WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Mexico Gets Off on the Right Foot in Second Game : Group E: Garcia scores twice and team holds off Ireland, 2-1. Division is a virtual four-way tie.
His players’ legs were heavier than lead, their gasps for air frantic, and Mexico Coach Miguel Mejia Baron was worried.
Ireland had just scored, cutting Mexico’s lead to 2-1 with six minutes to play and sending a jolt of enthusiasm through the Irish faithful at the Florida Citrus Bowl.
Baron was facing calamity. To have played two World Cup games and not to have won either? Unthinkable. Unpardonable.
“There are many things that cross your mind in that situation,” Baron said. “Strange things happen in your head.”
Strange things almost happened on the field too. But Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos managed to stretch his full length to grab a curving shot by Andy Townsend in the 90th minute, preserving Mexico’s triumph and leaving the four teams in Group E tied with three points each.
But thanks to John Aldridge’s goal, in the 84th minute, Ireland emerged from the defeat with a share of the group lead. If teams are even in points, the first tiebreaker is goal differential. Since all four have given up as many as they’ve scored, the next tiebreaker is goals scored. Mexico and Ireland have each scored two, Italy and Norway one each.
“You get those in training every day. It comes natural,” Aldridge said of his header, which was set up by a pass from Jason McAteer deep on the right side. “I guess it can be a big goal now.”
The biggest goals of the day, though, were scored by Luis Garcia, who was moved from center-forward to the right side to revitalize Mexico’s offense after its 1-0 loss to Norway on Sunday.
Garcia capitalized on the Irish players’ fatigue toward the end of the first half, taking a short back-pass from Carlos Hermosillo and blasting a rolling shot past goalkeeper Pat Bonner and inside the left post in the 44th minute.
Then, in the 66th minute, with the Irish pressing for a tie, Garcia took a short pass from Alberto Garcia Aspe--who neatly dodged defender Denis Irwin--and powered a right-footed shot past Bonner from outside the 18-yard box.
Baron wouldn’t discuss Garcia’s individual effort, preferring to praise his team’s collective rebound from its opening defeat.
“I am very happy with my team,” he said. “We played with an extraordinary spirit and we took our opportunities well. It was something very wonderful for me and for Mexico.
“When one lives through these moments in life, one learns more about life. My team played with great humility, worked very hard at their game and also had some luck.”
The Irish players and Coach Jack Charlton felt it was their bad luck to play in Orlando, where they and the sellout crowd of 61,219 roasted in the intense heat and cloying humidity.
“You’re sweating the whole day if you’re doing nothing, so imagine what it’s like out there when you’re playing,” McAteer said. “It really takes a lot out of the lads. The lads were saying it was much warmer than it was in New Jersey (site of their first game).”
Said Charlton: “(The Mexicans) played very well. They closed it down very quickly, which is remarkable in this heat. It was very much the way we play in Europe. Unfortunately, we weren’t playing in Europe today. We were playing in 100-degree temperature in the southern part of America. And it wasn’t easy for us. But we accept that we lost the game. We’ll play the next time in winter and see how it works out.”
Mexican reporters took that as a slight against the Mexican team, which Charlton said he hadn’t intended. He said he felt the conditions were one reason for Ireland’s loss, but not the sole reason.
“A very good team beat us, but they had to be a very good team to beat us,” he said at a postgame news conference.
However, he had been overheard telling an Irish TV crew before he left the field, “The Mexicans didn’t beat us. The weather beat us.”
Whatever the reason, Mexico dominated the game. Charlton, playing not to lose, deployed only one forward and stacked the midfield with five players.
The strategy didn’t hurt until the waning minutes of the first half, when the heat left the Irish too tired to play their usual energetic running game.
“Heat like that burns your buns,” Irish defender Terry Phelan said. “There’s no way we could get up and down the (field).”
Said Townsend: “The sun was relentless. I think even their guys, in the last 10 to 15 minutes, were affected by the heat. But I think we finished the stronger team.”
But Mexico finished as the winning team because of Garcia, who has honed his skills playing for Atletico Madrid in the Spanish League. He wasn’t a factor in Mexico’s opener but posed a near-constant threat Friday.
“We played a faster game; we played more in the air,” Garcia said. “We controlled the ball more.”
Said Hermosillo: “We are in excellent position to advance into the second round. We must play Italy with the same passion and intensity. If we play with a team concept, we will win.”
Ireland plays Norway in its final game.
“We ran ourselves into the ground today to try and get something from the game and we came very close,” Charlton said. “But it is not the end of the world. There will be no recriminations from me about the game. We lost the game, fine. I always had a feeling this would be the game which would cost us.”
