The Mexican team suffered its first 0-1 defeat against the Qatar national team in the 2023 Gold Cup group stage, a fact that affected the great start that the team had in this competition; Despite this defeat, the team remained in first position with a total of six points to ensure their qualification to the quarterfinals.
During a press conference after this commitment, the technical director of the Mexican team, Jaime Lozano, explained that the team stopped making the plays planned and began to do “strange things” that ended up affecting the functioning of the game and this caused Qatar to scored the game-winner at the feet of Hazem Ahmed Shehata.
“We neglected the game plan. It was necessary to maintain the game plan, which is the most complicated. And that happened to us before conceding the goal, even. That is where our attention should be, and fortunately we have days to work and pay attention, that is, I don’t know if the most worrying thing, but the most important thing. We start to do strange things and we stop doing what we have to do, we don’t look good on the field and we stop generating goal chances. We talked about that at halftime, that we not go crazy and keep the game plan, to be able to tie first and then turn the score around, ”said the strategist.
“Everything is workable, but that goal in a club would not have happened, because it is very workable. Those defensive issues are something that we focus a lot on in the coaching staff, and we do it very well, but this time we were wrong. As for Santi, we saw him define the last game, but this time it was not his day. The environment can affect you, but for all of us it is more motivation than pressure. An environment like the one in which we had to feel the support of the fans has been magical, because of how the player offers himself to win the games. We must not forget that they are young too and that they are doing very important things at their young age, and they need time in their process”, he added.
Lozano maintained that this result will affect the state of mind that the entire squad had been presenting for adding their first two wins against Honduras and Haiti; although he assured that not in the negative way that everyone thinks and that his only thought is to be the best prepared for the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup.
“Of course it will affect him. I see them wanting to play again. We entered the dressing room and I saw them wanting to play again tomorrow. Obviously things happen, it happens to me, and I would like the next game to be in two days, ”he said.
With respect to his rivals, ‘Jimmy’ Lozano stressed that he liked Qatar’s approach to the game by showing good defensive work that allowed them to turn off the Aztec forward.
“I really liked Qatar, it is a team that sees more work, it is very clear about its idea with the ball and without the ball. It is very accurate. It is a very well-worked team and today the reward they get is a lot”, he concluded.
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