Manuel Lapuente (1944-2025) was one of the most important National Team coaches in the National teams history. With two tenures at the helm, his second tenure was the most successful probably in history with
the 1999 Confederations Cup win as well as the win in the 1998 Gold Cup. As we celebrate the life of the late Mexican coach, we look back at the historic tenure from 1997-2000, where Lapuente guided Mexico to some of the most important events in Mexican Football history.
In 1997 Mexico qualified to the 1998 World Cup in a very turbulent manner. After a very good start under Coach Bora Milutinovic, the team started playing lackluster for fans and stopped getting results. Bora got severely criticized by fans and players especially after a couple of bad losses in friendlies against England and Brazil. Although Mexico improved a lot and got a 3rd place finish in Copa America, the 2nd half of the hexagonal World Cup qualifiers were key in what ended being Milutinovic’s undoing. Back to back ties in Estadio Azteca against the United States and Costa Rica (when Mexico was expected to never drop points at home) ended up with Milutinovic losing his job even when he qualified Mexico, who also ended in first place in a sign of things to come (Mexico wouldn’t finish again in first place of qualification until 2018). One of the biggest critics of Bora was also the first choice of most to replace him, Manuel Lapuente. Lapuente had guided Necaxa to back to back Liga MX titles with Necaxa and previously with Puebla. Lapuente also wanted a rematch after he had coached Mexico in 1991 but resigned after Mexico lost the Semifinals of the Gold Cup to the United States by a 2-0 score. Thus to no one’s surprise, Lapuente would be the named National Team coach in 1997.
Lapuente’s tenure had a terrible start when Mexico went to play in the 1997 Confederations Cup. Mexico had qualified to the tournament as a result of winning the 1996 Gold Cup but they would stumble badly as they lost their debut by a 3-1 score against Australia. While Mexico would bounce back with a solid 5-0 win against hosts Saudi Arabia, they would have a do or die match against Brazil. They would lose the match by a 3-2 score and go out in the Group Stage. Mexico would start Lapuente’s second era with a failure.
1998
Mexico’s next objective was the 1998 Gold Cup, the same tournament where Lapuente had coached and failed. Mexico would start with a convincing 4-2 victory over Trinidad and Tobago and then defeated Honduras by a 2-0 score to win their Group. Mexico would face off in the Semifinals against Jamaica, where they needed a golden goal in extra time to win by a 1-0 score. Mexico would face the United States in the final in a match were they would have the crowd support but wouldn’t be favorites as the United States came into the final having eliminated Brazil. Yet in the final, Mexico gave a very good performance to win by a 1-0 score and proclaim themselves champions of North America. Lapuente not only had the revenge of winning the cup but did so against the team that had eliminated him and caused him to end his first tenure.
Wining the 1998 Gold Cup as well as the time frame, all gave Lapuente the boost that he would take Mexico to the 1998 World Cup. Yet the way towards the World Cup was rocky. Mexico started with a couple of bad results like losing against the Netherlands 3-2 (who they had been grouped with in the World Cup) and only tying against Paraguay in the final friendly in Mexico, played in Estadio Azteca. The big failure though was South America tour where Mexico lost all three matches. First it was a 3-1 loss against Boca Juniors, 2-1 against Chile’s U20 and the worse being a 5-1 loss against Universidad Catolica de Chile. Lapunete was able to get the teams to release the players early and they traveled to Europe to hold training camp in Italy. The matches had a lot off results off all kinds, from positive (6-0 win against Estonia, 2-1 victory against Japan) to disastrous (5-2 loss against Norway, 4-1 loss against Wolfsburg).
Here’s a video of a preview done where Mexico’s preparations were questioned.
By the time the 1998 World Cup started, everybody expected the worse for Mexico and once Mexico trailed 1-0 against South Korea, it looked bad but when goal scorer Ha Seok-ju got red carded, Mexico took advantage. A great 2nd half led Mexico to a 3-1 victory over South Korea. In their next match against Belgium it was Mexico who was dominating Belgium when a red card to Pavel Pardo ended hurting the team. Belgium climbed to a 2-0 lead but when Belgium had Gert Verheyen commit a PK that earned them a red card, Mexico once again took control of the match to get a 2-2 tie. Their final match was against the Netherlands, a candidate for the World Cup title. They played like the favorites in route to a 2-0 lead but once again Mexico battled back to grab a last minute goal that gave them the 2-2 tie and the ticket to the Round of 16 as 2nd place of Group E. Unfortunately for Mexico, Germany was next and yet Mexico battled back and even took the lead in the 2nd half but two late goals ended Mexico tournament with a 2-1 loss. Still Mexico had a great performance in the World Cup, easily the best ever outside of Mexico at that time and Lapuente had done a great job in participation that is still recognized to this day.
