A World Cup Championship is not won solely in good faith, as valid the public yearning may be for Javier “Chicharito” Hernández and Andrés Guardado . The atmosphere is very similar to the 2012 London Olympics , where nobody would place their trust whatsoever in Mexico National Team led by Luis Fernando Tena and, yet, they became gold medalists.
The only hope of “hitting the jackpot”, as these players say, lies in a talented, well-prepared, world-class team, something which Juan Carlos Osorio has failed to achieve so far with Mexico National Team.
With only five and a half months away from Mexico’s debut in Russia, against Germany National Team , almost half of the starting roster the Colombian manager deems necessary lacks any steady time of effective playing. However much customized preparation schemes have been sent by Osorio to brothers Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos or Carlos Vela , and which have also surely reached Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, Miguel Layún , Héctor Moreno and other footballers, who have failed to have a sustained time of effective playing, the success or failure of Mexico in Russia’s World Cup will rely in a team that brings momentum and talent to the game, as well as an interpretation of the manager’s concept on the field.
It must be very frustrating for those who have strived for that sustained continuity in their teams to play in a club like Portugal’s Porto, that would not let Miguel Layún compete with its national team even though he is not listed as a starting player in his club. Miguel knows of the importance of keeping a steady pace in this times, something which hasn’t crossed the minds of Carlos Vela or the dos Santos brothers, who seem more eager to settle down in the comforts of a California-style life than to leave a mark of their own in a World Cup. Perhaps having achieved the Under-21 World Cup twelve years ago took away any football ambition left in them.
The big question now is if Osorio will cease to stubbornly call footballers without merits to play in Mexico National Team and to continue justifying his election. One would necessarily have to look to the Mexican League market to fill the void left by those who are the current alternates of alternates in Europe. Footballers in the Mexican Football League deserve, like any other outstanding Mexican player, the chance to be part of Mexico National Team.
Juan Carlos Osorio is surely opting for Ochoa, Salcedo, Moreno, Araujo, Layún, Herrera, Guardado, Corona, Lozano, Peralta and Hernández as the most likely lineup to debut in the World Cup 2018 against Germany National Team, the real question is whether this roster is an assured success. Yet, to make such a claim is a task for the manager only.
English version by Berenice González
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