Nations League or Gold Cup trophy would be a win for Mexico's demanding fan base
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Aguirre returns to Mexico for third timeManager led El Tri in 2002, 2010 World CupsCan Mexico return to their best?AFPEl Vasco is back
Javier Aguirre will be in familiar settings when he walks to the touchline Saturday to lead the Mexico national team into a friendly match against New Zealand at the Rose Bowl.
For one, he’s done this job before. Twice. , his nickname, led El Tri to both the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, both times bowing out just before reaching that elusive that still looms for Mexico.
In both of his previous stints, the manager has taken Mexico to the Round of 16 before bowing out. El Tri has only advanced past the Round of 16 twice, in 1970 and 1986. In addition, the locale of which Aguire will be making has some significance. Aguirre used to play in Pasadena's Rose Bowl as a midfielder during his stint with the NASL’s Los Angeles Aztecs between 1980-81.
But a look at Aguirre’s haircut shows a lot has changed for him since the early 1980s in Southern California. And a look at his squad shows a lot has changed since 2010, when Aguirre last led the national team.
As Mexico begin their preparation for the 2026 World Cup, which will start on home soil, the team hopes to advance through the knockout stages in Mexico City before aiming for a quarterfinal match in the U.S. However, much work remains to be done before then, and a lot has changed – not just since Aguirre's time on the Rose Bowl pitch in 2002, but also in the 14 years since he last managed Mexico.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportWhat’s different?
Plenty. Even the crest he'll wear is different, upgraded to a sleeker, more modern look in 2021.
It’s not that Aguirre hasn’t been attuned to the changes taking place in Mexican soccer. He’s been part of some of them. As one of the few Mexican managers who has ventured abroad – not only coaching in La Liga after leaving the job but also leading Japan and Egypt at the international level, Aguirre's ideas have had an outsized influence in Mexico's coaching community.
And, since he led Monterrey in 2021-22, they've seen him up close and personal, plus watched as Aguirre and brought many Mexico national team players back from Europe.
The amount of Mexicans plying their trade abroad in football is rare. One could make the case Rafa Marquez or Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez are the last two El Tri players to have a substantial career abroad, and Marquez is now Aguirre's top assistant.
West Ham United’s Edson Alvarez might be the exception. He is a 26-year-old who can dominate the midfield or play center back, but so few Mexico players aside from him are playing regularly at the highest level with their clubs.
In the 2002 World Cup, it wasn't as critical to have players developing outside of Mexico. Outside of Marquez, only Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Gerardo Torrado, and Francisco Palencia were based outside of Liga MX.
But times have changed, with the Premier League, La Liga and the Champions League emerging as the top club competitions in the world. In 2010, those differences in the club soccer landscape started to show, and Mexico was able to compete with some of the best in the world due to having nine players in Europe's top leagues – including Marquez, who was at Barcelona at the time.
AFPWhat’s the same?
This is a Mexico team that doesn’t have as much talent as previous editions, a challenge previous managers Diego Cocca and Tata Martino struggled to navigate through.
Yet, Aguirre might tackle that same challenge in a different way. He has a few difficult choices to make about his player selection. The biggest one is whether to bring in some of his aging veterans or close the door on their international futures. In Mexico, whether or not to move on from older players always is a theme of the national team.
One of Aguirre's strengths was his ability to find the right balance in his squads.
In 2010, Aguirre took a 37-year-old goalkeeper Óscar “Conejo” Pérez, and a 37-year-old Cuauhtémoc Blanco to South Africa but also made room for rising stars like Carlos Vela, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, Hector Moreno and a 24-year-old América goalkeeper named Guillermo Ochoa.
For the upcoming friendlies, Aguirre left some key veterans off the squad, including Ochoa, winger Hirving Lozano and forward Raul Jimenez. But he might reconsider some of those decisions, depending on each of those player's club situations.
Ochoa signed with Portuguese top flight club AVS and Lozano is thriving with PSV ahead of his anticipated move to MLS with San Diego FC. Jimenez might not be the player he was with Wolves during the 2019-20 season, where he scored 17 Premier League goals, but he is still featuring in the English top flight with Fulham.
AFPWhat would success be for Aguirre?
In the last decade, the margin of error has widened for Mexico's national team managers. It used to be that a heavy defeat or a loss in a final spelled the end for a manager. That is no longer the case.
Juan Carlos Osorio kept his job after falling 7-0 to Chile in the 2016 Copa América Centenario. Tata Martino survived multiple defeats to the rival United States in two finals in 2021. Jaime Lozano continued on after his own loss to the U.S. in the Nations League Final Four in 2023, though a group-stage elimination at the 2024 Copa América was the end of his tenure.
Aguirre's lengthy resume means he doesn't have to worry about earning respect or about future job prospects if Mexico struggles. His main focus will be returning Mexico to its previous standard.
With the 2026 World Cup – to be hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States – less than two years away, expectations are already starting to mount for this Mexico team. The fans have their hearts set on making a World Cup quarterfinal, but that's a task no El Tri manager has met since Aguirre was a player for the national team under Bora Milutinović in 1986.
Reaching that standard would likely place Aguirre on a reverential level in Mexico. In reality, Aguirre has to get his team back to being one of CONCACAF's elite teams, if not, the top team in the region again.
Yes, Mexico won the Gold Cup in 2023, but that was largely against most countries' B squads. The team has lost two Nations League finals and outside of the 2023 win, hasn't won a Gold Cup since 2019. The region is a lot tougher with the U.S. reportedly set to hire Mauricio Pochettino and Canada showing surprising growth under Jesse Marsch.
If Mexico can win either the 2025 Nations League or the 2025 Gold Cup, along with advancing out of the 2026 World Cup, that would likely be seen as a win to Mexico's demanding fan base.
Whatever happens against New Zealand and next week against Canada – a reverse of the USMNT's friendly schedule, as the three 2026 hosts struggle to find opponents during other teams' qualification campaigns- won’t immediately add pressure on the 65-year-old in his return.
But it might influence Aguirre’s thinking about just how different things are since the last two times he was leading the national teams.
