June 18 : Luis Romo’s second-half winner sent Mexico into the World Cup knockout stage as Group A winners, but the co-hosts’ 1-0 victory over South Korea owed more to opportunism and defensive resilience than attacking fluency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Javier Aguirre’s side have opened the tournament with two wins, secured top spot with a game to spare and ensured their knockout campaign against a third-placed team will begin in Mexico City on June 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On paper, it has been a perfect start. On the pitch, it has been more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romo broke the deadlock in the 50th minute after South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-Gyu collided with teammate Lee Gi-hyuk and spilled a cross into the midfielder’s path, leaving him with a simple finish from the centre of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal was greeted with relief as much as celebration after a first half in which Mexico struggled to turn possession into clear chances and Romo acknowledged the struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I don’t think we played a perfect game, but we won and that’s the most important thing \u2013 the fans will be happy,” he told Mexican TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hosts started brightly at Guadalajara Stadium, but South Korea grew into the game and sections of the home crowd booed the Mexican players at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mexico played with greater authority once ahead, with Raul Jimenez nearly adding a second from close range and substitute Obed Vargas forcing Kim into a sharp low save from distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aguirre acknowledged the performance had been short of fluency, while pointing to South Korea’s organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It wasn’t a great match, but the opposition didn’t let us do much either,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mexico’s most decisive moments came in defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Captain Edson Alvarez, filling in at centre back after Cesar Montes’ suspension, produced an acrobatic goal-line clearance to deny Son Heung-min before the South Korea captain was flagged offside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late on, Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel preserved their lead with a remarkable double save from point-blank range as South Korea pushed desperately for an equaliser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those interventions underlined both Mexico’s resilience and their vulnerability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were organised, committed and ruthless enough to punish an error. But they were also short of rhythm in the final third and needed defensive heroics to protect a lead created by a mistake rather than a sweeping attacking move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hosts are through, unbeaten and headed for a home knockout tie. They are also still looking for a sharper cutting edge if they are to progress deep in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 18 : Luis Romo’s second-half winner sent Mexico into the World Cup knockout stage as Group A winners, but the co-hosts’ 1-0 victory over South Korea owed more to opportunism and defensive resilience than attacking fluency. Javier Aguirre’s side have opened the tournament with two wins, secured top spot with a game to spare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417780,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417779\/revisions\/417780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}