Mexico head coach Miguel Herrera recently came out stating that Javier Chicharito Hernandez could have been at the Copa America if it hadn’t been for some confusion with the Mexican Soccer Federation.
In a revelation after their disappointing Copa America, Miguel Herrera admitted that they could have taken Chicharito to the Copa America AND the Gold Cup. That the reason they didn’t do that was due to a matter of confusion between the coaching administrative staff and the Mexican Soccer Federation.
Herrera said at a press conference that he didn’t know who to ask, presumably either Manchester United (the team that owns Chicharito’s rights) or Real Madrid (the team where Chicharito spent the 2014-2015 season on loan), for the striker’s services.
“We would love to have had Chicharito with us, but the ‘what might have been’ doesn’t exist,” Herrera said.
The confusion might have cost Mexico the opportunity to advance to the later stages of the Copa America. Mexico failed tremendously in their attempt to do well in the Copa America.
With two points to their name and three matches without a win in Chile, El Tri was sent home packing by Ecuador. It was a sorry display by El Tri and left little to be proud of.
Even though Chicharito was missed in Chile, Miguel Herrera did make it aware that his priority this summer was the Gold Cup, with the Mexican first team having to juggle two competitive international tournaments. His team selections showed that he was taking most if not all his stars to the Gold Cup. The only player who will play a role in both competitions is Jesus “Tecatito” Corona who, compared to most of his teammates that played in the Copa America, performed brilliantly for El Tri.
The Gold Cup is the CONCACAF region's premier competition and will dictate who gets to represent CONCACAF in the 2017 Confederations Cup hosted in Russia. Mexico preferred to take its stars like Hector Herrera, Carlos Vela, Andres Guardado and Giovani dos Santos to the competition, including Chicharito.
What happened at the Copa America was team failure and it’s tough to argue that one individual player could have made a clear impact on Mexico’s fate in the competition but you can admit that Chicharito would have greatly improved the team.
Chicharito is a fighter. He would have worked hard to create space during the game, he would have utilized that space well. The man is known for being in the right place at the right time and he is also known for his great goal ratio even though he lacks the opportunity to play at times.
Mexico’s reason for failing in the Copa America was their inability to put opponents away, and their inability to fight for the opportunity to continue in the tournament. Chicharito would have brought that. He would have been a great option in their match against Bolivia and would have assisted Vuoso in his heroics against Chile. He could have changed their fate against Ecuador as well.
But again, Herrera is right. In soccer, we can always talk about “what could have been?” but the most important piece is to move forward, regardless of what happened in a match or tournament.
Mexico has the Gold Cup to look forward to next month. Will Chicharito remind Herrera further of what he missed at the Copa America?