1999
Mexico had a very important summer in 1999, where they would play in the Copa America and host the 1999 Confederations Cup. Mexico started the year by playing the 1999 Carlsberg Cup, a friendly tournament, in which they would defeat Hong Kong on Penalties to get to the final. In the final, they would defeat Egypt by a 3-0 to wint the title. They would then play in the US Cup, a friendly tournament that used to be played and which Mexico had won in the last two editions (1996,1997). Mexico started it by defeating Bolivia by a 2-1 score to qualify to the final. In the final, they wold defeat their main rivals, the United States, by a 2-1 score to win the tournament for a third straight time. Mexico would play one more cup before the summer, the Korea Cup but would end in second place, behind winners Croatia.
Mexico went to the 1999 Copa America in Paraguay. They started with a solid 1-0 victory over Chile, in the key group match. Mexico would fall by a 2-1 score against group favorites Brazil and then defeat Venezuela by a 3-1 score, in a match were Cuauhtemoc Blanco got red carded. Mexico would be rocked after that match by the doping suspensions against Raul Lara and Paulo Cesar Chavez. This plus missing Blanco hurt then in the Quarterfinals match against Peru, but a late goal was able to tie the match at 3-3 and they proceeded to win in PKs. Unfortunately for them, once again they faced Brazil in the Semifinals, and they would go out with a 2-0 loss to the eventual champions. Mexico would bounce back to defeat Chile by a 2-1 score in the third place match.
Mexico would host the 1999 Confederations Cup where Lapuente and company made history. They opened the tournament by crushing Saudi Arabia by a 5-1 score. Unfortunately for Mexico, they led go of a 2-0 lead and ended up tying by a 2-2 score against Egypt in a match where the team got a lot of criticism. Mexico was able to defeat Bolivia by a 1-0 score in a match where they barely improved but it was enough to win the group. In the Semifinals they faced off against the United States in a very difficult match. Mexico was able to battle and hold on to extra time where a golden goal by Blanco gave Mexico the 1-0 win. In the final, they faced off against Brazil and gave one of the best performances ever by a National team in route to a 4-3 win and the first ever FIFA sanctioned international title and the only one so far in what is the best ever achievement for Mexican National Team. Here is a review of Mexico’s tournament.
2000
Unfortunately for Manuel Lapuente, his last year wasn’t the best performance. Mexico started by playing the Carlsberg Cup, where they would defeat Japan in the Semifinals but lose the final against the Czech Republic by a 2-1 score. Mexico would then go to the Gold Cup with a mixture team of A team players and the U23 team that was competing to qualify to the Olympic Games. Mexico would struggle and after defeating Trinidad and Tobago and getting a tie with Guatemala, Canada would eliminated them with a golden goal in the Quarterfinal by a 2- 1 score. Worse yet for Lapuente was that Mexico would not qualify to the Olympic Games after losing the Semifinal to Honduras of the U23 CONCACAF Championship in Penalty Kicks. While Lapuente wasn’t technically the coach (it was Gustavo Lopez), he would be the manager who set up Lopez. Also just as he had pressured to have Bora stepped down in 1997, now it was Lapuente who was being pressured by President Rafael Lebrija as well as fans who all wanted Toluca’s coach, Enrique Meza at the helm. This led to Lapuente not coaching the senior team in the US Cup (Hugo Sanchez would coach a National team made up of mostly Pumas players to a 3rd place finish) and after struggling to qualify to the final round of Mexican qualifiers, he would resign after defeating Panama (7-0) and booking the ticket to that final round. Enrique Meza would take over the team and coach the final two matches of that World Cup qualifying round, where in a 7-0 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, Cuauhtemoc Blanco would have an injury that would have him out for 6 months and Meza’s tenure would turn out to be one of the worse ever in Mexican National team history.
Manuel Lapuente’s tenure at the Mexican National team was historic. It had some of the highlights of the Mexican National team and it was good enough to have Mexico win their highest honor with the Confederations Cup. A Gold Cup title, a great World Cup participation, a 3rd place finish in the Copa America and the Confederations Cup title. It might not be hard that this was as close to a golden age, led to a great manager that unfortunately left us this week. Still the Hall of Fame work earned him enough praise to be a legend in Mexican history.
