Miguel Herrera is one of the most controversial coaches in the history of Mexican soccer. ‘El Piojo’ is at the same time a coach who has shown, on more than one occasion, his ability to lead and also a person whose temperament always plays against him. Herrera has been a candidate in different media to take on the Mexican National Team for the second time.
‘El Piojo’ recently stated, in interview with TUDN, who has rejected the various offers he has received to direct, both in Mexico and abroad, because he is waiting to live his revenge with El Tri. The Hidalgo native coach indicated that he has worked for this opportunity and to lead the team in the process towards the 2026 World Cup.
In his statements, Herrera stated that he was not fired from the Mexican National Team for poor results, but for physically assaulting the narrator Christian Martinoli at an airport. This statement paints the ‘Louse’ full body: a coach incapable of recognizing his mistakes in order to learn from them and grow.
Although the trigger to end the process of Miguel Herrera was the attack against Martinoli, it would be imprecise to affirm that this was the only factor that influenced the decision-making.
Miguel Herrera had dismal results in 2015, after his honeymoon at the 2014 World Cup. El Tri was in last place in his group (which included Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador) after playing the tournament with a secondary team.
Despite the fact that this was clearly a B team with little chance of moving from the group, prior to the start of the South American tournament, Herrera stated that the aspiration of this alternative Tri was “to reach the final and win it.” Mexico said goodbye to the tournament with two draws and one loss.
In the same summer, already with the starting team, the Mexican National Team stumbled in the 2015 Gold Cup. Herrera’s team, without much light, managed to reach the semifinal, in which they faced Panama.
El Tri was losing by the slightest difference against the canaleros at minute 88, with a goal courtesy of Román Torres. The Aztec squad had been widely surpassed by the Central American team on the field of play and also in the tactical part.
Then there was one of the darkest moments in the history of the Concacaf tournament and the Mexican National Team: referee Mark Geiger scored a non-existent penalty almost at the end of the match after an alleged handball from Torres inside the area.
Andrés Guardado took the ball and took the penalty. At 1-1, Mexico and Panama went into overtime. At this stage of the game, the whistler marked a new maximum penalty, after a foul on Javier Orozco inside the area. Guardado charged again to give El Tri a pass to the final.
Mexico faced Jamaica in the final of the tournament and won the match clearly. However, there will always be an asterisk in this Tri title.
In addition to the poor sporting results during his tenure, a factor that played against Miguel Herrera during his time at the helm of the Tri was the deterioration of his public image. The former coach of América, Monterrey and Atlante seemed more interested in filming endless commercials and appearing on television than in working for his team.
As if that were not enough, the strategist spoke out, in the middle of the electoral ban, in favor of the Green Party on election day 2015. Through his networks he shared the messages “let’s support the national team. Don’t stop voting, let’s go with the green ones” and “the green ones do comply”. He never acknowledged his mistake.
After his departure from the Mexican National Team, Miguel Herrera took the reins of Xolos de Tijuana, a team that he managed to transform into a protagonist of the Liga MX during his journey. He then went to lead América for a second time, where he managed to win the 2018 Apertura title, and more recently led Tigres.
The stamp of Miguel Herrera has been printed on each of his most recent works: for better and for worse. In America he managed to lift a league title, it is true, and at the beginning of the process his team distinguished itself by being very effective in its game. However, the vices of ‘Piojo’ were present again.
The Mexican coach continued to blame refereeing whenever he got a bad result, never showed self-criticism, his team became predictable and he was fired from the Eagles after being involved in a fight with the LAFC coaching staff in the Concacaf Champions League. That is to say, he continued to be the same Miguel Herrera as always.
In Tigres things were not very different. Miguel Herrera did not deliver the results expected by the board of directors, he blamed others for his failures, during his management as head of the UANL team he continued to be a candidate to direct the Mexican National Team and continued to overexpose his image in commercials and television shows.
The end was when, after failing in the Apertura 2022 tournament, Miguel Herrera blamed his own players for the poor results and stated that the “team is getting old for soccer.”
Will Miguel Herrera live a second stage at the helm of the Mexican National Team? The question is still in the air. The Mexican coach has shown that he has the ability to lead El Tri, but he keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.
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