Why Atlas’ Liga MX dominance isn’t reflected in Mexico’s national team

When Atlas FC won their second consecutive Liga MX title on March 29, defeating Pachuca 3-2 on aggregate, the club’s historic feat intensified a discussion in Mexico about the national team’s squad selection. 

Since Gerardo “Tata” Martino took over El Tri in 2019, just one Atlas player has been called up during the club’s two-year domestic dominance. That was defender Jesús Ángulo, 24, who won the 2021 title with Atlas, but didn’t feature for Martino until after he was sold to Tigres. Ángulo is a left-footed center back who made his senior national team debut in 2018. He played under Martino for the first time in October of last year, and today he remains in contention for a World Cup roster spot. 

Liga MX was the backbone of Mexico’s national team for decades, but that trend has shifted over the last 20 years, as El Tri are now more reliant on Europe-based players. Yet calls for a review of Martino’s player evaluation process grew louder after Atlas’ Liga MX final victory. For a domestic league champion to not have any national team-caliber players is certainly an interesting data point, one that goes beyond the preferences of one particular head coach. 

Atlas have clawed their way back to the top of Mexican football after a 70-year title drought, so it should come as no surprise that the club has not historically been a consistent supplier of national team talent. However, Atlas has produced some of Mexico’s best-ever players, like Rafael Márquez, Andrés Guardado and Jared Borgetti. 

While Atlas languished at the bottom of the table, the national team primarily relied on players from Club América, CF Monterrey, Cruz Azul and others. Mexico has also begun to export more players abroad. Atlas’ resurgence is noteworthy, but they’ve bounced back at a time when Mexico’s bigger clubs have relinquished their hold on Liga MX. 

Atlas, owned by Mexico-based Grupo Orlegi, has invested heavily in training facilities and roster building. Orlegi’s Atlas transformation was strategic, with the objective to reestablish Guadalajara as Mexico’s premier footballing city. They’ve done so sooner than expected, and Atlas’ aggressive playing style under Argentine manager Diego Cocca has also paid dividends. Cocca has implemented high-pressing and direct tactics that take more risks in possession. 

If Martino’s El Tri operates like a symphony orchestra, where organization and repetition are needed to produce a victory, Cocca’s Atlas side is a rebellious punk band that thrives on chaotic moments. The two styles couldn’t be more different, and that is one reason why the Liga MX champions are not represented at the national team level. 

Ángulo is an exception, though. The Santos Laguna product is a technical, ball-playing center back who’s comfortable in four-man or three-man back lines. That profile aligns with Martino’s tactics, where ball control and clean play out of the back are heavily prioritized. 

The starting XI for Atlas in the second leg of the final against Pachuca included only four Mexican-born players: Jose Abella, 28, started at right back, and Édgar Zaldívar, 25, was in central midfield along with Aldo Rocha, 29, and Luis “El Hueso” Reyes, 31. 

🔴⚫🔥⚽ ¡GOOOOOL de @AtlasFC!
🔴⚫🔥⚽ ¡GOOOOOL de @AtlasFC!
🔴⚫🔥⚽ ¡GOOOOOL de @AtlasFC!

Luis Reyes liquida a Ustari con un cabezazo brutal 🔥🔥🔥🔥

📲🔴 ¡EN VIVO! https://t.co/6MBNJfSCmc

📺 TUDN, @Univision y https://t.co/T8lpgqtF3M #ElCampeónSerá | #TuClausura2022 pic.twitter.com/oTx0fB1jfW

— TUDN USA (@TUDNUSA) May 27, 2022

The strength of Atlas has come from their foreign signings, which is something that Martino acknowledged last week when asked about the continued absence of Atlas players on El Tri. 

“I’ve always said that the doors remain open for everyone,” Martino told reporters ahead of Mexico’s 3-0 loss to Uruguay in Phoenix. “It’s striking that a team that has won the domestic league title doesn’t have any national team players. We can agree that Atlas’ foundation is one of foreign players, especially the spine of the team.” 

