The Re-Vindication of Enrique 'Ojitos' Meza

One of the nicest managers you can find in the Mexican football league is Enrique Meza. Commonly known as ‘Ojitos’, because of his beady eyes, Meza has finally been able to rise from the deep hole, of football mediocrity, he had buried himself into.

Much like the nearsighted Mr Magoo, whose stubborn refusal to admit his eye sight problem which caused him to get into a series of sticky situations, Ojitos managed to put some serious hurt into many Mexican football fans by refusing to admit he was done as a coach.

Meza made a name for himself as head coach of the now defunct Toros Neza. The club from the municipality of the State of México, known for its ultra violent neighborhoods, under the guidance of Ojitos became one of the best clubs in the Mexican league.

During the (Winter) 96-97 season Toros Neza was the most entertaining team to watch. Fluid attacking soccer, silky passing, and a motley group of footballers, who would even take their team picture wearing Halloween masks, assured sold out games at Mexico 86 stadium. The first season with Ojitos at the helm saw Neza reach the semifinals.

The second half of the 96-97 season (Verano97) had Toros in the leagues Championship match. However it would prove to be a disastrous affair as the club was obliterated by Chivas of Guadalajara at Jalisco stadium. The 5-0 score line saw Neza bow out of the championship final with a humiliating 6-1 aggregate.

Despite the horrible championship defeat Meza received an offer from neighboring Toluca where he would help transform the Red Devils into one of the most dominant teams in the Mexican league.

Sadly, Toros Neza decomposed after Meza left. The city of Nezahualcoyotl, which ironically translates to Starving Coyote, no longer has a first division team; instead it serves as breeding grounds for Central American hooligans, known as Maras, who have adopted club America as their team.

Meza’s first season at Toluca (Invierno97) proved to be frustrating as the club failed to make the playoffs. However, in the follow up tourney (Verano98) Toluca achieved their fourth league championship, the first for Meza, which put an end to the 23year drought the club had fallen into.

Toulca became the kings of the Summer (Clausura) tourney as they went on to win two more titles (Verano99) and (Verano00) for a total of three summer Championship wins. Ojitos successful run with the Red Devils made him the natural candidate for the Mexican national team. And with the backing of Lebrija, Tolucas president and right hand man of former FMF President Alberto de la Torre, Meza soon became the Mexican national team’s head coach.

Important to note that Manuel Lapuente, seen as a heroic coach during France 98, fell from grace after the National teams disappointing CONCACAF Gold Cup where Mexico was eliminated in the quarter finals by Canada, which had qualified from the group stage by winning a coin flip!

Hugo Sanchez, current candidate to take over the national team, then had a brief stint with the Tricolor during the Nike USA Cup, however that team was UNAM Pumas in disguise with the addition of other Mexican National team players.

Meza, who by popular demand was seen as the ideal National team coach, had finally reached the pinnacle of his career. The Tricolor fans expected the National team to play with the same fluidity as Toluca and have the same attacking aggression his club teams had shown. However what they would get instead would be one of the darkest chapters in the Mexican national teams’ history.

Meza’s start with the National team seemed promising. Meza kicked off his campaign with a 2-0 victory over Ecuador followed by a 1-0 win over Bolivia in friendly match up’s used to fine tune his squad for upcoming world cup qualifiers. Then, in true Mr. Magoo fashion the beady eye Ojitos made a series of mistakes that almost caused the National team its World Cup qualification.

Mezas third match, this time a world cup qualifier, against Trinidad and Tobago was the beginning of the teams’ downward spiral. At the insistence of Meza, who wanted to impress in his first official match up, Cuauhtémoc Blanco was brought into the squad.

There was no need for Blanco, being that T&T usually get hammered at Azteca stadium, and the striker had just been transferred to Spanish outfit Valladolid, but he showed up anyways and conducted the team to a 7-0 win.

This however came at a costly prize as Blanco was chopped down in the final minutes of the match by Ancil Elcock. The brutal foul put an end to Blanco’s career in Europe and left the national team without their best player for the rest of the qualifiers.

Without Blanco in the squad the Mexican national started to suffer. The goal scoring dried up and the losses started to pile up. A friendly 2-0 defeat at the hands of neighboring rivals USA was followed by a goalless world cup qualifying away draw against Canada and then another 2-0 friendly defeat at the hands of Argentina.

The start of 2001 proved to be no different. The Mexican national team kicked off the New Year with two more defeats, 2-0 against Bulgaria and 3-2 against Colombia, which only positive note was that after four games the Nat team had finally found the back of the net.

Meza urged the, now panicking, Tricolor fans not to place so much importance in friendly match ups. Ojitos guaranteed that Mexico would show its true face in the next match, a world cup qualifier against rivals USA. Mexico’s subsequent 2-0 defeat in Columbus set forth in motion one of the worst WCQ runs for the National team.

