Martino won’t promise WC quarter-final for Mexico
AWARE MEXICO is obsessed with reaching the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1986, Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino did not make any promises when he was introduced as El Tri’s new coach.
“I can’t answer how is it that I will be able to reach the fifth game of a World Cup that it is going to be played in four years and when we still have the qualifying rounds ahead of us,” Martino said yesterday. “It’s impossible to evaluate what will happen in four years when there is so much ahead of us.”
A former coach of Barcelona and Argentina’s national team, Martino joins Mexico after leading Atlanta United to Major League Soccer’s title last month in the expansion team’s second season.
Mexico upset Germany in their World Cup opener last year but lost 2-0 to Brazil in the round of 16. El Tri reached the quarter-finals only in 1970 and 1986, both at home.
“What I’m aspiring to do is to have a reliable team as soon as possible, a team that knows how to play,” Martino said. “That is the ultimate pressure that we have now as a coaching staff.”
Martino is the third Argentine to coach Mexico, after César Luis Menotti (1991-92) and Ricardo La Volpe (2002-06).
“Mexico have been consistent in being one of the best 16 teams in World Cups. We hope to be better than that in this process,” Mexico Football Federation President Yon De Luisa said.
The 56-year-old takes over from Colombian Juan Carlos Osorio, who left to coach Paraguay.
“My commitment is to work with all my effort to make the Mexican team a bigger one,” Martino said. “Mexico is one of the countries that has grown more in the last few years. To be able to systematically qualify to the second round in the World Cup, it’s a sign of progress.”
Martino coached Paraguay to the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup and a second-place finish at the 2011 Copa America, then Newell’s Old Boys to the 2013 Copa Libertadores semi-finals. He led Argentina to losses in the 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals, both on penalty kicks.