Mexico and the hopes of an entire country vanished by the offside and the lack of forcefulness | CHRONICLE

Mexico complied. He had the obligation to beat Saudi Arabia on the last date and he did it. He infinitely surpassed his rival in every aspect as much was asked of him. He even filled the Saudi goal with four goals, but unfortunately luck was not on his side: two of those goals were canceled by the ‘damn’ offside. And the hopes of an entire country were dashed in a heartbeat.

If we just look at today’s game, clearly Mexico did not deserve to go away empty-handed. However, things never turned out as the Aztecs expected. They drew against Poland in the “game to win”, they fell against Argentina when they were trying to steal, at least, a draw and, after that, there was no guarantee that this time they would be able to meet their goals against Saudi Arabia.

But there was no other. It was win or win at the last breath. And that is why today Mexico demonstrated its triumphant purpose in the Lusail Stadium all the time. From the beginning, he managed to put his rival against the ropes, trying to score without ceasing with total control of the ball, but the blessed goal never came. Not in the first half.

The lack of depth in the numerous attacks that he organized was costing ‘Tata’ Martino’s team quite dearly. But they managed to remedy this in just five minutes of the second half. Henry Martín opened the account at minute 47 and Luis Gerardo Chávez extended the lead to two with a free kick at minute 52.

The Aztec team was finally performing on the pitch as its people had been asking for and, in fact, they had everything to keep scoring the goals they wanted. But the offside began to completely frustrate him.

Of the many opportunities he had in the remaining time (26 shots in total for the team), the ‘Tri’ could only be forceful in two of them and those two, in the end, would not work. ‘Chucky’ Lozano and Uriel Antuna scored, but were victims of offside.

Those two goals could mean a resounding 4-0 scoreline, which gave Mexico the qualification to the round of 16, supported by Poland’s defeat against Argentina (2-0). Not because of difference in points, but because of goal difference, the ‘Tri’ passed. However, fortune was not on his side.

The score did not increase on the part of Mexico as they tried so many times and the number of yellow cards (7 against 5 for Poland) -another tie-breaker rule- did not play in their favor in case they had maintained the 2-0 lead. But to avoid any kind of confusion and so that this does not have to be defined with warnings, Saudi Arabia marked the discount at 90 + 5 ‘, which the Poles celebrated more than the Saudis themselves.

Mexico saw, then, how all its hopes vanished fleetingly. Inevitably it began to rain from the eyes of every Mexican. It is not for less. 44 years later, the ‘Tri’ was being eliminated for the first time in the group stage of a World Cup. And there was nothing he could do anymore. There is nothing anymore.