After months of struggles, the Mexican national soccer team has announce a new coach it hopes will placate its worries. The team announced Monday that Victor Manuel Vucetich will replace Jose Manuel de la Torre in time for Mexico's last scramble for a playoff berth in the 2014 World Cup to take place in Brazil. Mexico has been unable to keep consistent and has been faced with a number of disappointing losses. It reached a semifinal spot in the Gold Cup only to lose to Panama, and it lost its most recent playoff battle against the U.S. 2-0 in spite the U.S. being short multiple players. The team hopes that Vucetich will be the answer to getting its act together so that it can grab onto a qualifying spot with only a few games to go before the team's fate is finalized.
El Tri will begin two weeks of World Cup qualifying starting Oct. 11 on home turf in Estadio Azteca. Talks of removing de la Torre from his position started after Mexico's crushing semifinal loss to Panama when the team only posted a 4-4-8 track record in international games. Before he was fired, de la Torre said his ultimately goal was to push the squad to the World Cup, though he conceded that only those who hired him could decide if his contract would be terminated. "Those who hired me can decide. At the end of the day, I am the person in charge together with my work group, because we were the ones who chose the players and tried to coach them. The goals haven't been reached, we fell far short, he said. "I signed a contract whose final objective was to qualify for the World Cup and I will put all my efforts to it. It has not been a good year, goals have not been met." With Mexico heading back to the pitch in a few weeks against Panama, a team it's lost both its recent matches against, it is imperative Vucetich gets the team in gear and create lineups that mesh well on the field.
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