Mayra Madrigal
Recent Mexican national team coaches have gone through ups and downs, and this has been a constant with the “aztecas”. The history of the Mexican National Team began to take shape in 1923 and since then 44 coaches have passed through the Aztec bench. Some are remembered for the number of games they have coached, others for the titles they have won, their achievements or for their failures.
Ignacio Trelles holds the record with 106 matches coached in five different periods, with a record of 50 wins, 27 draws and 29 losses; the other is Yugoslavian Bora Milutinovic with 104 matches coached in two periods, with 52 wins, 32 draws and 20 losses. These trainers had the confidence and time needed for their processes, something that is not very common nowadays.
In the last decade, the Mexican National Team has had five different coaches, four of whom have managed to record more than 35 games. From 2011 to date these have been the last coaches of the Mexican National Team:
1.- José Manuel de la Torre
After the South Africa 2010 World Cup, José Manuel de la Torre was the choice to replace Javier Aguirre once the clubs’ board of owners elected him on October 18, 2010.
He managed his first match in February 2011 with a 2-0 win against Bosnia and everything was going well. However, a series of bad results complicated Mexico’s qualification to the Brazil 2014 World Cup. For this reason, he was dismissed in September 2017, after Mexico lost against Honduras in the final hexagonal.
His record between 2011 and 2013 with El Tri is 47 games under his management: 27 wins, 12 draws and eight defeats. Won a Copa de Oro.
2.- Víctor Manuel Vucetich
Víctor Manuel Vucetich, better known as “King Midas”, was chosen as temporary head coach of the Mexican national team to continue the process towards the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He managed to secure qualification in the match against Panama in which Mexico emerged victorious by a score of 2-1, a game well remembered for the bicycle kick goal scored by striker Raúl Jiménez. He managed only two games, with a balance of one win and one loss.
3.- Miguel Herrera
After Vucetich’s departure, due to the crisis faced by the Mexican National Team, which had to play in the playoffs to secure its qualification for 2014 World Cup, Miguel Herrera was chosen to take charge of the tricolor bench. He was on loan with the national team for the playoff matches against New Zealand, a challenge he ended up winning by an aggregate score of 9-3. He returned to coach Club América for the Apertura 2013 final, but after losing to Club León, he ended his contract with the team and took over as coach of the Mexican National Team.
He managed 36 games, winning 12, drawing 11 and losing 7. In July 2015, he was dismissed after a fight with TV Azteca journalist Christian Martinoli.
Juan Carlos Osorio
Colombian Juan Carlos Osorio took over the National Team after Miguel Herrera’s dismissal in October 2015. He qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they reached the round of 16. During his time in the Mexican National Team, he coached 44 games, winning 27, tying 8 and losing 9, with a 67.42% efficiency rate. He equaled the record for most consecutive victories (11) held by coach Manuel Lapuente in 1990. In July 2018, after being eliminated in the round of 16 of the World Cup, he decided not to renew his contract with “El Tri”.
Gerardo Martino
In January 2019, Argentine Gerardo Martino took over as coach of the Mexican National Team, after a successful season with Atlanta United of the MLS, with whom he emerged as champion. Martino arrived with an international reputation, after having coached the Paraguay and Argentina national teams. He has coached 46 games and has a 73.19 % success rate, with 31 wins, eight ties and seven losses. He also won the 2019 Copa de Oro, his only international title he has as a coach.
