Miguel Herrera took over a Mexico soccer team in the unthinkable position of not making it to the World Cup.
Herrera calmed a nation by leading “El Tri” to victories in a two-game playoff over New Zealand to qualify for the World Cup, which begins June 12. Mexico is in a group with host country Brazil, Cameroon and Croatia.
Herrera and Mexico will play a warm-up game against fellow World Cup competitor Nigeria at the Georgia Dome on Wednesday. More than 62,000 tickets have been sold, a record for soccer in the city.
Herrera took a few minutes after a news conference Tuesday to give an exclusive interview to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The questions and answers below are a combination from the news conference and the one-on-one with the AJC. An interpreter was used. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.
Q: For a city that doesn’t have an MLS team, are you surprised that there will be least 60,000 people at Wednesday’s game?
A: The truth is it never surprises me when Mexico comes because there are so many Mexicans in the U.S., but that shows that this is a soccer town and in the future there could be an MLS team.
Q: How will playing Nigeria help prepare you to face Cameroon in your World Cup opener (June 13)?
A: Nigeria is a very important team. They are a very competitive team. This game will very helpful because it has a great element of comparison to Cameroon. This is a great matchup for us. Their roster, they have great players.
Q: How much will you miss attacking midfielder Giovani dos Santos in this game (dos Santos suffered a calf injury)?
A: He's obviously a very important player for us. That is soccer; unfortunately there our injuries in our sport. The only thing we can ask of him is to be calm. We will continue to observe him. We are going to make sure that he has enough time to recuperate, and we will see if there's an update within the month. He's a great player.
Q: Thoughts on playing Brazil (on June 17)?
A: This will be a very difficult game. We know the importance of the game. They are the local and favorite team, but we still have time to focus on them. Right now, our focus is on Cameroon.
Q: Is this close to the roster that fans will see this summer?
A: Between this game and the next (against the U.S. in Phoenix), I will have 90 percent of an idea of the team I want to take to Brazil.
Q: After needing to go to a playoff just to qualify for the World Cup, how is the team’s confidence?
A: We are playing this to win. History hasn't been in our favor. But our idea is to win. We want to go game by game, win them so we can qualify to the next round and make sure we can actually make history, reach that fifth game and see if they can actually stop us.
Q: What is the key game in your World Cup group?
A: The first one, Cameroon.
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