Juan Carlos Osorio Is Optimistic For The World Cup

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

After qualifying Mexico in record time for the World Cup in Russia next year, the Aztec coach Juan Carlos Osorio points to the new objective of getting the Tri to overcome the barrier that has prevented them from finishing to shine in the previous editions of the World Cup.

That fifth game is the great obsession of Aztec soccer every four years, which has to go back to Mexico 1986 to remember the national team playing a quarterfinal between the great powers of soccer.

The Colombian coach is aware of this, who despite successfully achieving the classification for Russia 2018 continues to receive criticism for the modest performance of the tricolor team in the recent Confederations Cup, not to mention that it still hurts the 7-0 that Chile endorsed him in the Copa América last year.

"We are very optimistic, we think there is a very good team. Every time the idea of the game is better understood and runs much longer during the game, "Osorio told People en Español in the presentation on Tuesday in New York of Fox Sports programming for the World Cup in Russia.

With some good preparation games, plus the plan that we are going to design for each of our players, I believe that we are going to arrive with a very good team and obviously with the hope of making a great World Cup and representing that great country that it's Mexico”, he added.

Unlike teams like the United States or Argentina that have not yet qualified, the Mexicans did their homework and sealed their passport to Russia on September 1 after winning 1-0 against Panama, without having lost any game. But those statistics will be of little use if Osorio does not achieve that fifth game.

"It is not a secret that as progress is made in a tournament the matches are more difficult and surely the key will be in, hopefully, having a very well prepared team and using the preparation games to work on different scenarios, different game structures, and arrive in good condition, "he said.

If there is any objection from analysts and fans of Tri's performance in qualifying matches, it has been the poor aim of the Mexican strikers.

"It is very important to have scorers and we believe that between Javier [ Chicharito Hernández], Raúl [ Jiménez] and Oribe [ Peralta] we have very good finishers," he acknowledged. “But equally important is to have goals or generate options and specify in other ways. Then comes the stopped ball, the defenders in aerial football and, out there, I hope that others will join in.”

The next matches for the Aztec team are the last two games in October of the Concacaf classification process - against Trinidad and Tobago and Honduras - which are a mere procedure. Then the first two games of preparation for the World Cup await him in November, which will be against Belgium and Poland, the Mexican federation announced Thursday.