MEXICAN NATIONAL TEAM
What did Alexi Lalas say about the Mexican Football Federation and the Mexico national team?
Former USMNT defender Alexis Lalas has criticised the way the Mexican Football Federation and US Soccer have handled hiring new national team coaches.
Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, trying to predict what kind of shape the USMNT and El Tri will be in is no easy task with neither side currently having a head coach to lead them to the tournament as things stand. And that has led to fierce criticism of US Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) from former US international and commentator Alexi Lalas on his ‘Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union’ podcast.
Lalas attacked the FMF for not going all in on a coach like Marcelo Bielsa, who has been heavily liked with the Mexico job in the last few weeks, and doesn’t seem to be impressed with the revelation in the last few hours that the next head coach of El Tri will be either Guillermo Almada or Miguel Herrera (although not according to former Tigres manager Ricardo Ferretti), who already had a spell in charge between 2013 and 2015.
“The fact that Bielsa is not the new Mexico coach is interesting because he is a big name and someone who is very well known in Mexican soccer. I think the Mexican soccer community and its fans, when everything is settled, will ask themselves how they ended up with Almada or Herrera when they could have had Bielsa,” explained the former USMNT defender.
Lalas was of the view that neither US Soccer nor the FMF were covering themselves in glory at the moment but was especially scathing in his criticism of the Mexican federation: “Let me just put this to rest. Whatever dysfunction you may attach to the US Soccer Federation, believe me, it is 10 times worse when it comes to the Mexican Federation.”
Who will be the next head coaches of the USMNT and the Mexican national team?
US Soccer recently announced the departure of Earnie Stewart and Brian McBride from their respective management positions as sporting director and USMNT general manager, while Cindy Parlow Cone, the president of US Soccer, revealed that the new USMNT coach could be announced in the summer, with Anthony Hudson remaining as interim boss until then.
Big changes are also afoot in Mexico, with their new head coach – likely to be Uruguayan Almada or veteran Herrera – set to be announced in the next few days.