Mexico 1, Cameroon 0: Despite poor officiating, Mexico earn deserved victory

As we learned yesterday in Brazil’s 3-1 victory over Croatia, the scoreline can often be deceiving. Results aren’t always the best representative for process. 

Fortunately for Mexico, the right team won today, even if the final scoreline didn’t completely reflect their efforts. Poor officiating tarnished the mirror in this case, with two unnecessary offside calls, and a missed penalty call, that should've boosted El Tri's tally.

Mexico overcame Cameroon and the officials through their pressing and swarming midfielders in defense, and a forward attack up the middle that consistently caught their opponents off guard.

The Goal

GOAL! Oribe Peralta (MEX), 61 min. Finally, a wonderful through ball from Peralta allowed dos Santos to run through the two Cameroon center backs, but a well timed push from Itandje blocked the initial shot. The rebound fell at the feet of the oncoming Peralta who fired it home.

Man of the Match - Giovani dos Santos

In the lead up to the World Cup, Miguel Herrera tried several different strike partnerships up front before settling on the dos Santos/Peralta combination. Perhaps more important than the players he chose in the starting eleven, though, was how he used the two forwards in the middle, supporting each other, rather than on the right and left, looking to support from the midfield.

Not only did this free up the wing-backs up the flanks with more space, but it gave dos Santos the center forward role, with which he appeared vastly more comfortable. His attacking in the first half was relentless, and he appeared to be in the right place at the right time on almost every Mexico possession.

The only thing stopping him from actually finishing on the chances he generated and capitalized on was the officiating.

The Controversies

Oh, boy. Where to begin?

How about in the 11th minute when Marquez fired a cross in from the right side that dos Santos smashed past Itandje. OFFSIDE! according to the linesman, and no one else.

Then, in the 30th minute, dos Santos got to a corner that was flicked on by a Cameroonian defender, and nodded it past Itandje, but just as before, it was ruled OFFSIDE! without cause.

Just before the first half ended, dos Santos — you see a theme, here? — was holding off Chedjou on the left side of the box, when he was brought down by the Cameroon defender. Instead of a penalty, the referee ruled a corner for Mexico.

What did the winning team do to win?

Mexico did well in the early going by attacking up the left flank with Layun and Guardado working well together while also benefiting from Djeugoue’s curious decision to sit way back in defense. In fact, Cameroon seemed happy to sit back through the first ten minutes before mustering anything approaching an attack.

As touched on earlier, putting two forwards in the middle of the pitch gave more space to the Mexico wing-backs and midfielders to operate, but it also seemed to confound the Cameroon center backs who were ill-prepared to deal with attacks in waves from dos Santos and Peralta.

How did the winning team stop the losing team from winning?

Other than a nice run from Benoît Assou-Ekotto up the left side, the only thing Mexico had to worry about in the first half were set pieces. That was the result of Cameroon being listless in attack, but also because of Mexico’s pressing in defense, and swarming ball holders in the midfield with multiple defenders.

It takes a lot of energy to play in this style, but hunting in a pack worked well for Mexico, even if some members of the squad were running on empty at the end of the match. This made for a couple of dramatic moments near the end, including an incredible save in the 90th minute from Ochoa.

Assou-Ekotto placed a cross into the box, which Moukandjo headed into the corner. Ochoa, leapt across the goal line to not only reach, but catch the ball before it went in.

The Takeaway

It’s difficult to gather if Mexico played really well, or Cameroon played terribly. El Tri was such a difficult squad to read during their pre-World Cup friendlies — an undeserved loss to Portugal and an unprepared loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina — that no matter what happened in today’s match it wouldn’t have been that surprising.

Nonetheless, Mexico haven’t lost any ground to Brazil in Group A, and that was vital coming into this match. They’ll take on the hosts on Tuesday, where a win for either side would ensure advancement to the knockout stage.

Stray Thoughts

What are those giant squeegee like things they were using before the match to — presumably — push the water on the pitch to the touch lines?

The more you know: Alex Song is one of 27 siblings. Ugh.

Ochoa’s huge save in the 90th minute was just spectacular. There’s something about his story — a Mexican goalkeeper playing in Europe, after being wrongly accused of PED use — that makes him incredibly easy to cheer for.

Chicharito’s miss in added time is the type of miss someone who hasn’t scored in a year for their national team gets.

Miguel Herrera is the most fun manager to watch in the tournament, right?

Maza and Rafa Marquez were the best defenders for Mexico. With the line playing so high, these two acted as anchors keeping Samuel Eto’o at bay throughout the match.