Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний хүрээнд болсон Англи болон Мексикийн шигшээ багуудын тоглолт хөлбөмбөгийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн дурсамжтай, өрсөлдөөнтэй тулаануудын нэг болж өндөрлөв.
Английн шигшээ баг тамирчдын биеийн хүчний хувьд туйлдсан ч сэтгэл зүйн хүч чадлаараа Мексикийг буулган авч, тэмцээний дараагийн шатанд шалгарлаа. Энэхүү тоглолт нь Мексикийн хувьд тэмцээнийг өндөрлөж буй сэтгэл хөдөлгөм, басхүү гунигтай үдэлт болсон юм. Гилберто Мора тэргүүтэй Мексикийн залуу тоглогчид өөрсдийн ур чадварыг харуулж, талбай дээр бүхнээ зориулан тоглосон ч Английн туршлагатай багт ялагдал хүлээв.
Мексикийн дасгалжуулагч Хавьер Агирре тоглолтын дараа сэтгэл хөдлөлөө барьж дийлэлгүй, хөгжөөн дэмжигчиддээ баяр баясгалан бэлэглэхийг хүссэн ч харамсалтайгаар хожигдлоо хэмээн нулимстай өгүүлсэн юм. Мексик орон энэ сарын турш Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээнийг амьсгалж, Мехико хот хөлбөмбөгийн галзуу уур амьсгалд автсан нь тэмцээний хамгийн тод илрэл байв.
Тэмцээний зохион байгуулалт Мексикт өндөрлөж, цаашид АНУ-д үргэлжлэхээр болсон нь хөлбөмбөгийн хорхойтнуудын хувьд нэгэн үеийн төгсгөл мэт санагдаж байна. Ацтека цэнгэлдэх хүрээлэн энэ удаагийн тоглолтоор хөлбөмбөгийн том тэмцээн ямар байх ёстойг дэлхий нийтэд харуулж чадлаа.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
This: this is what you could have won.
It was a night that bordered on the lunatic, flirted with the impossible — a rolling, shape-shifting diorama of human joy and suffering. It was football as a shaken-up fizzy drink, impossible to tamp down once it had been cracked open. It was the kind of experience that you would have needed some kind of celestial pause button to even vaguely comprehend; it wasn’t just that things were happening, it was that literally everything was happening, all the time. 112 minutes times infinity is infinity.
It was a game that we will rightly layer meaning onto, in the immediate aftermath and then for years to come. Not many events feel historic in real time. This did. For England especially, it will go down as one of the great World Cup stories, a gallant victory of the spirit achieved in a state of physical ruin.
There was, though, something else here, too. Something valedictory, a note of melancholy sounding against the boisterous celebrations of the England fans.
It was a night of goodbyes — to this admirable Mexico side, to Mexico itself, to the people who have made the southern leg of FIFA’s bloated competition its best experience, its dislocated heart. To the Estadio Azteca, which here provided a blueprint for what big-tournament matches like this should look like, what they should do to your soul. And, yes, to the departing version of the World Cup with all of this still in play.
Mexico’s heartbroken players applaud their fans after defeat to England (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
First: the team. This is not a constellation of stars. Gilberto Mora, a little sugar snap of a midfielder, will go far. There are a couple of biggish names. Beyond that, we’re talking grafters, journeymen, guys who have never played outside of Mexico. That sounds like a dig but it is the opposite: they have proven that they can compete, can carry the flag. One of the great tragedies of the Mexican game is that it never quite managed to build on the promise of the 1986 World Cup here. It is not a mistake you expect them to make again.
The coach, Javier Aguirre, has undergone his own transformation. He had a reputation for being truculent and miserly. For the last four weeks, he has had this country eating out of the palm of his hand, sprinkling his press conferences with profanity and genial little references to his grandkids. In his third spell in charge he has become Mexico’s uncle, maybe even its spirit animal.
There was honour in this being his final game. Honour, too, in his remarks after the final whistle. “We wanted to give people one more night of joy,” he said, tears glassing up his eyes. “I am running out of words. I am overtaken by my emotions.”
Mexico itself has suffered the same fate over this last dizzy month. This nation has not hosted the World Cup; it has injected it, mainlined it, overdosed on it. Mexico City especially has been almost unhinged in its devotion to this thing, its streets kaleidoscopic demonstrations of the fact.
There are murals of every conceivable footballer and some inconceivable ones, too; this is surely the only World Cup host city with a building-sized painting of Shinsuke Nakamura in it. Green shirts are beyond ubiquitous and not just on humans: there have been ducks in Mexico kits, dogs in Mexico kits, religious icons in Mexico kits. Somewhere out there is a Mexico kit with its own Mexico kit.
Other images and sounds will endure, too. Supporters swimming down flooded bus lanes on Paseo de Reforma. Mexico’s new catchphrase, going from a whisper to a shout in the space of a week. More fancy dress than is probably advisable. Juan Gabriel, patron saint of heartbreak, ringing out on the Azteca PA system, 80,000 pilgrims hollering along. The sky obscured by airborne sombreros and beer.
Thousands of Mexico fans celebrate the win over South Korea in Monterrey (Julio Cesar/Getty Images)
For a while, all of this felt a bit siloed. Mexico had the opening match but none of the big storylines and none of the big stars. The party was happening in a state of isolation. It might easily have turned sour. Mexico’s players had an obligation to give the nation the World Cup it deserved, within the bounds of the fixture count. Sunday night’s result does not diminish the achievement. The performance maybe even amplified it.
Mexicans were disappointed only to be given 13 games but they have grudgingly come to terms with it. The more acute loss, now, may be felt by the tournament itself.
The irony is that this was the first genuinely big-ticket match here this summer. Can you imagine what a semi-final or a final would look like? You will have to; the World Cup now decamps to the USA for its final push, shedding its two co-hosts like dead skin.
The US has put on a good show. The remainder of the World Cup will be dramatic and its own kind of spectacle. But it won’t be this.
