What's behind the lack of Mexican goalkeepers in Europe?

   The poor goalkeeping that gave Ronaldinho's Club Querétaro the passage to semifinals in Liga Mx of course has made of Veracruz's Melitón Hernández the target of widespread and massive social media abuse. What those jokes and memes shouldn't mask, nonetheless, is the fact that those mistakes overtly seem radical symptoms of whatever keeps Mexican goalkeepers from plying their trade in Europe or from having starting spots as it's now the case of Guillermo Ochoa in Málaga.

Let us play Devil's Advocate for Melitón. Within this Liga Mx playoffs, he was the youngest Mexican goalkeeper and, in terms of top-flight experience, was truly the most rookie one too. He's 32 years old and his Mexican peers are Pachuca's Óscar Pérez, 42, Guadalajara's Luis Michel, 35, América's Moisés Muñoz, 35. Barring Federico Vilar, the non-Mexicans are the only goalkeepers still in their twenties: Argentines Nahuel Guzmán and Agustín Marchesín, and Brazilian Thiago Volpi.

Should we then scapegoat Melitón as a single poor Mexican goalkeeper when the pool of younger ones in Liga Mx is almost nonexistent, and the only one playing across the pond has a guaranteed place in the bench? Shouldn't we better see in Melitón's poor show just a radical example of the many limitations of Mexican goalkeepers?

Catching up with any youtube footage about the best of Ochoa or Jesús Corona usually means catching up with spectacular flights, the impossible made possible and terrific reactions below the bar and between the posts. But that's actually the issue to be stressed: below the bar and between the posts. Any of those footages will show Jesús Corona being tested by a desperate Brazilian side in the London Olympics, Ochoa being tested by Zlatan Ibrahimovic in front of Ajaccio's parked bus or by Brazil in front of Mexico's parked bus in Fortaleza during the last World Cup.

    


The ugly truth is that Mexican goalkeepers have come quite much used to play for teams that seat back very deep and therefore are trained to hone their abilities just below the bar and just between the posts. It's no surprise that Melitón Hernandez's best performances were the ones in which Veracruz was still struggling to avoid relegation and hence the tactics were much more conservative. That's how the Tiburones Rojos goalkeeper made the final cut inside México's roster for Copa América: by means of spectacular flights, the impossible made possible and terrific reactions.

The thing is that Mexican goalkeepers manifest clear shortcomings in various respects. One of the most eloquent metaphors for the best goalkeeping is the one that equates the best goalkeeping with the best medicine: the best medicine prevents illnesses rather than cure them. The best goalkeepers, therefore, have the capability to 'read' the flux of play, to position themselves wisely within the box, to anticipate long balls and crosses, to claim them, and most importantly, to play the ball with their feet and keep it on the ground. That's why the common currency now within football's finest includes the names of Tim Howard, Hugo Lloris and Claudio Bravo.

What lies behind the lack of Mexican goalkeepers in Europe? The answer is the development of a mainstream Mexican school of goalkeeping that teaches to be magnificent just below the bar and just between the posts just as Melitón's bad night proves.