El Tri: an enigma wrapped in a question

If Hugo Sanchez slept at all last night, it was most certainly with a smile on his face. After a month of harsh criticism and bad results, including losing in his Azteca debut, Hugo's Tri finally got the result they were looking for, beating Brazil 2-0, and it could have been more. While the victory may not take away the sting of losing the Gold Cup final, it certainly boosts morale, both in camp and with the press.

Prior to the match, Hugo must have been thinking that without bad luck, he would have no luck at all. Ever since taking over in the Fall of 2006, Hugo had wholly underachieved in what he had always said was his dream job. Upon assuming power, as it were, Hugo promised that Mexico would win the Gold Cup and perform well at the Copa America. Most importantly, Hugo promised that El Tri would do something they haven't been able to do since 1999 - beat the USA on American soil.

Unfortunately for Hugol, he lost his debut match 0-2. That debut was against none other than... the US. So, Hugo had lost a great opportunity to prove his critics wrong, and stick a big fat one up previous head coach Ricardo LaVolpe and his supporters.

Nevertheless, people were excited about the Gold Cup - Mexico was bringing it's best squad and the final was in Chicago, a city that was sure to have a heavy pro-Mexican fan base. Unfortunately, the team played poorly in its first game - having to come back against Cuba, of all teams. El Tri then lost against Honduras in their second game, and only managed to scrape past Panama 1-0 in their final group match.

The Qaurterfinals proved even worse, Mexico needing extra-time to beat 8-man Costa Rica. In the Semis, Mexico beat Guadalupe 1-0, thanks to a Pavel Pardo golazo.

The past week has shown the enigma that is Mexico in an almost perfect manner. On Sunday, Mexico played the Final of the Gold Cup against their eternal rival, the USA. Despite outplaying the Red, White and Blue, Mexico contrived to lose. Yet again, the mental block that Mexico seems to have about playing the US outside of Mexico prevented El Tri from achieving their goal. Mexico deserved to win the match, but the US took home the silverware.

Then, on Wednesday, a vastly different line-up from the one that played against the yanks took the field against Brazil and, playing the same flowing, possesion-based soccer that they showed on Sunday, dismantled them.

Why is it that Mexico plays so well against high quality opposition like Brazil and Argentina, yet consistently chokes when they play the USA? Some might say that the Brazil side Mexico faced was understrength, but the argument could be made that the Mexico squad Hugo sent out was understrength as well - after all, every European-based player except Rafa Marquez was left out of the squad, as were Oswaldo Sanchez and Jared Borgetti (who will miss the whole tournament due to injury). So the Mexican line-up was certainly untested and inexperienced.

The supposed divisions in the Mexican camp have been well documented. Like the rest of the country, the players are divided between Huguistas - people who share Hugo's mentality and agree with his method of play - and Lavolpistas - people who agree with Ricard LaVolpe. Unsurprisingly, Hugo and LaVolpe are bitter enemies, both in football and personally. Lots of columnists believe that the line-up that played against Brazil was an all-Huguista line-up, whereas most of the European-based players support LaVolpe, and this explains why the squad played so poorly in the Gold Cup.

I'm not sure I agree. I believe that Mexico is the best team in Concacaf. They have a squad capable of winning any tournament they enter, even the World Cup. However, their bogey team is the US, and that kills them. It's not that the US is better, they're not. Their performance at the World Cup shows that. But the pressure the Mexican players must feel before every US-Mexico match grinds the players down. They make mental errors. And they lose.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Mexico the rest of this tournament. I said before things started that I thought the Final would be Mexico-Argentina. I still think that.