New-old blend powers Mexico past France in World Cup
Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — If the ageless Cuauhtemoc Blanco has come to represent Mexican soccer’s recent past, then the baby-faced Javier Hernandez is the country’s immediate future.
So it seemed only natural that they should meet in the middle in chilly Polokwane, South Africa, on Thursday to make sure Mexico’s present doesn’t end prematurely.
With both players coming off the bench in the second half to score a goal, Mexico rolled to a 2-0 win over France that all but guarantees El Tri a spot in the World Cup’s second round.
With four points, Mexico is tied with Uruguay, its Tuesday opponent, atop the Group A standings and need only avoid a loss in its final match to advance.
The French, meanwhile, finalists in two of the last three World Cups, have yet to score in this year’s tournament and with one match left will need a miracle to get out of group play.
“It was a big step, but we aren’t there yet,” a giddy Javier Aguirre, Mexico’s coach, said.
Indeed. Next week’s game with Uruguay will not only decide the group, it will also decide who plays Argentina in the second round. The loser will meet Diego Maradona’s powerhouse and the winner will get the Group B runner-up, either South Korea or Greece, leaving it with a much easier path to the quarterfinals.
For the time being, however, Aguirre will focus on Thursday’s victory.
“This was a very important win,” he said. “France is not just another team. It was a very complete game. Some of the best [play] I’ve seen from this group.”
And it was anchored by the oldest and one of the youngest players in that group.
Blanco, at 37, is 15 pounds heavier and more than a step slower than he was in his prime. But he remains an icon in Mexico, where he is the most beloved player of his era — an era that included three World Cup performances, all of which ended in the second round.
Hernandez, at 22, is the heir apparent, although the two couldn’t be more different. Blanco, who grew up poor in a Mexico City slum, is hot-tempered and sometimes coarse. Hernandez, who grew up the privileged son of a soccer star, is polished and bilingual with matinee-idol good looks.
Together, however, the odd couple has proved to be a potent pair. So when Hernandez and Blanco entered the game seven minutes apart early in the second half, they were tasked with doing the same thing they did so many times in Mexico’s pre-World Cup warmups: spark an offense that was getting the ball to the net, just not into it.
And two minutes after Blanco came on, Hernandez scored, escaping an offside trap, luring French keeper Hugo Lloris away from the goal, then dribbling around him and tapping the ball into the empty net with his right foot.
“I’m delighted,” Hernandez, who nearly quit soccer last year, said at a news conference afterward. “The goal is for the whole country.”
For Hernandez the goal continued a family tradition. Fifty-six years ago his grandfather, Tomas Balcazar, also scored in a World Cup game against France.
“I just remembered that now in the dressing room,” Hernandez said. “This is something I remember my grandfather for all the time.”
Balcazar’s goal was the final one Mexico scored in that tournament before bowing out after two losses, but El Tri had to wait only 15 minutes for its next goal in this World Cup with Blanco, deadly on the penalty kick, beating Lloris after French defender Eric Abidal fouled Pablo Barrera.
For Abidal, the penalty kick marked the end of a miserable night. Moved from left back to center half, he was out of position on Hernandez’s goal as well. And his team faces an almost impossibly tough climb out of group play, needing both a Mexico loss to Uruguay and its own one-sided win over South Africa.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s win got Mexico back on track for what many of the players have said will be a historic World Cup — something this tournament has already become with Mexico’s first-ever win over France.
But afterward, captain Rafael Marquez, who like Blanco is expected to retire from the national team after this tournament, cautioned his teammates about getting too excited or thinking too far ahead.
“We have to enjoy this win,” he told reporters. “We have to go step by step and be calm.”
Added Hernandez: “This is just a step, there’s a long road ahead.”
Mexico did get one piece of bad news Thursday when striker Carlos Vela was forced out of the game because of a first-half leg injury that Aguirre expressed concern about afterward.
