Mexico’s men’s soccer team continues its undefeated streak in its nation’s capital on June 24, beating Czechia 3–0 in front of a home crowd.
That victory completed “El Tricolor’s” perfect 3–0 run through the preliminary round-robin group stage of the World Cup, a record third time their country has hosted it.
Mexico had already secured its advancement to the elimination round of 32 teams after beating South Africa 2–0 and then beating South Korea 1–0. But they still had one more opponent to beat: Czechia.
The central European challengers were able to hold Mexico to a scoreless first half. But that all changed 10 minutes after half-time when Mateo Chávez got a break down the right side of the field past the defenders and threw Czech goaltender Matej Kovár into a futile split as he sent the ball across the line to make it 1–0.
The second goal came six minutes later. Jorge Sánchez drove the ball deep into the Czechs’ six-yard box with Julián Quiñones right behind him. Dropped to the ground, Sánchez blocked Czech attempts to clear until Quiñones arrived and finished the job to make it 2–0.
Over the rest of the half, Mexico would use all of its substitution opportunities, including taking an opportunity to sub out the starting goalkeeper, Guillermo Ochoa, 78 minutes into the game. The home crowd erupted in applause for the reliable keeper who, like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, was appearing in his sixth World Cup. Ochoa was replaced by Raúl Rangel, who not only completed the shutout but also kicked off the driving play that resulted in his team’s third and final goal of the night.
He launched the ball down the right sideline to Santiago Giménez, who took it down to the box for a shot. The ball bounced off Kovár and found Roberto Alvarado. He then passed it to Álvaro Fidalgo, who finished the job by sending the ball to the top-left corner four minutes into stoppage time.
Mexico City once again erupted in celebration as the final minutes wound down to full-time.
Czechia, however, goes home eliminated from the tournament, earning only one point in a draw with South Africa.
South Africa, meanwhile, was able to salvage its group stage performance to secure second place in the group and a spot in the elimination round by getting its first win of the tournament in a 1–0 victory against South Korea in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 24.
South Africa is now set to play Canada on June 28 as the first game in the elimination round. Mexico is set to play one of the eight third-place finishers of the group stage, and it is unclear at the time of this article’s publication which team that will be.
