Interim manager Jaime Lozano picked up his first defeat on Sunday, as the Mexican national team fell 1-0 to Qatar in the final match of the 2023 Gold Cup group stage.
Though a goal by Hazem Shehata in the 27th minute sealed the three points for Qatar, El Tri still qualified to the tournament’s quarterfinals as leaders of Group B given their 4-0 victory over Honduras and 3-1 triumph against Haiti.
Lozano rotated players for the match, experimenting with the starting 11 by adding Santiago Gimenez, Ozziel Herrera, Gerardo Arteaga and Julian Araujo. It wasn’t until the final minutes of the match that the interim manager replaced the young players with regulars Uriel Antuna and Henry Martin in an attempt to get a result.
Regardless of the score, Lozano maintained the game worked as a learning experience for upcoming matches.
“Everything is workable, it just wasn’t the day. For us it’s more motivation than pressure, because of the support of the people, because of how they support the players,” Lozano stated.
“The team generated and tried, it wasn’t our best game, but we made it more complicated than it was. I’ve never liked the phrase ‘one defeat at a time’, but it’s something very true. When you lose, it’s when we hone in the most and take advantage of situations.
“We didn’t generate that many, at least 5 very clear ones, we have very unbalancing players, two very strong forwards, today there were easier situations to solve, but I think if they gave us 10 more minutes, we weren’t going to put it in anyway.”
Lozano and the Mexican national team will now shift focus to Thursday’s quarterfinal game in AT&T Stadium against the second place of Group C. The opponent will be determined on Tuesday, as Panama, Martinique, Costa Rica and El Salvador play their group stage match.
The pressure is on for Mexico to lift the Gold Cup trophy, after a disappointing 2023 Nations League campaign that saw the team fall 3-0 to the United States men’s national team. Following the embarrassing loss, the Mexican Football Federation parted ways with Diego Cocca and brought in Jaime Lozano to lead El Tri for the remaining summer tournaments.
Now, the interim will look to win the trophy in hopes of earning the permanent role.
