President of the Mexican Soccer Federation, Decio de Maria, announced last Thursday evening that Tigres coach, Ricardo “Tuca” Ferreti, would take the role of interim coach for the upcoming four matches. This includes the Confederation Cup play game against the United States on October 10th in Pasadena.
The news comes as a great sigh of relief for many following the roller coaster ride of head coach hunting the Mexican Federation has embarked on since the firing of Miguel Herrera.
The problem is “Tuca” has only been assigned for a few matches. There have been plenty of names that have been thrown around since late July following Herrera’s termination. It has been nearly a month of chaos… and a very transparent look at how the Mexican Soccer Federation has handled deciding on a new coach.
There are multiple points to be made from this whole charade but the biggest one came exactly a few days before the “Tuca” announcement, when Ricardo LaVolpe threw his hat into the ring of potential new coaches. LaVolpe, as many will remember, was the head coach for El Tri from 2002 to 2006, leading them to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
LaVolpe, an Argentinian-born head coach, had a pretty good record with El Tri, but unlike Herrera, was very picky when it came to choosing which players got to play and even approached coaching with a slightly less passionate style.
But hearing LaVolpe publicly state that he wanted a chance to coach the team again only shed light on the currently situation taking place for Mexican Soccer as a organization.
The players are great. The talent is there. Before Herrera’s unfortunate departure, there was a unity with the actual veteran team that had not been seen since the Olympic team that won the gold back in 2012. There still will be, within the players.
But having yet another coach leave (one, I might add, that was very close to his players) only to have another one come in that has been lackluster about even filling the position in the first place, one can only assume that desperation time is kicking in for the federation.
The only difference now is, who do they possibly have that can actually be great? And that people will be in favor for?
Herrera’s push towards the spotlight was the perfect situation. He was awarded the head coaching position shortly after winning the league with Club America. But that was just luck. The federation had shortly prior to that dealt with Javier Aguirre, Efrain Flores, Chepo De La Torre and Vucetich before finally landing on Herrera.
This time, there is no perfect timing. There is not any championship that was just one for them to use as their attraction towards a decision (Well, there was with Herrera winning the Gold Cup, but… I mean, airport issues…).
The desperation is getting to the point of no return. And it seems as though no one is good enough. The demands are too high and the necessity to be a leaf that goes with the flow is not something anyone who takes the position wants to be turned into.
Only time will tell who is brave enough (and assertive enough) to stay.