Jared Borgetti Thinks CONCACAF is Hard

Jared Borgetti, Mexico's record scorer (what is it with this blog and record scorers of CONCACAF Nations?), thinks Sven Goran Eriksson isn't right to be Mexico's new manager. Here's why:

"It has to be someone who knows Mexican football, who knows the Mexican players, the lives of the Mexican players and who knows the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, which are very different from Europe."

Here's what Mexico has to do to make it to the World Cup:

1. Beat Belize over a 2 leg home/away series
2. Finish first or second in a group containing, at worst, Jamaica, Honduras and Canada (ranked 105th, 36th and 62nd respectively)
3. Finish first, second or third in the final six team group. This group will contain, at worst, USA (21), Honduras (36), Panama (67), Costa Rica (77) and Trinidad & Tobago (88).

It took me like 8 minutes to figure that out using the interwebs. You don't need to know anything about Mexican football to lead Mexico to qualification. You don't even need to know the players' names. I feel fairly certain I could navigate the Mexican team through, at the very least, the first two steps of qualification. And I have no previous coaching experience. And I don't speak a word of Spanish. Mexico are the out and out favorites to qualify. They haven't failed to qualify since 1990. They're more talented than literally ANYONE in the federation (did anyone see how poorly the US played at Wembley? The Mexicans should run us off the pitch--and we'll qualify without blinking an eye). Mr. Borgetti, Svennis would be fine.

Of course, Thaksin Shinawatra is never going to fire him and Sven's not leaving without a huge payoff. So this Mexican thing is kind of a moot point.

You Must Be Kidding.

Once upon a time, there was underachieving Swedish manager at the helm of England. After a series of woeful performances at the World Cup in Germany, he was rightfully sacked. He landed on his feet nearly a year later at a quaint little club called "Manchester City." The old Swede did quite well there. Bought well (Elano, Geovanni, Martin Petrov), kept his best players (Micah Richards) and, occasionally, bought poorly (Bianchi). He won games and, for a moment, the public thought he might finish in a UEFA Cup spot or, perhaps if his players wished hard enough, in a Champions League spot. Alas, it was not to be. His team's form plummeted in the second half of the season.

Still, the old Swede's team did the double over Manchester U (their bitter and hated rivals) for the first time since 1970. And they did finish 9th in the league--their highest league finish since 2002-03. And they DID earn a UEFA Cup spot, albeit through their high finish in the Fair Play Table. And yet, bizarrely, the club's evil Kim Jong Il-like owner decided that he would fire the lonely Swede despite his success.

This story, kids, is all too true. In fact, it's just a long contrived way of saying that Thaksin Shinawatra is lining up Avram Grant as a replacement for Eriksson. What the fuck would Eriksson have had to do to keep his job? In what reasonable world does a man who takes a club from 14th to 9th (winning 13 more points along the way) and does the double over the league champions lose his job? It's like Shinawatra doesn't realize that it's MAN CITY--they're not even a real club.

Avram's a real mediocre choice (especially with the wealth of talent floating around this summer--doesn't City seem like they could be a pretty solid place for Big Sam to land?) but not a horrible one. I hope they do hire Avram and Chelsea hire Eriksson. It will be awesomely ironic when both are fired for not living up to standards again next summer.