After Miguel “El Piojo” Herrera finished a press conference announcing the 23 man squad for the World Cup, a video was played. It is the exact same video a guilty spouse would produce if trying to get back into the good graces of his better half’s after disappearing for three days and emptying the joint bank account. “Please, trust me, I will get my shit together, I promise.”
[insert-video youtube=S6VDC1m9WhA]
A part of the campaign #QuieroCreer, the video is supposed to stir fan pride and patriotic feeling. So far, it’s not doing that great a job.
Perhaps the other reason cascades of optimistic predictions haven’t rained down — besides the terrible performance at the qualifying Hexagonal (let us not forget that El Tri spent some agonizing minutes out of the World Cup until in came the US –of all teams– to grant Mexico the fourth and final CONCACAF ticket) — is the squad list itself.
The 2014 Mexican National Team is going to be led into battle by none other than 35 year-old defender Rafael Márquez, who has an impressive resume and a severe speed deficiency brought on by age. Along with him in the last line, some of the players include Francisco Javier “El Maza” Rodriguez, who has the agility of a tall tree; and the young and promising Diego Reyes, who plays for Portugal’s Porto –well, let’s be fair: he has played four times with the first division team, and eighteen for the Porto B.
And that is the tune of every line and every player in the squad. There is no star, no person who the fans can rally around. Giovanni Dos Santos is so 2008; the heralded Manchester striker Chicharito Hernández is so 2010; Oribe “El Hermoso” Peralta is so 2012…
No doubt the fans want to believe, as the institutionally touching video says. The problem is what exactly should they believe?