West Ham United's Javier Hernandez admitted to being bitterly disappointed at exiting the World Cup Finals - a competition he believed his Mexico team could have won.
The Central American side were dumped out of the competition on Monday after losing 2-0 to tournament favourites Brazil.And despite the Mexicans clearly being second best on the day, Hernandez maintained that El Tri could've been potential winners themselves.
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"I imagined myself as the champion of the world," he said following the Brazil defeat. "But this wasn’t able to happen. We tried to do everything in our power in the match, not everything was successful, but we are leaving the World Cup with our head held high.
"We lost, we’re sad. Disillusioned, obviously, with a dream that was cut short. But Mexico continues on, Mexico is still on its feet.
"I’ve always said everything happens for a reason. The qualification was a process for something better. The most important thing is this union all of us Mexicans are showing, despite all the negative noise that unfortunately draws more attention than the positive.
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"We have a lot of challenges in terms of football. We have to keep changing the mentality. People keep talking about results, but it takes a deeper mentality than a lot of people want to have.
"What’s important here is to show that every Mexican can break these limits that have been put on us since we were very little."
Hernandez - who is expected to take a short break following Mexico's exit from the tournament - will return to West Ham later this month to begin pre-season training with the rest of the first team squad.
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