Mexico Hands Over Win, Still Advances

The wheels didn’t come completely off Mexico’s World Cup wagon Wednesday, but they held up just barely long enough for Coach Ricardo Lavolpe’s team to wobble into the round of 16.

Consider these miscues, all in the space of a 90-minute, 2-1 loss to Portugal:

* Mexico gave up a penalty kick when its highest profile player, defender Rafael Marquez, inexplicably reached up to knock the ball away with his hand on a Portuguese corner kick. His mental lapse led to a penalty kick that Simao Sabrosa easily dispatched, giving Portugal a two-goal lead in the 24th minute, after Maniche had put it in front with a goal after only six minutes.

“I jumped and I just hit the ball,” Marquez said, an excuse that will not readily be bought by Mexican fans considering his vast experience.

* Mexico missed a penalty kick of its own when its current golden boy, forward Omar Bravo, skied his shot high over the crossbar from 12 yards. Bravo clutched his head in disbelief afterward. He had tried for power and forgotten accuracy.

“I was thinking, obviously, that I should have hit it with less force,” he said later.

Had Bravo found the back of the net, Mexico might have come away with a tie instead of the loss.

Now, it faces the unenviable prospect of having to play Argentina, one of the World Cup favorites, in Leipzig when the knockout phase of the tournament begins on Saturday.

* Mexico lost its influential midfielder Luis Ernesto Perez, leaving it to play a man short for the final 30 minutes, after Slovakian referee Michel Lubos correctly ruled that Perez had dived in the area, attempting to earn a penalty, and had then argued the call.

Perez’s ejection, for his second yellow card after one he had been given for a foul on Maniche, means that he must sit out the Argentina game, limiting Lavolpe’s options off the bench.

* Marquez, who was curiously out of touch most of the game, got himself a yellow card late in the match, and that could have meant his ejection, too, had Lubos given him a card for the earlier handball. Fortunately for Mexico, Lubos had considered the penalty kick punishment enough.

All in all, it was not Mexico’s finest display, and the team seems to be regressing after its opening 3-1 victory over Iran, followed by its 0-0 tie with Angola.

“Our biggest rival now is Mexico,” striker Guillermo Franco said.

Portugal, meanwhile, is gaining confidence. It swept its group, having earlier defeated Angola, 1-0, and Iran, 2-0.

Much of its success is because of Coach Luis Felipe Scolari, who has demonstrated a willingness to gamble when the odds are in his favor.

If he were afraid of taking chances, Scolari would never have won the World Cup with Brazil four years ago. Nor would he have given up perhaps the most enviable coaching position in soccer to accept the challenge of coaching Portugal, a perennial also-ran.

And neither would he have taken the Portuguese all the way to the final of Euro 2004, before Greece tripped them up.

On Wednesday, Scolari rolled the dice once again, electing to leave five starters on the bench even though first place in the World Cup group was on the line.

Not just any players, either. The quintet included star forwards Cristian Ronaldo of Manchester United and Pauleta of Paris Saint Germain, along with key playmaker Deco of European champion FC Barcelona.

All five had earned yellow cards in Portugal’s previous two matches and faced suspension if they received another. So Scolari benched the five, gambling that he could defeat Mexico even without them.

“None of them is going to play one minute, even if Mexico is winning, 30-0,” Scolari said.

Portugal did not need them.

“Things could not be better,” Scolari beamed after extending his World Cup-record winning streak to 10 games, having won seven in a row with Brazil in 2002.

The victory clinched first place in the group for Portugal, which will play the Netherlands in Nuremberg on Sunday in the round of 16.