Christopher Cuéllar out as México Women’s National Team coach

Longtime Mexico Women’s National Team coach Christopher Cuéllar has left, according to the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF). Cuéllar has coached the Senior National Team since 2019 as well as stints with the U20s and U17s, but faced widespread criticism for the Senior Team’s performances and long periods of dormancy.

Cuéllar started with the FMF in 2005 as an Assistant Coach, and took the reins of the Senior Team in 2019 after the dismissal of Roberto Medina. After taking over, Cuéllar finished in fifth place in the 2019 Pan American Games, losing to Honduras in penalties in the Semifinal Round. Cuéllar’s team also lost in the Semifinal Round of the 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying round, losing 4-0 to the United States and missing the chance to represent the team in the 2020 (now 2021) Olympic Games in Japan.

Cuéllar’s overall record wasn’t bad, with losses to regional powerhouses Canada and the United States the only blemishes in the admittedly abbreviated 2020 calendar year. The issue that most fans had however was Cuéllar’s seeming reluctance to convene the team for camps or friendlies, and this lead to the feeling that the team was unprepared when facing a Canada or United States team. For comparison, the United States played 33 games in 2019 and 2020, while México only managed 19.

The next coach for La Tri will inherit a team with a lot of promising players from teams in México as well as Europe. They’ll need to put forth a concerted effort to schedule regular friendlies, and with world powers such as the United States, Brazil, and Canada in close proximity this should be an easy problem to fix.