After a 6-1 win against El Salvador that clinched Mexico a spot at U-20 World Cup, coach Marco Antonio “Chima” Ruiz (in a total different mood from Monday) gave some quotes about the accomplishment and the plan for the World cup.
On the tournament and getting to the next round:
Yes, today everything came out how we expected. We had to adapt to the format of this tournament, which I think is unjust because it doesn’t give teams an advantage for finishing first in their group. You have to play with one day difference and after scoring nine goals and only allowing one, you have to face the circumstance of having to win this game or go home. But the boys understood that and channeled it well and we knew there was no margin for error.
On what changed from the United States game and how they felt once the game was 3-0 early on:
Like I said, it's not an easy thing to recuperate in so little time and from a defeat that hurts. But fortunately we have a great team that was able to replenish the guys physically.
On the process of youth players compared to their latter on level:
Yeah, at the end of the day, it still a formative process. The clubs loan us the players but we try to give them back players with more tools and weapons in all aspects. The federation gives us all the support. We count on areas of nutrition and personal growth. It also helps that I (as a former professional) already went through a professional career and you can share what the player is feeling at the moment. It's a team effort, it's the work of a lot of people behind us and they are all part of this success.
FMF State of Mind: Mexico has a great record in this level at CONCACAF but has lost five of the last seven games in the U-20 World Cup. How are you going to prepare to revert this trend this time?
First, we had to get the ticket to the World Cup, the qualifiers are very different to a World Cup. We will have to recuperate in all aspects and then do a good job of planning of all that is coming on. We also have time to look at other players that are playing in Liga MX and weren't able to be here. We will try to have the strongest group we can and prepare to give the best World Cup performance for Mexico at the U-20 Level.
FMF State of Mind: There is lot of talk that Mexico has a great squad now but there is a lot of expectation of calling up Monterrey's Cesar Montes. Your take?
It's a possibility, just like it was a possibility for this tournament. But Cesar, like some players from Santos that are starters, didn't have the option to get loaned for this tournament or at least not in a good time frame, just a day before the tournament started. I preferred to give priority to team cohesion, to give an opportunity to this group of players that gave their soul for a spot. But they now know that once the ticket was booked, the competition for a place in the team starts again.