The Atlas backline is composed of Colombian goalkeeper Camilo Vargas, Peruvian center back Anderson Santamaria and Argentine defenders Emanuel Aguilera and Hugo Nervo. Abella and Ecuadorian Aníbal Chalá are the wingbacks. Atlas’ dangermen in the attack are Argentine No. 9 Julio Furch, who has revealed his interest in gaining Mexican citizenship in order to represent El Tri, and his strike partner, Colombian forward Julián Quiñones. 

Martino concluded by reminding the press about something that he has said on many occasions: To call up a large number of players who have not been part of his three-year process would be like admitting that the build-up to the 2022 World Cup was a waste of time. 

Rocha and Reyes are the two Atlas players who fans and pundits in Mexico have linked with a potential El Tri call up. Reyes is an energetic and versatile No. 8 with a thunderous left foot and impressive stamina. Rocha, a stocky box-to-box midfielder, is the club’s steely captain. He’s a big-game player, but his rough and tumble skillet isn’t a natural fit with Martino’s system. 

Mexico’s players who have moved abroad are generally much more technical and are being trained in tactical systems that do not mirror the style that most Liga MX clubs employ. That doesn’t necessarily apply to the No. 9 position. Javier “Chicharito” Hernández is the only forward playing abroad who could challenge Wolverhampton’s Raúl Jiménez at center forward. Martino has tried a number of Liga MX-based strikers, including naturalized Mexican citizen Rogelio Funes Mori. 

Interestingly, Furch and Funes Mori have similar profiles as back-to-goal strikers who link up well with attacking midfielders and wingers. Furch has not completed the naturalization process, so his chances of making the World Cup roster are slim. Martino did tell reporters a week ago that Furch was an option, but that he understood that the player was not eligible to play for Mexico. 

The training and the competition that Mexico’s European contingent are exposed to has elevated El Tri’s play. The desired level has been inconsistent, and was so even before Martino’s tenure, but since the 2010 World Cup, Mexico’s final tournament rosters have featured more and more players from outside Liga MX. 

*projected 

The 23-man roster for South Africa in 2010  included nine players from European clubs. The 2014 World Cup squad was led by eight players from six different European clubs, while the 2018 team, coached by Colombian Juan Carlos Osorio that lost to Brazil in the second round in Russia, had 11 players from outside Liga MX, the most ever for El Tri. Martino is projected to take up to 13 players who play abroad to this winter’s World Cup in Qatar, which is expected to be a 26-man roster. Martino has been transparent about his roster selection process. Ideally, Martino’s Mexico squad would be made up of in-form players who understand his tactical ideology. 

But, of late, Mexico has been devoid of playmakers and the form of their biggest stars — Jiménez, and wingers Jesús Corona and Hirving Lozano — has dropped sharply since 2020. Time is running short for Mexico to improve or for new players to emerge. What would be characterized as Mexico’s second team, the one that will face Suriname and Jamaica during this summer’s CONCACAF Nations League, is mostly Liga MX players. Some may impress in those matches, but a shake-up in the projected World Cup roster would be unexpected. 

That leads to something that Martino told The Athletic shortly before the start of the pandemic, would foreshadow the difficulty that he has had in finding adequate solutions outside of his starting XI.  Lozano was struggling to play at Napoli under then manager Gennaro Gattuso, which raised questions about Martino’s habit of calling up players who weren’t in good form with their clubs.

“In (Lozano’s) case…it’s not like Mexico can just open a suitcase and pull out top players,” Martino remarked. “We can’t have that strict of a stance for a player (like him) that isn’t playing right now.”

It was a revealing statement about the lack of depth that Mexico continues to deal with. Atlas may be Mexico’s reigning Liga MX champions and the darlings of North American football, but with just five months before El Tri begins World Cup play against Poland on November 22, the Guadalajara-based club is not the solution to Martino’s problems.  

(Photo: Howard Smith/ISI Photos)