José Antonio Roca

José Antonio Roca García ( born May 24, 1928 in Mexico City; † May 4, 2007 ) was a Mexican football player and coach.

Biography

Player

During his active playing career Roca stood by the CF Asturias, at Club Necaxa, the CD Zacatepec and the CF Atlante under contract.

Between 1949 and 1952, he completed a total of ten matches, including all three games, which denied the Mexicans at the Football World Cup 1950. Also in 1954 and 1958 belonged to the skilled defender to the World Cup squad of the Mexican national team, but did not play.

Coach

After ending his playing career Roca held an administrative post in the Mexican Football Federation before 1970 took over a multi-year coaching job at Club América. In his first coach 1970/71 season he led the team to the championship at first; it was actually the first football championship in Mexico in which the champion was not determined on the basis of an overall table. In that season the championship was first played in two seasons and the two relay winners faced each other in the final. Here América could ( with 0:0 and 2:0 ) to enforce against Deportivo Toluca.

In the following 1971/72 season América reached - this time via an upstream semi-finals - the finals again, which was this time held in only one game, because both finalists came from Mexico City and thus no return match was required. The finale at the Azteca Stadium, the home of the most fundamental Club América, however, went with 1:4 lost to the first pre-season of Jasso warped in the capital city of the team Cruz Azul. This game marked the beginning of the Clásico Joven.

After America had missed the " final of the four best" in each case by a few points in the next few years, Roca was replaced at end of season 1974/75 as head coach. Before he even succeeded with América but winning the Copa México in 1973/ 74. In the finals, his team had prevailed 2-1 and 1-1 against Cruz Azul and thus for two years before returning the favor suffered final defeat to the Mexican championship. In the subsequent Supercup final against the former " Master Series " Cruz Azul América defeated again 1-2.

During his time in America, the traditional rivals of the Club Deportivo Guadalajara Roca was considered a "el número uno antichiva de México ", as the biggest enemy of the club from Mexico's second largest city, Guadalajara. So he banned his players during superclásico to swap shirts.

After his time in America he coached several Mexican clubs and ended his coaching career in 1988 in the service of Ángeles de Puebla, who finished at the same time its not financially rewarding Erstligaabenteuer by license sales at Santos Laguna. Highlight of his coaching career was the position as head coach of the Mexican national team, so hopefully with a 5-1 win against Yugoslavia began on February 1, 1977, with three hefty defeats against Tunisia (1:3), Germany ( 0:6 ) and Poland (1:3) sobering ended at the Football World Cup 1978.