Sven Goran Ericksson time with El Tri came to an end after a humiliating 1-3 loss to Honduras.
With the loss to Honduras, Mexico slipped to fourth place in the CONCACAF group.
“The decision was made because we could not risk Mexico’s participation in the World Cup,” said federation president Justino Compean, who, noting poor away form, added it was not sufficient to rely wholly on winning home matches.
The Mexico job was always going to be tough for Ericksson who was schooled extensively in the European system. He got off to a rocky start for including four nationalized citizens to the team in a country which is fiercely proud of its indigenous players. And once El Tri lost to the US, a rubicon was crossed. Ericksson is not and never been a good man manager and his cool logical style which would be familiar to veterans like Carlos Salcido and Rafa Marquez with their European experience was not going to sit well with the younger players playing for the Mexican clubs.
Javier Aguirre, Atletico Madrid’s ex-coach is a favourite to replace Ericksson. He has his work cut out for him as the CONCACAF is no longer a walkover for Mexico. The US has dominated them in recent years and Honduras and Costa Rica have shown that they are no walkovers. Even El Salvador shows the capability to spring a surprise or two.