A record crowd at Cowboy Stadium saw Mexico beat Brazil, ‘El Tri’ played one of its most organized and productive matches in the Chepo de la Torre era. Mexico, led by a magnificent Giovani dos Santos goal and a penalty kick by Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez, was able to dominate and beat a Brazil that lacked ambition and structure on the upper end of the pitch.
The first twenty minutes of the game were slow and fairly unintelligent by both squads. Mexico played very vertical with no control of the ball while Brazil attempted to create plays with Neymar on the left and Hulk on the right. As minutes went by, a play on the left flank by Giovani created a lob that reminded Tim Howard or previous days at the Rose Bowl. After the brilliant score, Mexico gained more confidence and began to dominate the field which led to a penalty kick scored by Chicharito.
‘El Tri’ remained the superior team well into the 70th minute when Dos Santos and Chicharito had been subbed and Brazil had made a couple of offensive switches. Unfortunately for the ‘verde-amarelha’, their attempts at a goal came too little too late and the whistle blew with a 2-0 victory for Mexico.
This match showed that De la Torre has a very well trained squad because at no time did Mexico seem nervous to be playing the sixth ranked team by FIFA. Mexico looked organized, focused, and on their game. On the other hand, Brazil looked tired with a defense that had costly mistakes and an offense led by Neymar who played without a set idea of what it was doing.
As Aldo de Nigris mentioned in the post game, “Mexico football is evolving”. Certainly it is, with a defense that was unbreakable by one of the world’s most dynamic offenses and Chicharito with Giovani scoring goals game after game, Mexico is ready for an easy CONCACAF qualifiers. However, Brazil had a Neymar that although it carries great talent, it still has to grow to become a star game after game.
