The Highs and Lows for the Mexican Team

Just a few days ago, I was praising the Mexican national team for dominating this year's Gold Cup with great play. It took some time to forget about the guys removed from the team due to doping allegations, but the last two games of the group stage made us all forget about juiced-up cows and "Clembuterol," and by the time they lifted the cup at the Rose Bowl, the critics were quieted......but not for long.

Flashback to September of last year. Right after the World Cup, during a transition period between Xavier Aguirre's last game as head coach and current coach Chepo de la Torre's debut and the Mexican team had a four game stretch (friendly games) under two interim coaches.

After beating Colombia 1-0 in Monterrey, some of the players decided to throw a little party at the team hotel. Players had been released from duty and ready to go back to their teams but decided to stay overnight. The party included booze and women, which immediately got the relentless Mexican press' attention.

The players immediately cited Ross Geller's (Friends) memorable quote: "We were on a break." But still, it was the official team hotel.

The result? Two players suspended from national team play for six months and a little later, the resignation of the team's president.

Fast forward to today, as Mexico's U-22 team gets ready to play Copa America against South America's powerhouses, the Monterrey story comes back to life.

As the team returned to their hotel from their warm-up match against Ecuador, several players reported stolen goods from their rooms (iPads, Laptops, etc.). This turned out to be their biggest mistake. Players blamed the hotel administration of allowing thieves into their rooms. After a little investigation and looking at security videos, the shocking truth came up: the night prior to the game, several women were taped going into one of the player's rooms. And after the team left for the game, two men were seen entering player's rooms and extracting the goods. I think you all know what happened.

This is the type of scandal Mexican media salivates on. And after several days of pressing the matter, eight more players came forward and accepted their involvement. All eight players were released from the team and suspended for six months from national play. Eight U-20 players were called in to replace them.

So, I think it's safe to say now that, by the standards set by the major team back in September, these eight U-22 players are ready for the major leagues.

But in all seriousness, YES, these are young kids, some of them experiencing a little fame for the first time, but c'mon fellows, respect your team. How many players would kill to have the chance to play Brazil or Argentina’s A teams at their cup? And once you had your fun, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who stole your stuff. If you had just shut up about it, you’d still be on the team.

Now, why is Mexico’s U-22 team playing Copa America? Because CONCACAF said so. Mexico belongs to CONCACAF, so they attend Copa America as guests. Mexico sees Copa America as a good chance to elevate their competition level (with all due respect, playing against the best in South America is no match to beating Cuba and El Salvador by 5), and CONCACAF does not like this. Had they not limited the Copa America roster to U-22 players, Mexico would have sent a mix of young and experienced payers to the Gold Cup, and the A team would have played Copa America, which is exactly what CONCACAF didn’t want.

So now we are talking about a U-22/U-20 Mexican team playing against South America’s Elite A-Teams. This scandal will REALLY hurt Mexico’s chances of even making it past group stage. But it’s all self inflicted. It’s funny how the Mexican press, along with the Hotel Manager in Ecuador, single handedly took these players down, and now that the consequences are out, they are questioning if the whole Team (and Country) should suffer because of a few horny kids.

The sad part of the story is, this kind of things happen at most teams. But they either know how to do it, or their media simply don’t care about this kind of off-the-field stuff. I personally blame Mexican Media first for their short-sighted tabloid mentality. The Mexican Futbol Federation second for not taking care of this inside the ropes. Granted, with all the press coverage it was not easy task. And third, I blame it on the players. They are not even famous yet, but they certainly know how to behave like one.

I’ll be covering Copa America beginning on 7/1. For additional Futbol coverage, you can follow me at @its_futbol.