NEIL ATKINSON, Paul Cope and Jim Boardman are joined on the phone by Andi Thomas, Roy Henderson and Kristan Heneage as they chat about the return of Rickie Lambert and the impending bohemouth that is the World Cup.
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Regarding Mexico: I wanted to mention something for clarification. I’m live in a CONCACAF country, I’ve watched every Mexico Concacaf qualifier. You’re guest has it wrong in that Mexico don’t score because the don’t play Europeans. That’s TOTALLY INCORRECT. Mexico used it’s European based players like Chicharito and Dos Santos throughout the first 3/4 of qualifying and, one, they failed to score, and two with those foriegn players Mexico was consistently outside of qualifying places, and lost at home at vaunted Azteca multiple times. And Mexico don’t ever ever lose in Mexico regardless of opponent. They also obviously struggled with constant manager changes. But it’s incorrect to infer that their problems stem from playing domestic players. In fact it was the exact opposite. Only when they brought in a largely domestic side at the end of qualification did Mexico begin to challenge for the final spot. They played a largely club america side precisely because it didn’t have to gel and they didn’t have to teach them a style. And they qualified for the playoff and won the playoff specifically because they stopped playing the failing players like Chicharito and played the domestic players. And part of the problem was Chicharito wasn’t playing for United. But I wanted to mention that because the reality is the hole they got into they got into with the European based players leading the way. They got out of that whole and into the playoff with the domestic based players and they are only in the cup due to the domestic players, well and the United States.