The Mexican national team has been struggling with 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 from the group stage, their worst performance on the world stage in more than four decades. At this summer’s Copa América, Mexico’s results were similar, this time under Jimmy Lozano, who also crashed out in the first round.

With the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the US and Canada, less than two years away, the team is starting over by bringing back Javier Aguirre as technical director.

The “Vasco” officially returned in July for his third spell 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 main assistant. They will sit together on the Mexican bench for the first time on Saturday when El Tri take on New Zealand at the Rose Bowl.

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, emphasized that international experience when discussing the coach’s return.

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

A lack of continuity in the coaching staff is one of the major problems with Mexico’s national team program. Twelve men have held 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’re not delivering results,” Davino said. “Everyone who’s been here wants to deliver good results and we haven’t achieved that. Let’s hope we can have that now.

“Completing the cycles has also not shown that it can guarantee a good World Cup and we hope that this will be the case in 2026.”

Mexico men’s national team director Duilio Davino speaks during a press conference on August 1 after unveiling Mexico’s new coaching staff.

(Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)

Aguirre’s arrival was not without controversy. After a poor showing 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 to the next World Cup as promised. Instead, the federation pitched Lozano the idea of ​​becoming Aguirre’s assistant.

He refused and the two parties mutually terminated his contract.

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

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

“I do see some positive things, like training a lot of young people, giving 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 have to keep training.

“I do believe in innovation. I liked that there was a plan. Even though the outcome 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 years old and a player for five World Cup teams, as a step forward.

“Imagine how many World Cups they both have,” he said. “So in that sense, since there are no qualifying rounds because Mexico has already qualified (for the World Cup), I would like to think that things will work out better.”

Upon his return to the national team, Aguirre said his roster was a blank slate and that any player still active would be eligible for a call-up. For the match against New Zealand and another on September 10 with Canada in Arlington, Texas, he called up 26 players, including midfielder Érik Lira of Cruz Azul and defender Alan Mozo of Chivas. The two have six caps between them.

They are joined by veterans Henry Martín (America), Jesús Gallardo (Toluca) and Orbelín Pineda (AEK Athens). But the absences are more notable, as goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, midfielder Edson Álvarez, and forwards Raúl Jiménez and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano are missing from the squad.

“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 know which players they have on each list to understand and try to build the best possible team.”

Aguirre’s contract runs until the next World Cup, giving Márquez the opportunity to apply for the job heading into the next four-year cycle, perhaps giving Mexico the consistency it lacks on the sidelines. Márquez previously coached FC Barcelona’s B team.

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