least 15 of those games would favor Brazil and history has shown it throughout various tournaments.
As an advocate of the Osorio during his time “leading” the national team of Mexico, comments and statements that the Colombian coach made recently will make it harder for me and any other fan to take to please the hard work the coach did during that time. If there was any little hope or giving thanks to Osorio for what he had done for the national team of Mexico, well all of that will be out the window after declaring those statements.