In only their third world cup appearance ever, Mexico’s women’s national team will hope to build off of what they achieved in the last tournament. In their last appearance, at the 2011 Germany World Cup, they failed to make it out of the group stages.
It wasn’t a terrible performance by any means. They lost once in the group stages, a humbling 4-0 defeat to Japan, who would go on to win the tournament. In those group stage matches, they tied against Group B winners, England and New Zealand.
With two points to their names, Mexico crashed out of the World Cup in third place in their group. Even though they didn’t make it out of the group stages, it was a performance that instilled hope that Mexico is improving as a team and will be back stronger and more experienced.
With that said, Mexico begins its 2015 Canada World Cup campaign on June 9th against Colombia. It’s time for them to show what they’ve learned and whether or not they can improve on their performance in the last world cup. Will they be able to make it past their group? What are the expectations and goals for the team?
"We need to overcome what we did four years ago, I think a pretty decent World Cup was made. We drew with England, with New Zealand, we were a few seconds away from coming out with the victory and lost with which in the end was World Champion, Japan, but not go to the next round and then now will be important to meet (the target) and pass to the next round, and not settle there and challenge to make a better world cup" said Leonarda Cuellar, head coach for El Tri.
Their target is the second phase of the tournament. Is it reachable though for Cuellar and Mexico? It’s difficult to say. Mexico is in what is arguably one of the most difficult groups of the tournament, Group F. They’ll face a familiar foe in England, but will come across difficult opponents in France and Colombia.
Their first match of the tournament is against Colombia (28th), a team ranked somewhat similar in the FIFA rankings as Mexico (25th). Colombia comes into the FIFA World Cup undefeated in their last 4 matches, with their most recent result a 2-1 win against Ecuador. Mexico, on the other hand, comes in with seven wins out of 12 matches since the start of the new year.
Out of 12 matches, they’ve had 3 losses, with one of them a 5-1 against the U.S.A. They’ve had time to recover since that result, with their most recent match against Costa Rica being a 3-0 win, lifting spirits in the Mexican camp.
Expectations have been made, Mexico must reach the second round of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. It’s a goal that seems daunting for the team, especially with the group that they are in. Will they be able to achieve that dream? Or will they have to wait another 4 years to see their efforts finally pay off? Dont miss their first match against Colombia next week!
