This is Mexico's Football Future?

The future of Mexican football, this is not. A lot of Mexican football fans are on cloud nine after defeating the U.S. 4-2 in the Gold Cup final, feeling unbeatable and that their #18 world ranking is far too low. The fact of the matter is that Mexico is very similar to England when it comes to football: they think they're much better than they really are. The U.S. has a much more realistic opinion on their soccer team, one of "We're a world-class team, but we're not going to win the World Cup with this squad or coach." The English and Mexicans think they're going to win the World Cup every time and every time they come up short. England hasn't won the World Cup since '66 when they hosted and Mexico has never even reached the Top Four, a distinction that the USA can claim, finishing 3rd place in 1930, the first World Cup.

At this year's Copa America, the CONMEBOL championship tournament, Mexico and Japan were invited to participate since CONMEBOL doesn't have enough teams to make a full tournament. Japan was forced to pull out due to the earthquake & tsunami, so Costa Rica was invited at the last minute. Mexico declined to send their A-squad, instead sending mostly their U-23 team and, to the best of my knowledge, 6 members of the A-squad, led by Giovanni Dos Santos. Unfortunately, 8 of those members fell victim to a prostitution scandal and were sent home, 6 of them being starters. This is not a good way to promote your national team's future.

To make things worse, this "B-" squad lost to Chile of all teams, 2-1 in their first game of Copa America, in the middle of an overwhelmingly pro-Chile crowd. They say karma is a bitch, but karma doesn't really have anything to do with this. Mexico simply has been brought back down to Earth with this loss. The current A-squad is a damn good team, but are they still going to be this good 3 years from now in the next World Cup? Sure, Chicharito and Dos Santos will still be the big stars, but what about Torrado, Salcido, Osorio, Marquez, and Sinha?

What about the increasingly controversial goalie position? In the last WC, Guillermo Ochoa was never used as the starting goalkeeper in a single game, despite consistently being voted the best Mexican goalkeeper in the world. As great as El Conejo once was, he is no Memo Ochoa. But despite that, Ochoa now finds himself in a difficult position, now heading to play in France as the first Mexican goalkeeper to ever play in Ligue 1. In the past, he was known for being so good not just because of his talents, but his communication with teammates, some of which were on his team in Club America. When national selection players go to foreign leagues, they don't always come back playing better; just look at the case of Jonathan Dos Santos, who hasn't lived up to expectations since playing in La Liga, or Jonathan Bornstein (what is it about football players named Johnathan?) who continues to be a starter on the U.S. team, but only has 2 goals in 38 caps?

And even with the whole "overseas experience" thing, Memo Ochoa may lose his starting job if the clenbuterol scandal becomes the real deal and not just "bad meat." If Ochoa can't be goalie, Mexico doesn't exactly have a huge selection to pick from. If the U-23 squad playing in Copa America is anything to indicate, Mexico's future is not that bright. If they don't succeed at the 2013 World Cup, it could be a very long road for Mexico, because Chicharito isn't going to be able to save the team single-handedly. Their U-17 team is doing very well (in a tournament held in Mexico), but there aren't any real stars for the team who could look to unseat Chicharito anytime soon or take over as goalkeeper.

Mexico's biggest problem seems to be a common trend in CONCACAF, and that's poor defense. Right now it's ok, but Rafa Marquez is not going to get younger and he's going to need someone to replace him.