El Tri had a rollercoaster of a tournament in Chile.
One of two non-South-American invitees to the tournament, Mexico just couldn’t make it past the group stages. Their results led to them being the first team to crash out of the Copa America.
In their first game of their South American campaign, El Tri was dull and lacked the ability to go ahead against Bolivia, tying their match 0-0.
In their second match, against Chile, El Tri’s performance was heroic. They went toe-to-toe with one of the tournament’s favorites in a crazy 3-3 draw, a result that gave fans and players alike optimism in Mexico making it to the next stage of the tournament.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. In the last chapter of their Copa America campaign, Mexico faced an inspired rival that wanted much more to advance. In their match against Ecuador, Mexico failed.
Everything was on the line for El Tri. Their game against Ecuador was a must-win to advance to the next stage of the Copa America. With two points to their name, they had to get a result from Ecuador. Ecuador, on the other hand, had lost their first two games and were fourth in Group A going into the match. Well, the unexpected happened.
All Mexico had to do was play with the passion and intensity they showed against Chile and they would have won their game against Ecuador. That was not the case.
Ecuador showed everyone what they were really made of when Miller Bolanos scored the first goal in the 26th minute. Some good work from Valencia by sending in a low cross for Bolanos to tap in gave Ecuador their first goal of the match.
Once again Vuoso led the line for El Tri, alongside Raul Jimenez, but they failed to continue their form together, with only one real moment that could have given Mexico the lead.
It came right before Ecuador’s goal.Vuoso did well in evading his marker but failed to get his shot on target, shooting wide of goal.He would later come to rue that failed opportunity. Credit to Tecatito though for continuing his brilliance in midfield. The Twente man pulled off an elastico three minutes after Ecuador went ahead. The second half began very much the same, with Mexico retaining possession for moments and Ecuador doing a great job mounting pressure on a makeshift Mexico defense.
Sure enough, less than 10 minutes after the start of the second half Ecuador put Mexico to the sword with their second goal of the game. Enner Valencia was the man. After providing an assist for Bolanos, Valencia managed to get on the scoresheet himself.
The goal was brilliantly taken.The match ended 2 - 0, with Ecuador taking third in the group and Mexico in fourth.
The result ends their disappointing Copa America, and Miguel Herrera and company will be eager to get back home after a tournament to forget. They failed to meet the expectations of reaching the later stages of the tournament and will rue the chances they didn’t take during their matches against Bolivia and Ecuador. < p > We can argue as to why they failed, defensive injuries, it was a“B”team and so on, but at the end of the day Mexico didn’t want it as bad as the other countries did and they will go home knowing that they didn’t do their country or their pride any good.
