Mexico coach Herrera wants to stay in job
(Reuters) - Mexico coach Miguel Herrera wants to remain in charge of the national side, who were dumped out of the last 16 at the World Cup by a stoppage-time Netherlands penalty, for another four years.
Herrera's wild celebrations when Mexico scored in the group stages made him a celebrity on social media sites and his team, who led the Dutch 1-0 for much of Sunday's game, were popular with the neutrals.
Mexico were lucky to reach the World Cup finals after struggling in the qualifiers, but they were greeted warmly by fans when they arrived back from Brazil in Mexico City.
Herrera said his fate would be decided by the Mexican Football Federation, to whom he would present a post-tournament report.
"I want to be here for the next four years," Herrera said in an interview on local television on Wednesday.
"I want to keep managing my country, because for me, there's nothing better than coaching the national side."
He added he was already planning for tournaments like the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America.
Herrera took the helm at Mexico at a difficult time. Their path to Brazil was one of the most difficult in their rich history as they failed to take advantage of the seething cauldron of their Azteca stadium and went through three coaches in a six-week period.
Mexico finished fourth in the CONCACAF qualifying final round, behind the United States, Costa Rica and Honduras, earning a place in the inter-continental playoff against New Zealand only after the United States secured a last-gasp win over Panama on the final match day.
Herrera was handed control for the two-legged playoff against New Zealand and Mexico won it 9-3 on aggregate to grab one of the last tickets the finals.
The team were vastly improved in Brazil, but the Netherlands game proved to be a bridge too far.
With two minutes to play Mexico led 1-0 but Wesley Sneijder equalized with a fierce drive before captain Rafael Marquez was judged to have tripped Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the resulting penalty to put the Dutch through.