Mexico win Olympic Gold against fancied Brazil ⋆ An Old International

Mexico win Olympic Gold against fancied Brazil

[typography font=”Alike” size=”14″ size_format=”px”]Mexico have won Olympic Gold in the Wembley final against Brazil. That is quite an achievement. However, it fits into a bigger picture of recent Mexican success on the football pitch.[/typography]

[typography font=”Alike” size=”20″ size_format=”px”]First International Title for Mexico[/typography]

[typography font=”Alike” size=”14″ size_format=”px”]Mexico have so far claimed their biggest success in football by beating Brazil featuring Neymar and Hulk 2-1 thanks to two goals by Oribe Peralta, one of three players over 23. Of course, 9 titles in the Middle American Nations Cup are not to be devalued but Olympic Gold outweighs this as it presents an international title, while the continental championship is slightly biased with Mexico and the United States sharing titles since 1991.[/typography]

[typography font=”Alike” size=”14″ size_format=”px”]Last year Mexico’s under 17s have won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico against Uruguay with a 2-0 victory. In the same tournament Germany cam third after beating Brazil 4-3, after being 3-1 down after 35 minutes. Also last year, Mexico’s under-20s have managed a third place at the World Cup for their age group, beating France 3-1. It looks as though Mexico does possess a gifted youth to form a senior squad. However, on the world stage, the seniors have not particularly achieved much. Last year’s Copa America saw them going home after the group stage in a group with Uruguay, the later winners, Chile and Peru this was not a great overall performance, admittedly. These inspiring successes of their youth teams make their gold medal triumph even more noteworthy, particularly as it came against a much fancied Brazil side. Richard Williams in the Guardian newspaper even spoke of little sing of a squad to regain the World Cup in 2014 on home soil.[/typography]

[typography font=”Alike” size=”14″ size_format=”px”]A closer look at the semi-finals at this year’s Olympics will show a glaring absence of any European team. Only Great Britain made it to the quarter-finals where they were eliminated in typical style: they lost 4-5 on penalties against South Korea! The other European teams, Switzerland, Spain and Belarus went home after the group stage. Unlike the World Cup, Europe played no major role at these Olympics. Instead Asia fought out the third place match between South Korea and Japan, while South America played out the winner among themselves. It would be interesting to see if this is just a trend or indeed a shift in weight from Europe to Asia and South America. The latter will certainly be stronger in the coming years as they have a home world cup, the first since 1994, to look forward to.[/typography]

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