The draw between Mexico and Poland tells us nothing.
Pre-game environment
After Saudi Arabia ended Argentina’s unbeaten run, it became clear that the match between Mexico and Poland could be the decider for the two teams. Initially, it was expected, everyone considered these two rivals to be the main contenders for 2nd place in the group, as Argentina’s first place seemed unshakable, but no matter how.
The Mexican national team is a starter in the World Cup playoffs and favorites in all North American national tournaments. However, they only came to Qatar from 2nd place. Canada made a small sensation by being able to score the same number of points as the Mexicans, but ahead of them in additional indicators. Gerardo Martino is the coach of Mexico. In 2010, Tata led the Paraguay national team to the quarterfinals of the World Cup and reached the Copa America final twice with the Argentina national team, both times without success.
In Mexico, Tata built attacking football, and at the current World Cup, almost everyone expects his team to reach the playoffs, where the Mexicans went out 7 times in a row. Although Mexico was positioned as the favorites of today’s match and the main contender for 2nd place in the group, the fight in this meeting was expected to be close. The changed circumstances associated with Argentina’s bankruptcy only added to the intrigue and tension of the evening match, as a win would have allowed them to seriously claim first place.
For the Poland national team, its players were said to be approaching the start of the World Cup in fine form. Robert Lewandowski is La Liga’s top scorer this season and one of the best players in world football in recent years. Piotr Zieliński, a key player in the incredible Napoli, managed to take part in 13 goals for the team in 21 games, playing deeper than in the national team. Also, we can note Schesny and Milik, who are the leaders of another Italian club – Juventus. This year, defender Matty Cash, born and raised in England, made his debut for the national team, but realized in time that he could not get into the basis of this team and accepted the offer of the Polish national team, where comes from with its roots.
The picture of the match was quite expected
The teams exchanged dangerous moments in the first 10 minutes. The Poles responded to a dangerous cross from the Mexicans with a 2 in 1 counterattack. The Polish national team was unable to benefit from the counterattack, as well as the 3 corners in a row that followed.
After that, Mexico gained the upper hand, had good approaches to the opponent’s goal, while Poland played mostly with shots towards Lewandowski, who still couldn’t get the ball. It is significant that most of the direct passes to the forward were made by Shchezny, who repeatedly sent the ball somewhere forward in the hope that Robert would be able to keep it. In most of these cases, the ball went to the Mexicans and the game escalated into a positional attack.
Almost the entire initiative of the last match came from the Mexican national team, despite the names, as they seemed known to the general public, to have more personality than the Polish national team. However, neither these personalities, nor consultations with Marcelo Bielsa helped to put at least boring football.
It seemed that with the start of the second half the game changed. The Mexicans made several dangerous attacks towards Schesnoy’s goal, but received a penalty in return, earned by Robert Lewandowski. The match for the Poles at that moment was not going well. The defenders’ play in defense was not the most reliable, shots and counterattack attempts did not bring anything dangerous. As usual, in games like this everything is decided thanks to the actions of high-level players who know how to decide the episode.
Robert Lewandowski, who had not previously scored at the World Cup, took the ball and went for a penalty. However, among the Mexicans there was almost the main character of the country of the last world championships – Guillermo Ochoa, who, most likely, will become one again after the current world championship draw. Since the start of the 2014 World Cup, Ochoa has avoided 5.4 goals against Mexico, which is his best result in the same period. Well, Poland became the first team that hasn’t scored three penalties in a row in various world championships.
After being rejected by Ochoa’s penalty, his teammates had a certain fuse, which led to several good moments. However, this impulse was short-lived and after a 10-minute attack on the Shchesnoy gates, the Mexicans failed to create a single chance. The game began to pass under the dictation of the Poles, but without any emphasis on attacking.
The fight for the playoffs will continue until the last round
The results of the first matches of group C make it clear that, most likely, all 4 teams will fight for the playoffs before the 3rd round of the group stage. There are only two possible scenarios in which this won’t happen: Saudi Arabia’s victory over the Polish national team and Mexico’s victory over Argentina. Based on what we’ve seen today, none of the above scenarios can be ruled out, but the main feeling, at least for this group, has already occurred.
