The Mexican National Team after being defeated by Argentina in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Photo: Rafael Vadillo / Imago7
Before starting the World Cup in Qatar 2022 and the Selection of Mexico had an objective, which even became a cry of struggle and motivation for the players chosen by the coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino including the fans: reach the fifth game (quarter-finals) at least in the competition.
El Tri has only gone past the round of 16 on two occasions, curiously when they organized the World Cup in 1970 and then in 1986, the rest have been eliminated in the 16-team phase. On two occasions he has had to pack his bags from the group stage and this seems to be one of those because of how difficult the classification is.
This reality seems to be known within the squad of the National Team, which returned to training on Sunday after the heavy defeat against Argentina on Saturday and long faces and hopelessness were noted in the attitude of the players.
With great seriousness, without jokes or smiles, nor long talks, that’s how the 26 Tata Martino players trained. Andrés Guardado, one of the team’s captains, presented muscular discomfort and spent only 42 minutes on the pitch.
Few media had access to El Tri’s training sessions, but the few who were highlighted the bad atmosphere presentfrom the coaching staff to the players. About Gerardo Martino it was reported that he was “lonely, thoughtfulaware of all the criticism surrounding his figure”, according to the EFE news agency.
With this group attitude Mexico will face Saudi Arabia next Wednesdaythe surprise of the tournament after beating Lionel Messi’s Albiceleste on the first date of Group C. For its part, Argentina will face Poland with the duty of winning to advance to the round of 16.
For El Tri to qualify for the next phase it has to give an interesting cocktail of results and also that a win against the Saudis takes place, something that seems distant considering that this National Team has not yet scored its first goal in Qatar 2022 and you have serious problems up front.
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