After years of struggle, can Mexico soccer flourish under Javier Aguirre?

The Mexican national team has suffered from stagnation in recent years.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar the team won just once in three games under coach Tata Martino and failed to advance out of group play, its worst performance on the world stage in more than four decades. During this summer’s Copa América, Mexico’s results were the same with Mexico, this time under Jimmy Lozano also exiting in the first round.

So with the 2026 World Cup, which Mexico will host alongside the U.S. and Canada, less than two years away, the team is starting over again by bringing Javier Aguirre back as technical director.

The “Vasco” officially returned in July for his third stint with the national team and this time he will have the help of Rafa Márquez, Aguirre’s captain in the 2010 World Cup, as his top assistant. They’ll be together on the Mexican bench for the first time Saturday when El Tri faces New Zealand at the Rose Bowl.

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Since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Aguirre, 65, has coached eight teams — including the Japanese and Egyptian national teams — in five countries. Duilio Davino, director of the Mexican men’s national team program, highlighted that international experience while discussing the coach’s return.

“He is a Javier Aguirre with much more learning, more games, more victories, more failures and that, without a doubt, makes him a better coach,” Davino told LA Times en Español. “He is a Javier Aguirre who, due to his age, has a coaching staff that listens more and can delegate and can make better decisions. So against New Zealand it will be an important preparation match to add to the path we have to travel.”

A lack of continuity on the coaching staff has been one of the big problems with Mexico’s national team program. Twelve men have had the job since Aguirre completed his second stint in 2010, with only Martino serving a full World Cup cycle. And Martino, now the coach at Inter Miami, rewarded the program with its worst World Cup since 1978.

“We are not delivering the results,” Davino said. “All of us who have been here want to deliver good results and we have not achieved it. Let’s hope that now we can have that.

“Finishing cycles has also not shown that it can ensure a good World Cup and we hope that it will be done in 2026.”

Aguirre’s arrival was not without controversy. After the poor performance in this summer’s Copa América, Lozano, who led the team to victory in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup, was told he would not continue through the next World Cup, as promised. Instead, the federation presented Lozano with the idea of becoming Aguirre’s assistant.

He refused and the two sides mutually terminated his contract.

“I don’t know if it was accelerated, but I do think that Jimmy should have been more open in the sense that the people who were his assistants were more experienced in the field,” said Oswaldo Sánchez, a former national team goalkeeper and an analyst for TUDN.

Sánchez, who played for Aguirre with the national team, considers the Copa América performance a failure. But it wasn’t a waste, he added.

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“I do see some positive things, like having trained many young people, having given them responsibility,” he said. “Mexico was the one that ran the most in the group stage of the Copa América, the boys fought for something and if it is true that there is still a long way to go, many of our players need to continue training.

“I do believe in a renewal. I liked that there was planning. Even though the result was negative, I think there were positive things in the environment of the team itself.”

But Sánchez also sees the appointments of Aguirre and Márquez, 45, a member of five World Cup teams, as a step forward.

“Imagine how many World Cups both of them have,” he said. “So in that sense, since there are no qualifying rounds because Mexico is already qualified [for the World Cup], I want to think that things will turn out better.”

Upon returning to the national team, Aguirre said his roster was a blank piece of paper and any player still active would be considered for a call-up. For the game against New Zealand and another on Sept. 10 with Canada in Arlington, Texas, he summoned 26 players, including midfielder Érik Lira of Cruz Azul and defender Alan Mozo of Chivas. The two have a combined six international caps between them.

They will be joined by veterans Henry Martín (América), Jesús Gallardo (Toluca) and Orbelín Pineda (AEK Athens). But the absences are more notable, with goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, midfielder Edson Álvarez, and forwards Raúl Jiménez and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano left off the roster.

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“The doors of the national team are not closed to anyone and they were not closed before,” Davino said. “The list of players is given by the coaches and they will know which players they will have on each list to understand and try to bring the best team possible.”

Aguirre’s contract runs through the next World Cup, leaving a path for Márquez to apply for the position heading into the next four-year cycle, perhaps giving Mexico the consistency it has been missing on the sidelines. Márquez previously coached FC Barcelona’s B team.

“All the experience he has, he can contribute, he can add many things to Javier,” Davino said of Márquez. “He continues to learn many things from Javier. He continues to grow as a coach because soon he will also lead the national team.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.