‘¡Qué Horror!’: Mexico’s World Cup honeymoon is over but is Rafa Márquez really to blame?

A series of dispiriting friendly results have El Tri reeling. But the problems run much deeper than the team’s new coach When a new coach ascends to lead Mexico’s national team, fans say he is sitting in “la silla mas caliente” – the hottest seat in town; one that can also burn. Usually the coach arrives with a new idea, a new vocabulary, a new promise. For a while, everyone agrees that something has changed.

Then comes the first bad night. The mood changes. The new idea becomes a failed experiment; the promise, another deception; the coach becomes just another name on a long list of those who were supposed to fix Mexican soccer, but couldn’t. Rafael “Rafa” Márquez, the former star player turned coach, is only a month into his tenure coaching El Tri and the old machine is already