The players of Mexico after losing to Argentina at the Lusail Stadium this Sunday.Rungroj Yongrit (EFE)
Mexico plays on the wire. Tata Martino’s team has one last outing at the World Cup. It’s bottom of Group C at the moment and needs to get up, thrash and grab the calculator against Saudi Arabia to follow Poland-Argentina game. A challenge that’s possible on the field but looks complicated at the odds. The other Mexican challenge will also be to score, which has been a serious problem for the last four years.
The Albiceleste team breathed a sigh of relief after beating El Tri 2-0. The Mexicans withstood the attacks on them for more than 60 minutes. Martino chose to defend with five players and no fixed forward. A bit reluctant in front of an Argentina that played everything. In a distraction from Mexico’s Érick Gutiérrez and Héctor Herrera, they prompted captain Messi to sneak in to score the goal that eased tension between his team in Qatar and on Argentine soil. The second goal, that of Enzo Fernández, dashed Mexico’s hopes of reversing their defeat by the South Americans. Martino tried to improve his starting XI when he lost, using Raúl Jiménez to look for a goal.
Martino assured before the World Cup that having more than three center forwards seemed excessive. He clipped the wings of Feyenoord hopeful Santiago Giménez and called up just three strikers: Jiménez, Henry Martín and Rogelio Funes Mori. However, the Rosario strategist left Funes Mori on the bench, the attacker who scored a friendly against Iraq. He gave Martín a chance against Poland and there was no luck. Jiménez, the Argentine’s ironclad bet, hasn’t worked in the 43 minutes he’s taken the field.
The Jiménez case has rocked the management of a Tata Martino who summoned him despite being injured for 77 days in 2022, days before the start of the World Cup. Inactivity took its toll on a player who was one of the most effective in the Premier League in his prime with Wolves. Their goalscoring romance ended abruptly when a hard header to David Luiz sent him to the ER for treatment for a fractured skull. Jiménez miraculously avoided death. His history, leadership and hierarchy led Martino to make him immovable in his team. Mexico’s goal drought at the World Cup had not been since Chile failed to score in their first two games against Brazil or Spain in 1962, but they defeated Czechoslovakia 3-1. This time he didn’t get past the first round.
Of course, goals don’t always come from nine. Alexis Vega tried two ways to open the scoring in Mexico’s favor against Argentina: a free-kick and a long-range shot. He had no luck in either. Hirving Lozano, the Napoli sprinter, has delivered more passes than shots on goal.
What does Mexico need to qualify for the round of 16?
Mexico must beat Saudi Arabia. Not only that, you need to score more than two goals to increase the goal difference against Poland and Argentina. Also, El Tri needs to be aware of what the Poles and Argentines are doing. The Mexicans have to beat up the Saudis and the Argentines have to do the same. Otherwise, it can be useful for Poland to beat Argentina by three goals and for El Tri to do the same against the Asian team.
Mexico has qualified for the round of 16 since 1994. If left out, one has to go back to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina to recall the Mexicans’ last loss in the group stage. At that time they were beaten 3-1 by Tunisia, 6-0 by West Germany and 3-1 by Poland.
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