Mexico started its World Cup preparations three weeks earlier than Germany – accompanied by absurd scenes and great excitement about the release of the players.
It’s a strange situation on Wednesday evening in Mexico City. Reporters gather at the entrance to the Centro de Alto Rendimiento sports center, providing live updates on social networks. With the label “Breaking” they announce when individual national soccer players have arrived, garnished with videos of the car arrivals.
The big questions: Are all the players really coming? And in time? The meeting point was scheduled for 8 p.m. At 7:56 p.m. the good news came: the last expected players had arrived, just in time. It was Alexis Vega and Jesus Gallardo of all people – more on that later.
“The selection is now complete after the 24 most chaotic hours the national team has experienced in recent years,” writes ESPN reporter Leon Lecanda.
Ultimatum from National coach Javier Aguirre
Javier Aguirre was partly responsible for the fact that the arrival was so explosive. “All nominated players will eat together at 8 p.m.”said the national coach on Tuesday. “As you know, the rules are clear. Anyone who doesn’t show up is eliminated from the World Cup. There are no exceptions here.”
On Wednesday evening, the national team also posted the appropriate picture: all the expected players sitting together at the table in an exemplary manner.
National player The clubs are missing in important games
Mexico is co-hosting the World Cup alongside the USA and Canada and wants to prepare particularly intensively. That’s why Aguirre wanted to gather the 20 nominated players from the Mexican league early for training camp. It was agreed with the clubs that they would release the players accordingly. The regular season ended on April 26th.
However, the Liga MX playoff tournament runs until May 24th. There are also competitive international games such as the semi-final second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup on Wednesday. There Toluca played against Los Angeles FC and hoped that national players Vega and Gallardo would play. When the media reported that the two could possibly join the national team a day later, there was great excitement among other club owners.
Chivas owner wanted to bring players back
They had already done without their national players in the first leg of the playoff quarter-finals because, according to the regulations of the world association FIFA, they have to observe a rest period between the end of the season and the start of training camp. For example, Deportivo Guadalajara, nicknamed Chivas, lost 3-1 to Tigres without three key players.
Chivas owner Amaury Vergara angrily announced he would bring his players back. “Agreements are only valid if they are adhered to by all parties,” he wrote on social networks. “I have instructed the sports directors that our players should report to the club premises tomorrow.”
The clubs later announced that they wanted to honor the agreement. But the real all-clear only came when the last players actually arrived – as mentioned, they were Vega and Gallardo, who didn’t play in the Champions Cup after all. Even without them, Toluca beat Los Angeles 4-0.
Toluca players celebrate with flags
Mexico started training camp three weeks earlier than Germany
Mexico still has three friendly matches on the schedule: against Ghana (May 22), Australia (May 30) and Serbia (June 4). The home World Cup should be successful, the long training camp should ensure a well-coordinated team. Germany, for example, only starts preparations on May 27th, almost three weeks later.
Aguirre announced that he would make every effort to bring in the national players who are under contract abroad as early as possible. Perhaps there will be more exciting evenings with breaking news and car arrivals.
