The failure of the Mexican National Team in the World Cup in Qatar It was the beginning of a series of setbacks that put Mexican soccer at a critical point. Solutions to the crisis were sought. One of the measures that were taken in the offices was to revive the rule for minors, which emerged between 2005 and 2011.
The objective – or thought from the management – was to encourage the development of young players who could feed the minor selections. The goal is to play a thousand minutes of new players in the tournamentbut with certain locks, since depending on the year a percentage is paid and (unlike in the past) You can’t put too many players in a single match to comply.
The measure had different readings, One of them was that it was an imposition for the coaches They put in young players and not out of conviction (if they don’t comply, the club will be sanctioned with three points), many did not like the idea because the minutes are conditioned, but there was no turning back.
Critical voices
Just last week there were a couple of strong voices against this measure. One of them is André Jardine, the coach of the powerful Club América. “Here we defend the interests of America, with respect to the Mexican National Team, we are not here to train players for the National Team… bringing players to the National Team cannot be a priority for a League, I don’t think it’s right, but we adapt to comply with this issue,” he said.
And then Renato Paiva, the Toluca strategist, did it, who also expressed his opposition to putting in players who may not be ready for it. “I’m not going to put players in just because I have to, The responsibility is for Toluca to win. If they want to find solutions for Mexican football, that is not the case, in my opinion, they have to plan. The Federation and the clubs have to come together,” said the Portuguese.
Winning as a priority
With half of the tournament already played, reality shows that the bulk of the clubs Compliance with the rule has not been taken as a priority, Well, only four of them have met the requirement: Pachuca, Santos, Necaxa and Chivas; seven others have exceeded half of the requirement and Seven others have not even reached 50 percent of the required minutes.
However, the results have been contrasting for those who have complied and those who have not. Of the four teams that have already completed the thousand minutes, only the Herd is in the Liguilla zone by occupying the sixth position, while Tuzos, Laguna people and Good heavens They are outside the top 10 spots that give access to the Play In due to their ups and downs.
On the other side of the coin are the teams that have given their youngsters the least amount of play, but are at the top of the table. Cruz Azul, Tigres and Toluca are the clubs that are the furthest behind, with more than 600 minutes left to reach the thousand minutes required by the regulations.
For example, Leader Cruz Azul has 22 pointsis the best offense of the tournament with 19 goals scored and the second best defense with 6 goals received, but The Machine It is also the team that is in the bottom of the table of minors with only 310 minutes accumulatedthat is, barely a third of the amount required.
Tigres remains in the standings with 20 points, and He also has the third worst record in the minors table with 358 minutes, In addition, together with Toluca –fourth in the general classification and second to last in the youth rule with 320 minutes– are the clubs that have used the fewest players from the generation 2001 to 2005 to date, with just three each
The player who has contributed the most minutes is Bryan Gonzalez from Pachuca, The 21-year-old left back is a 2003 category player, has been active in 8 matches (685 minutes), all as a starter, but his contribution of minutes has been 409.8 minutes. However, today the Tuzos They are in 13th place in the table, 13 points behind the leader Cruz Azul, who with 7 underage players that they have used is not enough to match Bryan’s contribution.
It is clear that the training and development of footballers is a task for the entire pyramid of Mexican football, But it is also a fact that this should be out of conviction and not out of obligation.the numbers reflect it.
AVV
