Kevin Baxter: Mexico's national soccer team must deal with an age-old problem

LOS ANGELES — Remember when the Mexican national team was good? It's certainly been a while.

The latest implosion came Sunday night in a 2-0 loss to the U.S. in the CONCACAF Nations League final in Arlington, Texas. And the meltdown was complete, both on and off the field.

On the field, Mexico put just two shots on goal in losing to the U.S. in the final four of the Nations League for a third straight year. That leaves the U.S. unbeaten (5-0-2) in a record seven consecutive meetings with El Tri. In five of the last six games, Mexico hasn't even scored.

Remember when U.S.-Mexico was a rivalry? That's certainly been a while too.

The Mexican national team program is arguably at its lowest point in decades. El Tri exited the last World Cup in the group stage for the first time in 44 years, has won just one trophy since 2019 — that coming in last summer's Gold Cup — and failed to qualify for this summer's Olympics, missing the tournament for the first time since 2008.

The team has gone through three managers in 15 months and could be making another change shortly since El Tri has won only three of its last nine games under current coach Jaime Lozano.

That decline didn't happen overnight, and it won't be solved overnight either. However, with the 2026 World Cup, which Mexico will open at home just more than two years away, time is running short.

The Mexican team has grown old in recent years — it had the second-oldest roster in the last two World Cups — partly because the pipeline that had long supplied talent to the national team has run dry. Guillermo Ochoa, who started in goal Sunday, made his international debut while George W. Bush was president and before Gio Reyna, who scored against Ochoa on Sunday, was old enough for preschool.

Yet Lozano has called up just one keeper in the last 12 months who has more than four international caps.

Age isn't the only thing separating the U.S. and Mexico. Twenty-one of the 23 players called up to the American team this month play in Europe — many have been there since they were teenagers — while 13 of the 23 men on the Mexican roster play in the country's domestic Liga MX.

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