Originally published by Ace Magazine online June 2014.
Unless something unimaginable happens, Brazil will qualify out of Group A with room to spare. On the basis of the first round of matches to be played, Brazil will qualify; but they won’t have made any friends outside of the confines of the homes, cities, towns and minds of the Brazilian nation. Mexico on the other hand, you can but hope make it at least into the round of 16 for their dogged determination and utter refusal to sink to the depths that they saw happen in the previous day’s game.
Cameroon, Mexico and Croatia, three teams fighting it out for effectively second place and two have given a good account of themselves. Mexico if all is fair should be looking at playing the winner of Group B. However with the steely resolve they showed against Cameroon, a ragged shadow of the squad that lit up Italy in 1990, that’s not to say that they won’t give Brazil a fright or two when the two teams meet.
To football fans in England, picking and choosing which games they could feasibly get away with watching on the television if their partner refuses simply to watch every single game of the tournament or if they have the pressing matter of a wedding to attend, end of school sports days to attend or just the fact that some games really have no appeal, Mexico V Cameroon would not rank high enough on the possible excitement scale, particularly with the mouth-watering, eye opening spectacle that surely would follow later as The Netherlands would seek revenge for the final of four years ago and look to be giving the Spanish a run for their money.
In truth Mexico V Cameroon will not go down as an all-time classic. The two countries had only ever met once before, Cameroon came to Brazil beset with a set of problems that would make previous Dutch sides problems seem like a walk in the park and a diplomat’s solitary moment of pleasure and both teams knew that all eyes of the world would invariably be set upon the host nation. It doesn’t inspire a fan to know all this; that though is what happens when you make a tournament finals slightly bloated, 32 teams in four short weeks. Yes every footballing continent on Earth deserves to have representatives there and there is no way F.I.F.A. will turn back the clock to having the Cup revert back to a more intense 16 teams, you have more chance of E.U.F.A. arguing the positives of turning the Champions League back to a straight knock-out competition. Money talks, teams work hard to have their moment in the spotlight, it just sometimes seems frustrating that nations as good as Mexico will, no matter what, be seen as a side show to the bigger event.
Mexico were great value for their win though, steely, a redoubtable performance by all in the team and certainly by Dos Santos who must be wondering exactly what the referees assistant had against him in the first half. Two equally perfect goals, the first an absolute stormer, both chalked off for non-existent off-side! Oddly, the television coverage coming out of Brazil is falling over itself to show that every ball has crossed the line, even when the net ripples and squirms as if it has caught a year’s supply of fish to feed every poor person living below the poverty line in the country. Yet, and finding bemusement in agreeing with F.I.F.A. President Sepp Blatter, his suggestion that Managers be allowed two referrals per game is an intriguing one and certainly would have put paid to poor dos Santos and the crimes imagined by the Referee’s Assistant as he seemed to wave his flag on the touchline quicker than a schoolyard bully having finally taken one on the nose by fed up children.
Dos Santos and Oribe Peralta gave the Mexican team the lift that sometimes comes out of officialdom not recognising a perfectly good goal. The aggrieved often find a way to make sure that they will finally win through and quite rightly so. Somehow the World Cup was threatening to be about referee’s decisions. As in the groups previous game, the talk was about the men in the middle and their eyes on the sidelines, not about Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o or the effect that Oribe Peralta was having on the game; in Samuel Eto’o’s case that might be a good thing as he didn’t particular shine as he has in the Premiership this season, in Peralta’s case, you only have to wish that he gives the same forward command when the Mexican team meet up with the hosts.
With the rain coming down so hard and making a mockery of what the casual viewer might believe Brazil’s climate should be, it would be crass to suggest that the teams were not acclimatised for the prospect of a game that perhaps a Sunday league side in Northern Lancashire or in deepest rural Scotland might relish playing in but it certainly couldn’t have helped either teams cause and in Samuel Eto’o’s team they seemed to lack the conviction that made their 1990 compatriots such a hit in Italy 24 years ago.
The goal, the one that actually stood, when it came was perhaps in sharp relief to the pain of foul after foul that had dominated the game. Not that Mexico didn’t inflict their own niggles upon the Cameroon players but it did seem as if Cameroon were out to spoil the party, or perhaps even emulate the proceedings of the previous day.
After Giovani dos Santos had deserved to give the Mexican’s something to cheer, it fell to Oribe Peralta to tuck the ball in to bottom left hand corner of the Cameroon net. It was sublime finishing, it was the finish you expect from an expert and showed the group favourites exactly what they missed in their opening game; the poise that crowds craved and the finish of the most-coolest of heads on the pitch.
Mexico could have had a second goal minutes before the final whistle but Manchester United’s Hernandez was unfortunate not to be able to find the control needed to give the Mexican crowd the result they richly asked for.
Group A will no doubt be Brazil plus one other to qualify, If it was down to attitude in the first set of games, there will be those who hand on heart would suggest that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if both Croatia and Mexico were to qualify for the last 16.
Mexico: G Ochoa, F Rodriguez, R Marquez, Vazquez, H Herrera, M Layun, G Dos Santos, H Moreno, A Guardado, O Peralta, P Aguilar.
Substitutes: J Corona, A Talavera, C Salciso, D Reyes, M Fabian, R Jimenez, A Pulido, J Hernandez, M Ponze, I Brizuela, J Aquino, C Pena.
Cameroon: Itanjde, Assou Ekotto, Djeugoue, Song, Moukandjo, Eto’o, Choupo-Moting, Chedjou, Mbia, Enoh.
Substitutes: Feudjou, N’Djock, Nounkeu, Aboubakar, Makoun, Bedimo, Webo, Olinga, Salli, Matip, Nyom, Nguemo.
Goal scorers, Mexico: Oribe Peralta
Venue:
Referee: Wilmar Roldan
Final Score: Mexico 1-0 Cameroon.
Man of the Match: G Dos Santos.
Ian D. Hall