Gerardo Martino, who is known as Tata, at his introductory news conference in Mexico City on Monday. Daniel Becerril/Reuters
MEXICO CITY — Mexico named Gerardo Martino the coach of its men’s national soccer team on Monday, but the Argentine did not make any promises that he would be the person to finally lead the highly scrutinized squad to World Cup glory.
Mexico is obsessed with reaching the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 1986 after a long run of second-round disappointments — defeats that brought down several of Martino’s predecessors. But Martino, who has coached Barcelona and Argentina’s national team, and who led Atlanta United to the Major League Soccer championship last month, stayed far away from guarantees in his introductory news conference.