Mexico vs. Brazil: What Monumental Victory Means for Future of Mexican Soccer
Josh Schoch@JoshSchoch
Analyst IIIAugust 11, 2012
30 seconds. It took less than 30 seconds for Mexico to notch the first goal of their gold medal game against Brazil, and they never looked back.
Mexico won its first ever Olympic gold, upsetting Brazil, who were massive favorites behind the play of Neymar. However, Oribe Peralta scored the fastest Olympic goal since FIFA began keeping records of such things and added a 75th minutes header to lift Mexico to a 2-1 victory.
The game was really over once Peralta scored his second goal, putting the Mexicans up 2-0 and sealing a gold medal. While the Brazilians fought valiantly it was all for naught, as they only scored one goal.
Mexican coach Luis Fernando Tena described the victory after the game.
"Mexico will be celebrating on the streets. It is a great honor for a coach to see his players singing the national anthem with gold medals around their necks. It's a very important moment for Mexican football. It's a great moment for us." —Huffington Post
A very important moment indeed.
This Olympic gold gives Mexico the Gold Cup, U-17 World Cup, Toulon Tournament and the Olympic victory in the last year. Four huge international championships makes Mexico one of the top international powerhouses in the world right now.
Soccer in the Olympics is always a sign of things to come. The fact that it is a U-23 competition lets us see what great young talents are still to come, and Mexico proved that their young players are even better than those of Brazil.
With a bright future ahead of them thanks to their U-17 and U-23 teams, Mexico is on the verge of becoming the best country in world football.
Their 2-0 victory over Brazil in a friendly in June was seen as a fluke, but their play today may have proved that it wasn't.
With great young players rising through their ranks such as Giovani Dos Santos, Marco Fabian and Hiram Mier, the future is bright for Mexico.
While the team is very good now, they will soon become great, and then elite. Their young players are among the best in the world, making Mexico one of the future leaders of world football.
This victory over Brazil couldn't have meant more. With a victory in the friendly and on Saturday we saw this team surpass Brazil, who is always among the best in the world.
That means that Mexico is on its way up, and all that's left to do is sit back and enjoy the rise.