Hey Mexican press, about that party...

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Mexico beat Germany on Sunday. A lot has been made about Juan Carlos Osorio’s tactics and how the press and critics should apologize for how much they have criticized him in these last three years. But lost in all of this is how the press should apologize for their yellow journalism regarding an after-hours party following the game against Scotland. That day, the Mexican National team defeated Scotland 1-0 as the Azteca crowd booed their performance, in which they dominated but missed numerous chances. The news the next day, however, was filled with pictures from a gossip newspaper of the players going to a late night party that was apparently filled with escorts. The result of that was numerous journalists criticizing the players for the party and making a scandal that even forced Hector Herrera to miss a day of practice to go visit his family. Javier Hernandez later said that the party was for his birthday, that it was filled with families and that there was no escorts. The fans and especially the press questioned their professionalism and compared them to the Germany, a team full of true professional that won the 2014 World Cup. But on Saturday, it was Mexico who came out winners.

The win by Mexico has changed a lot of things in people’s mind but it should also change some things that aren’t being talked about. While guys like Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela have been questioned in their club careers, it has been excessive. This team proved on Sunday that they were doing their part of the work with Osorio. Mexico’s team isn’t filled with partygoers wasting their careers like some in the press have made it out to be.

So what was the big problem with what Mexico did? If anything, we should question the press’s problem with the party. Like in 2010, when Mexico also had a party that resulted in suspensions, the party came right after an exhibition friendly and with a great amount of time before the next game. In fact, Mexico had a flight to Europe the next day.Nobody is proclaiming that having a party before a game is good or that an uncontrolled personal life will cause problems for an athlete. But it is getting to a point that the players can’t do stuff in their personal lives because the press will make a scandal out of it.

At the end, Mexican society has a huge problem with gossip, and for the sport to feed into it will just cause more harm than good to the team. Hopefully out of this victory over Germany, they can throw that “unprofessional Mexican national team” narrative from the press out of the window. How much did a party 15 days before the World Cup hurt this team physically? Those “partying divas” outplayed and beat Die Mannschaft.