Mexico falls to Ecuador, concludes worst ever appearance in U-20 World Cup tournaments.
The 2019 U-20 Mexican National team will go down in history as one of the biggest disappointments in Mexico youth soccer history after being defeated 1-0 by Ecuador and completing the group stage with ZERO points.
This tournament was the first time in 16 appearances that U-20 team had failed to get at least one point. Mexico, who was boasting a talented team, had some of the highest expectations entering the tournament. They were so high for the Mexican youngsters that many pundits considered them one of the favorites. In any case, neither Diego Lainez nor JJ Jimenez -who left his squad and didn’t play a final to be with this team- would make a big enough difference to catapult this team to the next round.
After dropping their first two games, to Italy and Japan respectively, El Tri was swimming against the current and needed a victory if they wanted any possibility of moving on to the next round. Once again, the young squad come out firing on all cylinders but were quickly neutralized by the South Americans.
In the 12th minute, the Ecuadorians would strike the first. Gonzalo Plata would send a shot past the Mexican goalkeeper to give Ecuador the 1-0 lead. The worst part about that goal besides, the score, was how Gustavo Vallecilla was able to take on four Mexican defenders before he set up a wide-open Plata who would easily score. The Aztec side looked lost and depleted after that goal, but knew that they needed to counter quickly as every minuted was vital.
In the 19th minute it appeared as though Mexico was going to get one back when Mario Trejo would score on a Diego Lainez free kick, the VAR, however, would show Trejo slightly offside and the call would be reverse putting Mexico in a hole once again. The game turned into a dud for Mexico and very little opportunities would be created by them.
Ecuador for their part, created better opportunities and could have easily scored several goals but were unable to capitalize. The Mexican squad wouldn’t get any more clear opportunities until the 8oth minute when they threatened the Ecuadorian goal on a header attempt that was saved by the South American goalkeeper.
Even if Mexico had scored, that would have not being enough to clinch, but it would have saved them the embarrassment of becoming the worst U-20 Mexican team ever that participated in a World Cup. After scoring versus Italy in the 37th minute, the Mexican side went 233 regulation minutes without getting another goal. The offense’s something that continues to plague Mexican teams at all level, and this wasn’t any different. The thing that makes this even worse is the fact; their two most prominent stars were both attacking players.
Lainez accepted full responsibility after the game, but the fans didn’t care. They didn’t want to hear any excuses and lit up the Mexican National Team’s social media accounts with “tronco” comments and how the players from the barrio have more heart and huevos!
At the end of the day, the team was eliminated and the team gets to go home, but the biggest loser wasn’t even this team or the fans, but likely JJ Macias, who left his club and missed an opportunity of playing the Liga MX final and worst of all, not knowing if he would have made a difference in helping them win the title they lost versus Tigres. The sad thing is, there are no do-overs in football. Like they say in Mexico, “el hubiera no existe”.
