Tata Martino on pessimism surrounding Mexico national team before World Cup

June 01, 2024

At club level, Martino is revered in Atlanta, the city where he led Atlanta United to an MLS Cup championship in 2018. But on Wednesday night, wearing a red Adidas Mexico national team tracksuit, Martino was booed and jeered by the over 50,000 Mexican supporters that attended El Tri’s friendly against Paraguay at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Fuera Tata chant was heard throughout the match. Mexico lost 1-0 in a non-FIFA sanctioned scrimmage that featured only Liga MX-based players, but even a loss in the low stake games are enough to rankle Mexico’s rabid fanbase.

“Have you felt like a public enemy?,” asked a reporter in the post-game press conference.

“No. 1,” responded Martino with a chuckle. “I’m not a public enemy. I’m public enemy No. 1.”

It was a moment both light-hearted and revealing. Martino was composed and even friendlier than usual with the Mexican press during Mexico’s stay in Atlanta. Yet, it was evident that the 59-year-old Argentine was not going to hold back on the issues he faces before Mexico opens the World Cup against Poland in a couple months time. While his employers have been patient with him, Martino’s tolerance for what he called “seismic changes” within the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has run out, as it has for negative reactions from fans. The gloves are off.

Multiple outlets in Mexico reported late Wednesday that in July Martino had offered his resignation to the FMF after sporting director Gerardo Torrado was fired due to a string of bad results from the country’s women’s and youth men’s national teams. The FMF did not accept Martino’s resignation, and Torrado intervened and convinced Martino to stay on through the World Cup in Qatar. The Athletic was able to confirm the report.

Martino sternly told reporters on Tuesday that Torrado’s dismissal was “very unfair” and that if he could’ve prevented it, he would have, but the situation was not within his reach.

“(Torrado) deserved to finish this cycle alongside all of us who started it,” Martino said. “It’s not too much to say that I don’t agree with a decision of this nature just three months before the World Cup.”

Martino’s revelation surely must’ve bothered FMF president Yon De Luisa, who had initially said that Martino had understood the decision to fire Torrado and the rest of the federation’s sporting department.

“(When we spoke) Martino supported Gerardo (Torrado) and Ignacio (Hierro) and everyone that he has worked with,” De Luisa said in July. “But he understood that this is football and when changes are necessary, change must take place. In that sense, Martino was completely on board with the decisions that we have made as a federation…Martino was open to listening and working with whomever he is expected to work with.”

While in Atlanta, Martino also labeled the environment that surrounds El Tri as one that’s ripe with pessimism. He spoke of Mexican football’s atypical sporting ecosystem where pundits, many of whom are former coaches and national team players, seem to celebrate the failures of their colleagues.

“I’ve noticed that this is an environment that’s comfortable with that,” said Martino.

He also told TUDN pitchside after the Paraguay game that he felt there was an active campaign against the current national team from the aforementioned members of the media. This of course bleeds into fan discontent, the extent of which Martino was also uncharacteristically candid about this week.

“The people who opine don’t know me. They don’t know who I am as a person,” said Martino regarding his standing in Mexico. “If they knew me, I’m sure that none of this would be taking place. I guarantee that. But that doesn’t mean it’s something that can’t change.”

The reason for fan’s discontent isn’t hard to fathom: the team’s results have skydived since 2020. While several players have solidified their place on the senior national team under Martino, and a majority of the projected World Cup starting XI for Mexico is European-based, El Tri has not reached the desired level of play that was expected when Martino was hired in 2019.

The three straight losses to the United States are insignificant when a World Cup is around the corner, but the embarrassment from those defeats has lingered. They’ll sting long after Martino’s tenure ends in January. It’s a grudge that symbolizes precisely what is holding Mexico back.

Mexican football has long been a pressure cooker for players, coaches and team executives. The sport conjures unbridled passion and support from millions of devout fans. But that devotion has crossed a line and taken a turn for the worse, Martino said.

“What really worries me is what impact this could have on the players,” he told reporters. “That is a real concern. How long will they be able to manage the pressure? We’re in Atlanta today and in 20 days we’ll be in Los Angeles and it’ll be the same situation. But then we’ll be at the World Cup and it’ll continue because Mexico always has 40,000 to 50,000 fans at a World Cup. And Poland could score a goal after 20 minutes. That’s the concern.”

Martino was also asked about Club América winger and Mexican-American dual national Alejandro Zendejas. The 24-year-old was reportedly asked last week by the FMF to make the FIFA-required one-time switch to permanently represent El Tri at the senior national team level.

Zendejas’ omission from this August roster made headlines in Mexico, but Martino left little room for interpretation as to why Zendejas was not on the team.

“Things need to be said the way that they are. The player had to sign a document and the player didn’t want to,” Martino said. “This doesn’t have to be spun. It’s a requirement to play for the Mexican national team and he didn’t sign the document. You should ask the player. At this point, this is on him. There isn’t a problem with the federation or with the coach.”

“As a coach, if there’s a demand (by the player) about whether he’s going to the World Cup or not, I don’t want a player that thinks like that under any circumstances,” he continued. “It’s almost like extortion. The reality is that the player needed to sign a change of federation document, he said he would and then he didn’t.”

Martino was hired to spearhead a momentous era of Mexican football. Whether or not he was the right hire is subjective. Perhaps Mexican football wasn’t ready for transformational change or for their traditions to be challenged by another outsider (Martino replaced Colombian Juan Carlos Osorio in 2019). As Martino detailed, the lack of confidence in the national team and a thirst for tabloid-style opinions has become an unstoppable boulder with no clear end in sight.

“The players were fine (tonight),” he said. “After that first half, they deserved a different type of reception. It’s a difficult one because the reaction didn’t coincide with what the team had produced. This happens often when the team doesn’t offer anything. But when the team plays like they did in the first half, it’s difficult to understand why they’d walk off the field to contempt. It’s like the (homophobic) chant. If you yell it, you’re going to get suspended, but they keep doing it. It’s tough, but that’s where we are.”

What’s clear is that the position of head coach of the Mexican national team has become a vicious cycle of criticism, one where the manager is a daily defendant in today’s multi-platform digital court of opinion. The cycle will continue after Martino leaves his post, which The Athletic had previously reported will be after the World Cup.

In Mexico it’s said that there’s more pressure on the coach of El Tri than the nation’s president.

It’s a clever way to describe the demands of the position and where football lies culturally in Mexico. However, in this case Mexico’s national team is losing credibility at an inopportune moment.

This Mexico side is experienced and there are a handful of players like Luis Chávez, Carlos Rodríguez and César Montes who could emerge in Qatar as foundational pieces for Mexico moving forward. But Mexico is devoid of top-tier talent. This current group lacks punch and that has been difficult for Mexicans to accept. For Martino, his focus has shifted towards safeguarding the mentality of the players before the ultimate test that a footballer endures.

“If someone is a pessimist, they shouldn’t change their opinion if this team does well at the World Cup,” said Martino. “Perhaps they’ll change their mind briefly. But yes, the environment around the team is absolutely one of pessimism. I tend to believe that will strengthen the group internally. And the way things are going, this pessimism will make us stronger before we play a World Cup.”

(Photo: Brett Davis / USA TODAY Sports)

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