Mexico’s Gold Cup hopes now rest on Jimmy ‘El Actor’ Lozano

It’s fitting that Mexican soccer’s latest telenovela-like drama is supposed to be resolved by a coach who’s sometimes referred to as “El Actor.”

Born to entertainer parents (hence his nickname), Jaime Lozano didn’t seek the same limelight his mother and father occupied. Instead, soccer came calling through a career as a player and manager, but after a recent crisis arose in the distance from Mexico‘s men’s national team, the coach who often goes simply by “Jimmy” now finds himself as an unexpected leading man.

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His new marquee role: Reviving the national team as interim manager in the Concacaf Gold Cup.

Following a frustrating third-place finish in the Concacaf Nations League last week, which included a bleak 3-0 loss to their United States rivals in the semifinal, Mexico dropped Diego Cocca as coach on Monday after just a few months in charge. Scrambling to find a solution before the start of the Gold Cup this weekend, the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) appointed Lozano as interim for the tournament.

Desperate for success after a discouraging 2022 World Cup and just one title in all competitions since 2016, Mexico will now place all of their hopes on the shoulders of their 44-year-old hiring. Will the script work for El Tri, or will it prove to be another major box office flop?

How Mexico got here

Before we discuss Lozano and the Gold Cup, let’s first assess the prequel.

In the past few years, progress for Mexican soccer has stalled on multiple levels. The senior men’s team, who stumbled out of the group stage of Qatar 2022, have failed to clinch a title in the past two editions of the Nations League and the previous edition of the Gold Cup. Looking at the men’s youth side, the U20 squad failed to qualify for the 2023 U20 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. As for the women’s senior national team, they fell short in qualifying for the upcoming Women’s World Cup and next year’s Olympics.

A long list of staffing changes at the FMF followed since last summer and by February, Cocca was selected as the new coach for the men’s senior team. Characterized by his cautious style of play that prioritized results by any means, there were immediate doubts about the Argentine manager, who didn’t use the most attractive methods of playing soccer.

Unconvincing performances and narrow results emerged, as did new bosses for Cocca with more FMF staffing changes this spring, leading to scrutiny of his 2W-3D-0L record ahead of this month’s Nations League knockout round. Although his team defeated Panama 1-0 in last Sunday’s third-place match, the miserable 3-0 loss to the U.S. in the preceding semifinal was enough to solidify his fate. By Monday, new FMF commissioner Juan Carlos Rodriguez made it official.

“This phase has been flawed by the disorder in decision-making, by the lack of processes, rigor and transparency in appointments, and by a perfect storm in the bad habits that we’ve been dragging for so many years,” Rodriguez said.

“The natural thing to do would be to wait for the end of the Gold Cup, but today we don’t have time to waste. So I inform you that I’ve made the decision to terminate the contract of Diego Martin Cocca and the members of his coaching staff.”

Cocca, flanked by media after his flight back to Mexico City, seemed perplexed by the decision.

“I did everything I could and they didn’t let me continue,” the coach said as he walked through the airport.

Who is Lozano and what can we expect from him

With Cocca out of the picture, is Lozano now the mild-mannered but youthful hero that El Tri need? A former left-back who has represented the Mexican national team and a handful of Liga MX clubs, Lozano quickly developed from an academy coach and assistant into eventually the coach of Queretaro by 2017.

A chance with Mexico’s youth national team then arrived in 2018, which is when his star would truly rise. Lozano and El Tri‘s youth teams would go on to finish third in the 2019 Pan American Games, as winners of the 2020 Concacaf men’s Olympic qualifying title, and later as bronze medalists at Tokyo 2020. Despite a mixed bag of results at the club level with Queretaro and later with Necaxa in 2022, the up-and-coming coach is widely seen as one of the more promising managers in Mexican soccer.

That, coupled with his experience with many of the former youth national team players who are now senior players, is what led to his appointment.

“I thank you for agreeing to lead the team from now to the end of this [Gold Cup] tournament, the players know you and love you well, Jaime,” Rodriguez said on Monday. “Thank you, Jimmy, to you and your staff, for coming to support Mexico in the midst of this crisis.”

From the 23 players included in the Gold Cup roster, which dropped Alexis Vega due to injury and replaced him with Roberto Alvarado on Tuesday, Lozano thrived in the 2020 Olympics with a strong core of 10 current call-ups: Guillermo Ochoa, Jorge Sanchez, Cesar Montes, Johan Vasquez, Luis Romo, Carlos Rodriguez, Sebastian Cordova, Henry Martin, Uriel Antuna and Alvarado. In fact, that number would be at 11 if not for Vega’s injury.

Assuming he’ll go with the game plan seen in Tokyo 2020, we’ll see a 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 formation that focuses on a counter-pressing style. Instead of winning by any means like Cocca, Lozano will want to be more on the front foot and take charge in the opposition’s end of the pitch. Set pieces will be key, and so will a willingness to let his central midfielders roam from their positions.

In the attack, he tends to give freedom for his wingers to search for and take on 1v1 situations. If there’s too much of a defensive overload, he’ll probably aim to rapidly switch the ball through long passes or his roaming midfielders. Defensively, he’ll likely ask his wingers to help regain possession and sit back when needed. Depending on the opponent, his fullbacks also have a tendency to be more reserved, in order to help compensate for the creativity allowed for the midfielders and wingers.

But that’s all in theory from what he has done in the past at the youth national team level.

On paper, Mexico should be at least more fun to watch than the more conservative setup under Cocca, but whether or not it will work immediately is another conversation.

Can Mexico earn Gold Cup glory?

That is, of course, the big question.

No matter the fact that Lozano has just four days to prepare before Sunday’s group opener against Honduras in Houston, the bare minimum for Mexico will be winning the Gold Cup. While that won’t be easy for an El Tri side that has retreated from its former status as the giant in the region, the national team setup will have no excuses when you consider that fellow title contenders such as Canada and the U.S. are sending MLS-heavy “B” teams to the tournament.

Even though the roster is out of form — and missing some key injured players like Jesus “Tecatito” Corona and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano (no relation) — man for man, Mexico should be the superior team in the Gold Cup.

Should is important to emphasize there. Lozano has the know-how and squad to get the job done, but the obvious factor of limited time to prepare is one that can’t be ignored.

Looking ahead, the group stage should be an interesting gut check to see where exactly the team is at. After playing Honduras this weekend, El Tri will then face Haiti on June 30 before closing out the group stage against tournament invitee Qatar on July 2.

More than likely, Mexico are expected to qualify for the knockout round, where they will have an opportunity to regain respect in the region and a title, but after some of the issues seen in the Nations League, there’s a chance that last week was just the beginning of a very long summer.

Whatever happens, it’ll make for some intriguing fútbol cinema.