Soccer: New coach gets the country to back team

Mexico's head coach Miguel Herrera. Photo / AP

After all the disappointment during Jose Manuel de la Torre's time as Mexico coach, a change seems to be happening.

The entire country, starting with the players, managers, general board and fans, has decided to work as a team to reach next year's World Cup in Brazil.

Confidence is important, because the team are now under their fourth coach in only a few weeks - this time Miguel Herrera, who is at the top of his career.

Herrera arrived a couple of weeks ago and immediately called up 10 players from Club America, the team he manages. Club America won the Mexican championship in May and are at the top of this league.

They had the best defence, conceding only 11 goals in 15 matches, and also had the second best attack, with 30 goals in the same number of matches.

They are impressive numbers and seemed to have convinced the Mexican people to trust in Herrera.

The secret of Herrera's success is the confidence his teams play with. They are defensively sound but also look to attack at any oppor-tunity.

Club America are a very competitive squad and teams have to play at their best to beat them.

Herrera likes to play a 3-5-2 formation with wingbacks who get up and down the park and three central midfielders who fight for the ball.

It's doubtful he will call on any European-based players to take on New Zealand. Herrera's biggest concern is the travel factor, which would see the likes of Javier Hernandez (Manchester United), Andres Guardado (Valencia), Giovani dos Santos (Villarreal) or Diego Reyes (Porto) travel from Europe to Mexico and then down to New Zealand for the return leg. Herrera worries this will have a negative impact on the team, which is why he might opt for only locals to play New Zealand.

That could see him use at least seven Club America players - Moises Munoz, Francisco Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Valenzuela, Paul Aguilar, Miguel Layun, Juan Carlos Medina and Raul Jimenez - with the other four players likely to be former Barcelona defender Rafael Marquez, Luis Montes, Carlos Pena and Oribe Peralta.

The playoff against New Zealand is getting close and, with the "Reloaded America", Mexico are confident of winning a World Cup ticket.

In a couple of weeks we will know just how strong they are.

- The Record in Mexico