Mexico’s future of last-16 World Cup exits got here to an finish on an odd night time of weird pleasure as Group C got here to a head.
Nicely that was enjoyable, wasn’t it?
It’s saying one thing – and far of it not notably complimentary about Poland’s efficiency – that Argentina placing their dramatic matchday one wobble emphatically behind them to high the group was shortly lowered to a footnote in a deliriously thrilling and sometimes weird Group C denouement.
We concede that “flicking between two video games within the last minutes to see if there’s been any yellow playing cards” wasn’t one thing we notably thought of when bemoaning the watered-down group format that awaits us on the subsequent World Cup however add it to the listing now. This wasn’t all the time, and even that usually, about nice soccer but it surely was delirious leisure. That this degree of intrigue and pleasure was all for nothing extra vital than discovering whether or not it could be Poland or Mexico who earned the proper to be swept apart by France within the final 16 solely makes it higher.
However we’re getting forward of ourselves. Let’s return a bit and remind ourselves how we received right here. There have to be phrases of reward right here for Saudi Arabia, who ended up backside of Group C however did so, a lot to make it probably the most compelling group of the lot even when the ultimate evaluation – Argentina high with not a lot between Poland and Mexico for second – was eminently predictable.
The Saudis’ absurd win over Argentina smashed the group extensive open, however ultimately their function within the much more absurd conclusion was as disruptor moderately than main combatant. At 2-0 right down to a beforehand sleepy however instantly very awake and gloriously alive Mexico, their very own race was run. However they nonetheless had a job to play. Throughout Qatar, Argentina had been 2-0 up in opposition to a near-comatose Poland. At that time there was nothing in anyway to separate Mexico and Poland in second place behind Argentina. Each had 4 factors. Each had a degree aim distinction. Each had scored two objectives. Poland had been going via as a result of that they had obtained fewer yellow playing cards than the Mexicans. Consider that.
We had been approaching a degree the place a match report with the headline “Final-gasp Poland yellow card sends Mexico via to final 16” was tantalisingly potential and I believe we are able to all agree that might have been large.
Apparently absolutely conscious of the weird but very actual scenario unfolding, Poland’s method to the final 30 or so minutes of their recreation was grimly fascinating. That they had two choices. Having lengthy since solely eschewed the maverick and absurd Possibility A (“What if we attempt to perhaps rating a aim of our personal?”) they had been absolutely reliant on Possibility B, which required threading the needle of stopping a Lionel Messi-conducted Argentina from scoring but additionally not selecting up yellow playing cards within the course of. And all whereas additionally hoping for one of the best with regard to Mexico including to their very own tally (aim tally, that’s, not bookings).
It might be truthful to explain the acute passivity that ensued as probably the most high-risk however low-activity gamble we predict we’ve ever seen in soccer. We completely adored it. It’s onerous to think about a extra shithouse manner of reaching the final 16, and that it got here on the expense of Mexico – the shithouse’s shithouse with regards to qualifying for the final 16 come hell or excessive water – provides one other thread to this intricate tapestry of nonsense.
That Poland will clearly must be much better and extra proactive than this to have any hope in opposition to France seems self-evident. That they are going to be unable to take action appears equally clear. That this all means they in all probability find yourself one way or the other successful on penalties in opposition to France earlier than knocking England out within the quarters additionally appears solely believable within the wake of tonight’s absurdity.
For Mexico, this marks the tip of an period. After seven straight last-16 exits they’ve gone out even earlier by the barest of margins. Whereas the yellow-card rule wasn’t in the end required, that’s a mere technicality. It was the yellows that knocked them out; had they been forward on disciplinary countback they’d not have been pouring ahead to create the area that gave Saudi Arabia their comfort.
Mexico had been undeniably poor of their first two video games however ultimately had been, to all intents, eradicated from the World Cup as a result of they received extra yellow playing cards over three video games than one other workforce. It appears a daft strategy to determine issues and one which leaves you sure there have to be a greater manner than that but not fairly sure exactly what that higher manner is. Mario Kart battle mode, perhaps? All of the grounds have massive screens, as of late.
It was thrilling, although, and fully becoming that the final 4 minutes of the sport ended up being simulcast on each BBC One and BBC Two, a spur-of-the-moment broadcasting resolution the inherent correctness of which might take fairly some explaining to anybody who wasn’t watching. “So in the meanwhile Mexico have had two extra yellow playing cards than Poland… no, they’re not taking part in Poland, they’re taking part in Saudi Arabia. Poland have completed their recreation and are all huddled round any person’s cellphone watching this like us… No I don’t know whether or not they’re watching it on BBC One or BBC Two…”
What that Saudi comfort aim did do, although, was reveal that Mexico had in actual fact already missed a trick.
Whereas Saudi Arabia’s aim within the fourth of seven added minutes was initially heralded because the one which sealed it for Poland, this wasn’t truly true. One other Mexico aim at that stage would nonetheless have modified all the things once more; a 3-1 win for Mexico would have put them above Poland on objectives scored. And provided that subsequently a 3-1 win was of exactly the identical worth to Mexico as a 3-0 win, had been they in actual fact too cautious within the closing moments? Two late corners got here and went with out Guillermo Ochoa venturing ahead even if doing so was fairly actually risk-free. Conceding a aim meant completely nothing to Mexico’s probabilities – both manner they needed to rating a 3rd aim as soon as the Poland-Argentina consequence was confirmed. It was a aim that genuinely merited an “In some ways, Clive, that hasn’t modified the Mexicans’ process this night.”
Now the reply to that query might be that, like us, they didn’t actually give it some thought within the warmth of the second and solely labored all of it out a number of minutes later. But it surely’s not skilled worldwide soccer groups’ job to be as confused as we’re. Tonight all the time had the potential to succeed in such an absurdly tight conclusion, and the groups concerned ought to have been on high of all these situations and permutations.
Poland, for all the various maddening faults of their luck-riding 90-minute passivity, understood the project. They did what they needed to do by doing nothing in any respect.
