Mexican fed rectifies initial error with Sánchez firing

As Mexico's coach, Hugo Sánchez failed to deliver on two promises: a Gold Cup title and an Olympic medal from the Beijing Games. AP

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The best player CONCACAF has ever produced turned out to be one of the worst managers the region has seen in recent memory.

Hugo Sánchez, who five times led the Spanish league in goals, was sacked on Monday night, less than 18 months into his tenure as Mexico's national team coach. Despite a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract, the Mexican Soccer Federation pulled the plug on one of the worst coaches El Tricolor has had in the last two decades.

"For me, this is painful because Hugo gave everything he had to give," FMF President Justino Compeán said. "The results just weren't there."

Not only did Mexico fail to progress under Sánchez, El Tri actually regressed under the once-beloved soccer icon. Under previous coach Ricardo Lavolpe, Mexico won a Gold Cup title and qualified for the Olympics in the Argentine's first 18 months on the job.

Sánchez did neither. Upon taking over the reins in November 2006, Sánchez promised a Gold Cup title and Olympic medal. Mexico struggled in reaching the '07 Gold Cup final and lost to the United States 2-1, Sánchez's second defeat to the U.S. in five months.

But it was the recent Olympic catastrophe that led to Sánchez's dismissal. Mexico failed to advance past the group stage, despite a wealth of talent and resources at his disposal. The Olympic qualifying debacle likely left federation officials with one thought -- if Sánchez couldn't lead the Under-23 team to the Olympics, how can he be trusted to take the senior team to the World Cup?

It wasn't surprising then that the league's owners voted unanimously to fire Sánchez and not let the beleaguered coach anywhere near World Cup qualifying.

"We want winners and leaders, and we cannot accept another Olympic failure," Compeán said. "If this was difficult, can you imagine Mexico not participating in South Africa?"

Ultimately, though, it was Sánchez who set a standard for himself that was too high to reach. While coaching Pumas during Lavolpe's coaching tenure, Sánchez was the harshest critic of them all.

When Lavolpe brought foreign-born players such as Antonio "Zinha" Naelson and Guillermo Franco to the national team, it was Sánchez who proclaimed that only Mexican-born players should play for El Tri. Leading up to the '04 Olympics, Sánchez demanded Lavolpe win a medal or resign as coach of the national team.

Yet it was the once-beloved Sánchez who turned out to be worthless as a coach. The Gold Cup title he promised? The Olympic medal he guaranteed? The national team free of South American-born players? Sánchez delivered on none of these goals.

It was fitting, then, that both Zinha and Franco were on the field for Sánchez's final match, a 2-1 win over Ghana in London on March 26.

Now that Sánchez has been shown the door, the national team will move on. Jesús Ramírez, who led Mexico's Under-17 squad to a world title in '05, takes over on an interim basis and will guide Mexico in upcoming friendlies. The FMF will conduct a search for a new coach immediately and already, high-profile coaches such as Portugal's Luiz Felipe Scolari, Italian Marcello Lippi and Argentines Carlos Bianchi and José Pekerman have been thrown out by the Mexican media as possible candidates.

Whoever takes over, it won't be someone who talks his way into the job as Sánchez did.

"We know the responsibility we have coming up with the World Cup qualifier in June," Compeán said. "But we won't be pressured into making a bad decision."