Mexico execute professor’s plan to perfection
The meticulous work of coach Osorio turned main German strength into biggest weakness
in Moscow
The reaction from Juan Carlos Osorio to being told that an earthquake had registered in Mexico City amid the celebrations for Hirving Lozano’s winning goal against Germany told you everything about why this should not register quite so highly on the Richter scale of World Cup upsets.
“It did!?” said the Mexico manager. “When we scored I sat down, thought about the plan and how not to concede over the next five minutes.” Osorio is nicknamed the “Professor” and his planning famously extends to copious notes and ring-binders, but delve even deeper into his remarkable journey to football’s greatest stage and the suspicion only grows that there will be no more meticulously prepared team in Russia.
He had certainly identified Germany’s weaknesses with forensic accuracy and his players were superb in executing a plan that exploited a position that was supposed to be Germany’s great strength.
Joshua Kimmich has been hailed as the best right-back in the world over the past year for the way he bombs forward. The flip side, however, is that he also leaves great spaces behind him.
For Bayern Munich, usually so dominant and secure in possession, it is rarely noticed. But starting alongside two centre-backs approaching 30 and the potential hazards against a fast, well-drilled opposition soon became clear.
Osorio would have known that Germany would be dominant in possession but, in clearly targeting the big spaces down the defending champions’ right with counterattacks, their threat persisted even while camped in their own half.
Born in Colombia, Osorio saw his career as a player ended by injury at the age of 26, but his determination to succeed as a coach was extraordinary. According to the New York Times, he moved to the United States as an illegal immigrant, working in construction and food service, before gaining his legal status and then completing a degree in exercise science at Southern Connecticut State University.
He sold many of his belongings to travel to Liverpool to study football and science at John Moores University and it was here that, after asking to borrow a ladder from a family who lived adjacent to Liverpool’s Melwood training ground, he would watch Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier at work.
Jobs in sports science followed at Major League Soccer and then with Manchester City, but he never stopped pushing to learn and persuaded just about all the biggest managerial names in Europe to let him study them at work.
The ring-binders were growing ever thicker and opportunities to put his theories in practice would follow in Colombia, the United States and Brazil, before taking the Mexico job in 2015.
His tactical methods, which centre largely on creating unpredictable patterns of movement among his strikers, have been described by Mexico’s record goalscorer Javier Hernandez as bordering on “genius”.
Osorio has said that he wants Mexico “to take movement to new levels”. Results have also followed, even if supporters have been slow to celebrate a team who topped Concacaf ’s World Cup qualifying and reached the quarter-finals of the Copa America and the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.
“They’re not happy with us winning,” said Osorio. “We have to win and humiliate the opposition. There is no country in the world that keeps so much pressure on a national team coach.”
Expectations will now also follow after this marvellous performance, even if Osorio naturally has a plan. “We will work on psychology,” he said. “I carry the burden of pressure. The players should enjoy the game and play football like they did today against Germany. When they win, they take the credit. When they lose, I will take the blame.”
And so what were his last words before a match that has, quite literally, reverberated almost 7,000 miles back across the world? “Play for the love of winning, not the fear of losing,” said Osorio.