A highly emotional game ended in a 0-0 draw for the Mexican national team against Poland. The game pretty much played out how we’d expected. Mexico had the ball for long stretches of the game with Poland mostly content to remain behind the ball and defend. Although there were bright spots offensively for Mexico, mainly Alexis Vega the team still has trouble creating clear goal scoring chances.
On the back end the only sin was Moreno’s penalty kick. It’s a play that probably would go unnoticed if not for VAR. When you look at the replay you can see that Moreno ends up pulling Lewandowski’s jersey from the front. Those plays are going to be called within this World Cup as we’ve seen. Let’s start with the good news though.
The Positive Things For Mexico
Ochoa Is In World Cup Form
Ochoa essentially had one save in the game, but it was a pivotal one for sure. That Lewandowski penalty would’ve been unfair punishment for Mexico because at that point in the game Mexico had been the much better team. Thankfully for Mexico’s cause there is a second gear that Ochoa is able to activate at World Cups. Mexico may need some more of that magic particularly heading into that Argentina game.
Vega Is Playing Like His Regular Self
With the loss of Tecatito to injury someone had to step up and fill the void. The problem was that anyone who could step up had to be a young player with no World Cup experience. Alexis Vega stepped up to the challenge and even took the number 10 jersey to essentially show that a lot of responsibility was going to be put on his shoulders. Although he wasn’t able to find the back of the net Vega was essentially himself throughout the game. He didn’t look nervous at all, and he was actually the most consistent offensive presence for Mexico ahead of Chucky Lozano.
The Negatives
There’s a Lack of Creativity Up Front
One of the issues that we pointed out with Mexico heading into the tournament was the lack of goal scoring chances that the team was able to develop in the tune-up games. The issue was on full display against Poland again. Perhaps today Mexico was a bit shy about trying to beat Szczesny from outside the box. Arguably the best chance for Mexico was a Henry Martin header after a long shot from outside the box. Luis Chavez played a couple of high through balls that caused some damage, but ultimately there is a lack of creativity from Mexico that they’re going to need to address. They match up better height wise with Argentina’s back line so maybe some of those crosses that they put into the box will be more likely to find recipients.
No One From The Bench Seems To Be An Answer
There’s an argument to be made that Martino took a bit too long to start making changes. In any case none of the players that came into the game showed a change of peace. Antuna had a couple of runs, but he wasn’t able to really generate goal scoring chances. Raul Jimenez looked a bit less stiff than he did against Sweden. Still he doesn’t seem to be a huge answer for Mexico. We’re only one game in and we could say that Mexico did miss Lainez, and Santi Gimenez today. Henry Martin’s game was not terrible, but he’s not a major asset to the team either. Maybe Lainez and Santi could’ve provided more of a change of peace. Martino didn’t even use all of his subs. That tells you he doesn’t seem to think that he has too many answers on the bench either!