Fortunately for Meza a 3-3 friendly draw against Brazil*, at Jalisco stadium, managed to win him some sympathy points. Mexico fans had already started losing faith in his managing skills and were calling for his head. Defeats against emerging rivals USA are not taken too kindly. * Note: In this match De Nigris, mentioned in the previous post, scored his famous goal.

Meza seemed to have regained some of the teams momentum with a convincing 4-0 WCQ victory over Jamaica, followed by another win 1-0 against Chile at home and then a one goal away draw against the now hated T&T ‘Soca Warriors’, who before the WCQ match up televised ad’s for the game as if a war was going to be recreated in the field.

Meza’s next test, an interesting away match against England, was a glimpse of the ailing fortunes that lied ahead for the national team. An embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Pride Park sent the Tricolores demoralized to the FIFA 2001 Confederations Cup.

Mexico’s title of defending champions, having won the 1999 edition, was quickly tarnished after a humiliating first round exit which saw the squad concede eight goals and only score one. Defeats to Australia (0-2), South Korea (2-1) and France (4-0) coupled with the loss to England had the team taking in a total of twelve goals in four games!

My beloved Tricolor, with their brave performance in France 98 and FIFA Confederations Cup Championship in 1999 was now reduced to a joke of a team. The fans referred to the squad as the National Deception and even boycotted games. Indeed, the pain was too much for the fans to handle and it would only worsen.

With the backing of Lebrija and De la Torre, who had forced out Lapuente, the architect of the above mentioned achievements, in order to appoint Meza as head coach, Ojitos remained at the helm. This decision would prove to be disastrous as the Mexican national team would go on to lose their following two WCQ games and almost bid farewell to the 2002 World Cup.



Meza’s refusal to step down, stating that he was in the national team at the fans request, made him public enemy number one. More so after the Tricolor lost their first ever WCQ match at Aztec Stadium with a 2-1 defeat by Costa Rica. Meza’s next game would be his last as the National team traveled to San Pedro Sula to face rivals Honduras, who smacked el Tri around (3-1) and threatened to take the third ticket to the 2002 World Cup.

After the match a teary eyed Meza announced his resignation. He then disappeared from the football scene, given that Mexico was one foot away from elimination. A thankful Meza only showed his face to congratulate the team after Javier Aguirre and a valiant batch of new players restored the Tricolors honor by qualifying to the World Cup.

Meza’s partnership with club presidents Lebrija (Toluca) and De la Torre (Atlas) assured him a return to club football. After his dismal performance with the National team no other club in the Mexican football league wanted to go any where near Ojitos, still under the scrutiny of the fans who wanted him to suffer ten fold for what he did to the Tricolor. Amongst my friends Meza was known as ‘He whose name must not be mentioned’ for fear of jinxing the Mexican national team.

And so Meza’s first run with Atlas in his favorite time of the season (Verano02) proved to be decent. The club qualified to the playoffs, but where eliminated in the quarter finals. The following tourney, after five consecutive defeats, the last one being a 5-2 loss to Queretaro, and with the pressure of the Atlas faithful, Meza was sacked.

Then to the surprise of many, specially the Cruz Azul fans, Meza was appointed head coach of la Maquina Cementera. Cruz Azul president Billy Alvarez seemed confident enough on Mezas abilities to overlook the black cloud that had been following Ojitos since he had taken over the National team.

Not surprisingly Cruz Azul failed to qualify to the Clausura 03 playoffs. The following tourney (Apertura03) and with heavy investment from Billy, Cruz Azul made the quarterfinals, still a disappointing tourney given the amount of talent the squad had.

The following season (Clausura04) was very painful to the Cruz Azul faithful. And after six straight defeats Billy learned from his mistakes and sacked Meza. Ojitos, being the gent that he is, received an unexpected call from Lebrija, who hoped Meza could regain his confidence at the club he had helped build. However, before the end of the (Clausura05) season Ojitos resigned, claiming he had no control over the squad which was believed to be under the guidance of star player Saturnino Cardozo.

Meza’s career as head coach was believed to be over. His glory days seemed well past him and beyond his grasp. Still the beady eye Meza found his way into Pachuca football club, the oldest club in Mexico.

The Apertura06 season marks ten years since Meza made his break through with Toros Neza. His start at Pachuca was dubious, the team which are the current defending champions, could not find their form. Meza was one match away from being sacked but Ojitos managed to finally turn his fortunes around.

Pachuca is currently set to qualify to the league playoffs, their last match is a home game against an irregular Atlante, but more importantly Pachuca has reached the semifinals of the Copa Sudamericana. It is safe to say that, despite what happens with Pachuca, Ojitos has found his road to redemption.