With the Heat On, Mexico Plays It Cool

They’re known as the Diables Rouges--Red Devils--so Belgian players should have felt at home Saturday when the broiling sun hovering over Stade Lescure warmed temperatures to inferno-like levels.

“It was incredible,” defender Gordan Vidovic said of heat that peaked at 97 degrees. “This was the most difficult match of my life.”

Despite the Belgians’ nickname, it was the Mexican players who kept their cool in terms of poise, if not in the meteorological sense.

Playing with verve and determination despite losing defender Pavel Pardo to a red card in the 29th minute, Mexico scored twice in the last 35 minutes to grab an entertaining and important 2-2 draw in Group E play. Undaunted after Belgium’s Marc Wilmots scored two goals, one in the 44th minute and again in the 48th, Mexico took over the midfield in the second half and challenged Belgium’s vaunted defense until it cracked.

“It makes us feel good because we were down and we kept going and going,” said Mexican coach Manuel Lapuente, whose team previously defeated South Korea, 3-1. “It was tremendous to have fans there for us. We had character and we had spirit.”

Mexico scored its first goal on a penalty kick by Alberto Garcia Aspe and its second on a volley by Cuauhtemoc Blanco in the 63rd minute, a stunning comeback.

“In a certain way, we gave this game away. It was 2-0 and we were playing 11 against 10,” said Belgian midfielder Gert Verheyen, who came in for the injured Danny Boffin in the 18th minute but was sent off in the 55th minute for bringing down midfielder Ramon Ramirez on the play that gave Mexico its penalty kick.

“If they hadn’t lost a player, I never would have got the red card. It was very exaggerated. . . . This result is very hard to swallow. It should never happen.”

But it did.

“We have to be very happy because we were in trouble,” Blanco said. “But we were not ready to panic. We had to stay calm and we told ourselves that at halftime.”

Mexico and the Netherlands each have four points but the Netherlands leads the group on its plus-five goal differential. Belgium is third with two points on two draws. Mexico and the Netherlands will meet Thursday at Saint-Etienne to determine the group winner, but Belgium can advance if it defeats South Korea by a large margin Thursday at Paris’ Parc des Princes and Mexico and the Netherlands tie.

“Mexico proved to be a good team. To have one man less and then come back from 2-0 down, that shows good qualities. I was a little bit surprised,” Belgian goalkeeper Filip De Wilde said. “At the end of the first half, they really let it go. But in the second half, they found some new forces. I don’t think we played a very good game today.”

They played well in the early stages, moving up along the flanks and controlling the ball with smart, accurate passing. When Pardo tackled Vital Borkelmans late and from behind, Belgium gained an extra man for the second successive game. In its opener, a scoreless draw with the Netherlands, Belgium was unable to capitalize on the one-man edge it gained after Patrick Kluivert was thrown out in the 81st minute.

On Saturday, Belgium made the most of the situation. Wilmots’ first goal was set up on a corner kick from the left side by Luis Oliveira. The ball glanced off the back of the head of a Mexican player in front of the goal before deflecting onto Wilmots’ chest and falling to his left hip. He had only to nudge it forward to get it past goalkeeper Jorge Campos.

Wilmots made a spectacular play on the second goal. He snaked through several defenders, the last being Duilio Davino and Claudio Suarez, and almost lost his balance before sending a 10-yard shot past Campos, who had come well out of the net.

All appeared to be going well for the Red Devils and their fans, who cheerfully vied for vocal supremacy with the Mexican supporters in the crowd. “Until 2-0, everything was under control and it wasn’t too hard to keep going,” Verheyen said. “Suddenly, we had problems.”

His takedown of Ramirez was the biggest problem. “A red card was definitely too much, but we have seen in this World Cup several players sent away for exaggerated reasons,” Verheyen said, referring to six ejections in previous games.

Yet, his coach, Georges Leekens, agreed with the call by referee Hugh Dallas of Scotland. “I want to say the refereeing was good,” Leekens said. “Everybody has been complaining but the red card was right and also the penalty against us.”

Leekens’ only complaint centered on his team’s failure to protect the lead. “When a match is 2-0 you have to keep the ball and try to hold the ball. You have to go for the third one and finish the game,” he said.

Garcia Aspe converted the penalty kick with a shot into the lower-left corner of the net, giving Mexico life. Blanco tied it when he took a sensational left-footed cross from Ramirez and volleyed it past De Wilde while hurtling through the air. “We just didn’t give up,” Ramirez said. “We showed that we know how to come back.”

And how to take the heat.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SUMMARY / GROUP E at Bordeaux

Belgium 2,

Mexico 2

SCORING SUMMARY

Belgium: 1 1--2

Mexico: 0 2--2

First-half scoring--1, Belgium, Wilmots 1, 44th minute.

Second-half scoring--2, Belgium, Wilmots 2, 48th. 3, Mexico, Garcia Aspe 1 (penalty kick), 56th. 4, Mexico, Blanco 1, 63rd.

Shots--Belgium 14. Mexico 10.

Shots on goal--Belgium 5. Mexico 7.

Offsides--Belgium 1, Mexico 6.

Fouls--Belgium 12, Mexico 9.

Yellow cards--Belgium, Vidovic, 69th. Mexico, Ramirez, 39th.

Red cards--Belgium, Verheyen, 55th. Mexico, Pardo 29th.

Referee--Dallas, Scotland. Linesmen--Al Musawi, Oman; Foley, Ireland.

Attendance--NA

LINEUPS

Mexico--Jorge Campos; Pavel Pardo, Joel Sanchez, Duilio Davino, Ramon Ramirez; Alberto Garcia Aspe (Raul Lara, 68th), Claudio Suarez, Jaime Ordiales (German Villa, 58th); Luis Hernandez, Francisco Palencia (Jesus Arellano, 46th), Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

Belgium--Filip De Wilde; Eric Deflandre, Gordan Vidovic, Lorenzo Staelens, Vital Borkelmans; Marc Wilmots, Franky Van Der Elst (Glen De Boeck, 67th), Enzo Scifo, Danny Boffin (Gert Verheyen, 18th); Luc Nilis (Lokonda Mpenza, 77th), Luis Oliveira.