Argentinian Magic

6/24/2006: Argentina 2 – Mexico 1

In 2002, Mexico suffered one of it’s worst second round World Cup defeats (and there have been many such agonizing losses in Mexico’s history) at the hands of the U.S. Because of the historical relationship with its northern neighbor, the defeat to the Americans, in what used to be the only thing that Mexico could routinely beat the US at, was particularly hard to take.

The story this year round is much different. The defeat at the hands of Argentina 2-1 in extra time is a much more noble one. Not only is Argentina a historic soccer power having won two World Cups, it is also a Latin American country, a country of brothers and sisters if you will. Losing to them cannot be worse than losing to your traditional historical enemy. Also, the manner in which Mexico lost was essential. Mexico played a more talented team evenly throughout the game and lost only because Argentina socred one of the best goals in recent World Cup history.

Argentina came into this game as one of the big favorites to win the World Cup. Buttressed by their exceptional first round performance in what many called the Group of Death, they were the obvious choice in this game.. Having outlasted a very talented Ivory Coast team 2-1, Argentina pummeled Serbia 6-0 before essentially resting their starters in a nil-nil tie against Holland.

Mexico, on the other hand staggered through the first round, only looking convincing in their first game against Iran, a 3-1 win. They then tied Angola 0-0 and lost to Portugal 2-1. They made it through but it was a very anxious last game as Angola held the lead against Iran before that game ended in a draw, ensuring Mexico’s passage.

But once the game started, Mexico proved that was not afraid of Argentina. They scored an early goal when Rafa Marquez slid on to a flicked header off of a corner and beat the Argentinian keeper Abbondanzieri in the 5th minute. Just 5 minutes later though, Borgetti scored an own-goal on a header while trying to defend against a corner kick. For most of the first half, Mexico’s defensive formation frustrated the vaunted Argentinian attack. Its own offense created a fair number of chances to put the pressure on Argentina like they hadn’t seen in this tournament before.

The second half was also very evenly played. Both teams created chances to score and it took exceptional play from both goalies to keep the scoreline at 1-1. But from minute 80 on, you could sense that Argentina began to gain the upper hand, largely because Riquelme started to gain control of midfield and was able to have more of an impact. Argentina also put in their dynamic duo of Tevez and Messi with hopes of gaining a spark. In the 92nd minute, with the game surely headed for extra time, Tevez and Messi combined to score a goal. On the play Messi was ruled to be offside but replays clearly showed he was not.

No matter, this by now already classic game went into extra time where it took a piece of absolute magic from Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez to make the difference. Receiving a long pass from the left side 25 meters from goal, Maxi chested the ball, and in one seamless motion, kicked it a high dipping shot that flew across the entire area and just eluded Oswaldo’s Sanchez at the far post. Because of the circumstances of the second round, this was easily the tournament’s finest goal to date. Argentina was then able to survive the next 25 minutes as a muted Mexican attack tried to equalize but just could not score.

Moral victories are always hard to swallow, but when you lose to a team the way Mexico did to Argentina today, I don’t know how you could not be proud to be Mexican.