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Lack of harmony mars Mexico's World Cup tuneup [Fri Aug 26th, 2005]
Mexico City (Reuters) - A few days before their World Cup qualifier at home to Costa Rica, Mexico's players sang traditional songs and held a barbecue in a bid to boost team morale and emphasise unity.
Something more than loud singing, however, is needed to remedy the discord in Mexican football.
After beating Argentina and world champions Brazil in competitive matches in the last 12 months, Mexico should be on a high.
Progress towards the World Cup under Argentine-born coach Ricardo La Volpe has been smooth, with the team winning 13 games out of 14 and drawing the other.
The 2-0 home win over Costa Rica this month left them needing only one point from four games to book their place at the 2006 finals -- a stark contrast to previous campaigns when they have often come unstuck against their smaller Central American neighbours.
Yet the team, and especially La Volpe, have been under fire from a range of characters while Mexican Football Federation (FMF) president Alberto de la Torre is still feeling the effects of the doping scandal involving Salvador Carmona and Aaron Galindo at the Confederations Cup.
The FMF initially said that the players, who were sent home two days after the 1-0 win over Brazil, had been guilty of indiscipline.
Under pressure from world body FIFA, the FMF changed its tune and said the pair, who both play for Cruz Azul, had tested positive for a derivative of nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid, before the squad left Mexico.
The players were banned for a year while FIFA fined the FMF US$580,000 for their handling of the affair, infuriating some club presidents who said the FMF had humiliated the country.
ARBITRATION COMMITTEE
The issue became even more complicated when Carmona and Galindo, without their club's backing, took their case to the government-run Sports Arbitration Committee, which initially ruled that they could play.
This contravened FIFA rules, which ban soccer-related matters from being taken to government authorities, and briefly raised the possibility that the FMF could be suspended.
Carmona and Galindo quickly backed down while De la Torre accused his opponents of using the issue to attack him.
The result is that De la Torre's administration will be the subject of a meeting of club presidents on September 6, when they could decide to vote him out of office.
If that happens, one consequence could be that La Volpe, who was forced to apologise to Cruz Azul over remarks he made about the doping case, goes too.
Although La Volpe's results have been good, his gruff personality, his decision to field naturalised players and his apparent lack of interest in diplomacy have earned him plenty of critics.
La Volpe, who threatened to resign on four occasions last year, has been accused of picking only his friends, lacking a winning mentality and not having big enough trousers, a colloquial expression meaning he lacks guts.
The most vociferous and persistent critic has been former Real Madrid striker Hugo Sanchez, universally regarded as the best player the country has produced and currently coach of first division UNAM.
Sanchez, who refers to La Volpe as "The Other One" and has had a bitter personal rivalry with the Argentine since their playing days in the 1980s, has made it clear he wants the job himself and has publicly urged the FMF to give it to him.
De la Torre hit back at Sanchez, saying he missed his chance when he pulled out of the race to replace Javier Aguirre after the 2002 World Cup.
SMALL TROUSERS
Another twist followed when Sanchez was ordered from the touchline during a 1-0 win over Guadalajara and later fined US$7,000. He said he was being victimised by the federation and jibed that they needed to raise money to pay the FIFA fine.
Players, meanwhile, were sniping at La Volpe after being left out of the team.
Guadalajara's Adolfo Baustita said: "This is not the national team of Mexico, it's the team of (his) friends."
Bautista also criticised the decision to call up Brazilian-born midfielder Antonio Naelson. "This is also unfortunate because if we have a look at the goals he misses, we'll see that he is not as effective as I could be."
La Volpe retorted: "When he says these things, he's not just criticising me but also the players. I picked Bautista for the Copa America last year, so I must have lost a friend."
Fiery striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who pulled out of the Confederations Cup squad saying he needed a holiday, joined in when La Volpe overlooked him for the Costa Rica match.
"He didn't have big enough trousers to pick me, it's as simple as that," said Blanco.
La Volpe hit back: "My national team is not just about one player. I think it would be wrong to ignore the effort that the other players have made to be here and it would be disrespectful to them to leave one of them out and bring back Blanco."
He added: "My trousers are perfectly big enough."
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