No Chivas in Russia

For the second consecutive time, the team from Guadalajara won’t have representatives in Mexico’s national football team at the FIFA World Cup . This is another example of the decadence of the team due to poor management issues, and although Chivas has won a League, a Cup, and a CONCACAF championship, it is not enough to become relevant at a national level.

This has somehow contributed to further disillusion for the fans of Chivas, who have been deeply disappointed by the team administration’s bad decisions and, in some specific cases, the waste and spoiling of key players that were positioned to play at the World Cup.

Above all, the most regrettable case was that of Rodolfo Pizarro , whose name will surely not make it to the list of 23 players who will have the privilege of going to Russia, though he might be considered for a longer, 30-player list of alternates.

If we look at the call for players that Miguel Herrera led to Brazil in 2014, we will find four soccer players that participated at the World Cup and later became players for the Guadalajara team. However, at this time, and on account of the team’s decline, they haven’t been considered by Juan Carlos Osorio who, incidentally, is soon to announce the preliminary list of players that will be part of the national team for the World Cup in 2018.

Some time after the last World Cup, these four players, Isaac Brizuela (from Toluca), Carlos Peña (from León), José Juan Vázquez (León), and Alan Pulido (from Tigres) , became part of Chivas F.C. with some highlights for each of them except Peña, whose performance has been a disaster in each and every team that has ever hired him since.

Vázquez was renegotiated with Santos F.C. in yet another mistake of the team’s administration. Brizuela and Pulido were kept, although they’re not being paid as much as they used to, and as for Alan, the team from Guadalajara has considered removing him, since he was involved in leaking the team’s debt with the players after winning the CONCACAF Champions League.

This shortage of players selected for the national team goes to show that obtaining titles doesn’t necessarily imply having quality team members or an overall good performance.

Miguel Herrera

will also have to do his best in the playoffs if he wants to return as technical director for Mexico’s National team. All he’ll have to do is win the title at the Clausura for the League of 2018 in order to recover a position that he had lost foolishly. Osorio will disclose the list for Russia on Sunday, the same day that Miguel will have to prove himself at the end of the tournament, which he absolutely needs to win.

Making it to the finals, showing a good performance from the team, or any other ambiguity won’t do any good in this final stage of the tournament. If he doesn’t win the championship, he most likely won’t return as the technical director for Mexico’s team and he will have to wait a long time, if he is able, to become a candidate for the position in the future.

dm