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Mexico’s national team suffered elimination from the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday and will now begin their search for a new coach after Tata Martino stepped down from the role.
Martino confirmed in his post-match press conference that he will be stepping down after the 2-1 Group C win over Saudi Arabia. Despite taking three points against Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Poland advanced from El Tri after Saudi Arabia’s 93rd goal lifted Poland into second place on goal difference.
Mexico had reached the Round of 16 in their last seven World Cup appearances, but were eliminated in the group stage for the first time since 1978.
“I am the first person responsible for this terrible despair and hopelessness of ours,” said Martino. “As a person in charge, this causes a lot of sadness, I take full responsibility for this big failure.
“My contract ended when the referee blew the final whistle and there was nothing else to do,” he added. “This is the game we played the best, we created the most scoring opportunities. And we could have scored the number of goals so that we wouldn’t be tied to the next game, but we didn’t win.”
Mexico and Poland lost 2-0 to Argentina with goals from Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez. A multi-goal win over Saudi Arabia was needed to lift El Tri out of Poland into second place, but Salem Al-Dawsari missed chances for El Tri to advance in stoppage time.
Martino has won 42 of his 66 matches in charge of El Tri, winning the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup Final against the US men’s national team. However, Mexico finished second behind Canada in the World Cup qualifiers and will now join the Canadians in an early exit from Qatar.
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