Hubris was a quality by which several greek gods saw their downfall. For Hugo Sánchez hubris was his fatal flaw that saw him fall from grace in less than a 16-month span. By unanimous decision Hugo Sánchez was given his walking papers today after the Mexican Football Federation had their monthly meeting. The Tricolor’s win against Ghana at midweek last week to help him keep his job.
His hype was tremendous and the entire nation was behind the decision to hire El Pentapichichi to run the national team. He was the primary reason why Ricardo Lavolpe was let go after the 2006 World Cup. He lobbied incessantly before, during (while in Germany), and after the the loss to Argentina. He served as a agitator of sorts and riled up the Mexican fans. He made himself come out as "Neo". He was supposed to be The One that led Mexico to the Promised Land. He was the one that had the secret to making the Aztecs one of the world’s greatest sides.
At least that was what he advertised. Apparently his opposition was not aware that they had to submit to his greatness. Let’s be serious even HuGol at his greatest was never able to life his team to anything above what they are now. It is much more annoying to see that especially when their neighbor to the north have run by them quickly and now impose their game in all aspects.
He was supposed to end the Yanks’ dominance against El Tri. He guaranteed the Gold Cup, and better yet a summer double. He also gave the Mexican fans the dream of winning the Copa América, until they faced an Argentina side that was considered inferior by many Mexicans who were not in the know.
2007’s report card- B-. There were players that did show their potential, but at the same time were being given too much respect without doing much on the pitch. Case and point, Giovani Dos Santos was the heir apparent to making Mexico great. He led the Aztecs to their first-ever title at the U-17 level. He was barely being used off the bench at Barcelona, but was taking the spot away from others that were showing more merit in other clubs. Gio is going to be a star, but he was being hailed as something really special that was part of the Greatest Generation.
His incessant excuses became part of his press conferences. The artificial turf, the grass was too high, that pitch was too fast, the pitch was too rainy. These were reason he gave after losses to Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, and the US. If there was one thing that was obvious was that he was a great winner, but with many winners losses and adversity brings out their dark side. Hugo could not accept a loss, and would have to use these lame excuses to soften the fall of his enormous ego that matched his talent as a player.
2008 seemed to be an important year for him. He decided to take over the operations as head boss of the Mexican Olympic side. When the process started, he not only guaranteed a spot in Beijing but the gold medal as well. Femextful allowed some of the country’s top U-23 players to head to Cancún to train for the Olympic qualifiers a month in advance in order to have a solid opportunity to punch their ticket to China. This was all according to Hugo’s plans. There was just one problem, he left out the architect of the nucleus of this team Jesús Ramírez. Ramírez was the man that brought Mexico their U-17 world title back in 2005 when most of these players were in Peru.
Tactically, Sánchez was not understood by his players but for the most part he was supported by them. They did what they could to follow his instructions on the pitch, but it seemed like the dialogue was not there. There was very little discussion between him and his forwards. If there is someone who knew how to score, I guess his resume would make him qualified. That is what made his tenure so bizarre.
So the most hyped coach in all of Latin America is gone, and Ricardo Lavolpe is laughing harder and harder. Why? He is the top candidate to take over. The most hated man in all of Mexico is now the most beloved, that is just the nature of the game. There are still more questions than answered and the one glaring issue is that Mexican football is just like any other league in the western hemisphere. The only difference is that they have the money to throw at their problems. The issue lies deep within the federation’s brass and they think that they are not. Hugo absolutely needed to go, but the people that believed in his sales pitch need to as well. Another former coach is Javier Aguirre who could be available by the end of the Spanish league season. Aguirre led El Tri to the second round of the 2002 World Cup where they would end up losing to the US 2-0. But for the moment the frontrunner is former Boca coach Carlos Bianchi. He currently works for both Televisa and ESPN in the Aztec nation. Bianchi has the best resume of all the coaches on the current short list and was always being looked at as a viable candidate for the Argentina job, but constantly took himself out of the running as he was never a huge fan of federation president Julio Grondona.
Let us know what you think!!!