LOS ANGELES – They are right: the World Cup, in this case Qatar 2022, is no longer classified by “walking”. Not even in the football wasteland that is Concacaf.
They are right Guillermo Ochoa and Yon de Luisa. You no longer get a pass to a World Cup by walking, but you shouldn’t get on your knees, resorting to football begging.
“Walking”. The term was coined by Ricardo La Volpe, in his management at the head of Mexico heading to Germany 2006. What was a disaster in the group stage at the World Cup? Undoubtedly and it is a separate issue. In the qualifying process, he certainly did.
La Volpe’s numbers were overwhelming: 85 percent effective; 67 goals in 18 games; only one draw and two defeats, one of them against the United States in Columbus, and the other in Port of Spain, against Trinidad and Tobago, a defeat, by the way negotiated, rigged.
The same Argentine coach acknowledged that he received the suggestion to lose that game, even if it damaged Guatemala. “In order not to have problems, we said, against the team that manages Concacaf (Jack Warner), we better not have problems,” La Volpe would literally explain years later.
That loss sent Mexico second in the Concacaf tie. Was it necessary to lose to T&T? Yes. Concacaf, through Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner, avoided the disqualification of Mexico for two years, after the doping of Salvador Carmona and Aarón Galindo in the Confederations Cup, and the subsequent recidivism of both.
“We told them (Justino Compeán and Alberto de la Torre): ‘You don’t talk, you quiet, we’ll take care of it,’ and we saved Mexico before the FIFA committee in Zurich,” said Chuck Blazer, then vice president of Concacaf, to this reporter. And, of course, favor with favor is paid. T&T would go to Germany 2006, leaving Guatemala aside.
“Walking,” promised La Volpe. In September 2016, when he was presented with América, the arrogant and controversial Argentine coach endorsed the merit of that achievement to Caty Camacho, architect, specialist in Feng-Shui, mentalist, and a parishioner of Metaphysics, although the players, simply, they called “witch.”
“Thanks to her, to her contribution to the group, we walked past (the Hexagonal), because we also have to put her in, because I see other psychologists and they don’t even reach half of the goals,” La Volpe said.
2:04
We analyze the performance of both teams in the tie
Not all the players agreed. Paco Palencia narrated to this reporter how they were taken at dawn, on Caty’s instructions, to charge themselves with cosmic energy to Teotihuacán, in addition to other rituals they did, grumbling and reluctantly. Or Claudio Suárez explaining that they had to wear a healing chain on one ankle.
Jesús Arellano was relentlessly mocking on his Twitter account towards these practices. “One day at the rally he made us write down our fears and then bury them in a coffin, we did a whole wake, we walked with the coffin all over the field and buried it. They even dug the well. Ha ha. There were 2 with a bell and fuming haha ”.
“One day with a shaman or something like that, they took us to the pyramids of Mexico supposedly to recharge our energies Haha and we were like ‘weyes’ blowing south, north with our eyes closed,” revealed the Cabrito years later.
But after the La Volpe trial, Mexico had two disastrous qualifying rounds. For South Africa 2010, Javier Aguirre must have come to resuscitate the dead man, and for Brazil 2014, Miguel Herrera entered the playoffs against New Zealand as a firefighter.
“Walking”, and Ochoa and De Luisa are right. For a Mexican soccer, which exudes corruption, and invaded by average foreigners, with few clubs dedicated to training race players, that of passing by “walking” has become a threat that terrifies the players themselves, and that explains the reaction of the goalkeeper of America.
1:17
The tricolor team arrived in Tico territory to face the second qualifying match for the World Cup.
“Walking”, no; but on your knees, either. And Mexico’s exhibition against Jamaica only raised doubts. El Tri had absences, some mysterious, dark, suspicious, like that of the Chucky lozano, and even the delayed Tecatito Corona.
“Walking”, no; but on your knees, either. And against Jamaica it was clear that the three tours of Europe were of little or no use. Gerardo Martino is the first coach of a national team that has such a privilege: three preparatory trips, and in the midst of a pandemic, to build a competitive team. And Jamaica, without 12 of their best players, stripped him naked.
“Walking”, no; but on your knees, either. Part of the Mexican fans cling to the momentary consolation of seeing El Tri as the head of the Concacaf Octagonal Final, which, remember, stopped being Hexagonal, as part of a subterfuge, of a trap by Concacaf itself, to resurrect Canada Due, of course, to the fact that the president (who presides but does not command) of the body is a Canadian (Víctor Montagliani), and that this country will be one of the three venues for the 2026 World Cup, along with the United States and Mexico.
1:27
Roberto Gómez Junco’s analysis of the weight of absences in Gerardo Martino’s team against Jamaica.
“Walking”, no; but on your knees, either. Because Mexico has not shown soccer composure in 2021. It even lost the Nations League Final and the Gold Cup Final against the United States, in the first case against team “A”, and in the second against team “B” from USA.
“Walking”, no; but on your knees, either. And beyond the chain of vetoes imposed by Yon de Luisa and Tata Martino (Arteaga, Jose Juan Macias, Chicharito, Carlos candle, Carlos SalcedoChucky Lozano? , with Carlos Salcedo, who is beaten tremendously by screaming and humiliation. Martino’s assistant has been branded as arrogant and despot inside the Tri.
For this reason, Guillermo Ochoa and Yon de Luisa must understand it clearly: “Walking”, no; but on your knees, either.
Let us remember that the Mexican Soccer Federation will receive a special bonus from the almost thirty sponsors that it has distributed between Mexico and the United States, if, and only if, it manages to get as one of the eight heads of the group for the Qatar World Cup. And as the stage is scribbled, the United States could eat up the errand.
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