Sven-Goran Eriksson is enjoying the life as Mexico's coach
SOCCER
The 60-year-old Swede brings his team to the Coliseum for a match against Chile on Wednesday night.
Sven-Goran Eriksson made his Los Angeles debut today and it was not without its lighter moments.
Near the end of a news conference at the downtown hotel where the 60-year-old Swedish coach and his Mexican national soccer team are staying, Eriksson was asked by a female television reporter what he thought of chili.
Since Mexico is playing Chile on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Coliseum, Eriksson started talking about Santiago.
The television reporter laughed and said no, she meant the food, not the country.
It might have been a set-up, but Eriksson took the joke well and afterward made a point of meeting and shaking hands with the reporter, the only one of four dozen writers and photographers in the room so honored.
Eriksson is little more than three months into the job he inherited when Hugo Sanchez was ousted for failing to qualify Mexico for the Beijing Olympics. It's a job that pays him a reported $5 million a year after taxes.
He has used the time well and, unlike former U.S. coach Bruce Arena and current U.S. Coach Bob Bradley, he has become fluent in Spanish -- chili and Chile notwithstanding.
"If you want to learn a language, you have to study, and I study one to two hours every day when I'm in Mexico City," he said.
"But I'm cheating a little bit because I know Italian well and I know Portuguese OK, so when I speak Spanish there is a lot of Italian and Portuguese in it, but the important thing is that the players understand me, and I will be better in the future."
So far, Eriksson, who coached England for more than five years and led it to the World Cup in 2002 and 2006, is on course to take Mexico to the next world championship, in South Africa in 2010. "El Tri" is unbeaten in three qualifying games with him at the helm.
"I've been extremely happy," he said. "I'm enjoying the job. Three games, three wins, so it's easy to enjoy it. I enjoy living in Mexico City. I'd never been to Mexico before I came in June or July and I don't like it, I love it. It's a nice life. It's a nice city with extremely nice people."
Eriksson said he did not have to approach Mexico's national team players any differently than he had England's squad.
"Football today is very universal," he said. "Many years ago, I don't think it was like that. But now Mexico has 14 or 15 players playing in Europe, and when they play for Barcelona or they play for Stuttgart or for PSV Eindhoven or for whoever it is, do they play Mexican football or do they play worldwide football?
