Everything Looks Bad if You Remember It Quiz

Answer: Germany

The Mexican team ended the group stage undefeated, with a 2-1 win over Belgium, a 1-1 tie with Paraguay, and a 1-0 victory against Iraq. They beat Bulgaria 2-0 in the Round of 16; and lost against Germany in the quarters in a penalty shootout (it was 0-0 after extra time). So close!
This edition of the World Cup was played with a 24-team format.

Answer: Fielding overage players in a youth tournament

In the qualifiers for the 1989 U20 World Cup, which took place in Saudi Arabia, Mexico fielded at least 4 players over the allowed age. It was actually a Mexican journalist who discovered this. Even though the FMF (Mexican Football Federation) denied it initially, Jose Ramon Fernandez, one of the most well-known soccer journalists in Mexico, backed Antonio Moreno and after several interviews with players and checking their birth certificates, CONCACAF suspended that squad from all international tournaments for two years.

However, FIFA extended that sanction to all Mexican teams, which left the country out of the 1988 Olympics and, of course, the 1990 World Cup.

Answer: Penalty shootout

After Mexico had easily defeated Bulgaria at Mexico 1986, it seemed like this match would be relatively easy. It wasn't though, as the heat that day was amazingly high. Both goals were scored in the first 18 minutes, and it stayed like this until 120 minutes and extra time had passed, leading to a penalty shootout... and another elimination. Mexico only scored 1 out of 4 penalties and left the Mexican people disappointed, again.

Coach Miguel Mejia Baron did not make one single substitution in the match, disregarding the fact that most of his players were very tired. Hugo Sanchez, who was for many the best Mexican soccer player, was on the bench and ready to jump to the field, but he never got the call. Later, Sanchez said Mejia Baron decided not to make the change fearing that the team would fall apart. This topic is still discussed in Mexico to this day, and several jokes regarding Mejia Baron's refusal to make substitutions were created.

Answer: Oliver Bierhoff

Again, Mexico was knocked out of the World Cup, and again, Germany had done it to us (they knocked Mexico out of the 1986 World Cup in the quarter-finals). We were so close! 4 minutes away! All three group games started with Mexico falling behind, and they rose over it.

However, the round of 16 match was the other way around. Germany was eliminated in the next stage, with a convincing 3-0 defeat against Croatia.

Answer: Rafael Marquez

Rafael Marquez, who was the captain of Mexico in all of the World Cups he played (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014), is known for being a temperamental player. In the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup, Mexico was losing 2-0 against the USA in the 87th minute, when Marquez headbutted Cobi Jones, being sent off immediately. Since then, Marquez has been sent off several times, controversially.

Interestingly, the referee of this match was Portuguese Victor Melo Pereira, who also refereed Mexico's round of 16 match four years earlier, in France 1998 against Germany.

Answer: Oswaldo Sanchez

Even though FIFA gave Argentina's first goal to Hernan Crespo, many of us saw Jared Borgetti accidentally pushing the goal into his own net. The referee, Massimo Busacca (who became chief of referees in 2011), made a mistake when Heinze tackled Fonseca in a clear goal-scoring opportunity, and only showed the yellow card when it should've been red. Busacca argued there was another defender behind Heinze, but nobody except him saw the said defender.

Maxi Rodriguez scored both one of the best goals in the World Cup and one of the most painful ones for Mexico. The image of that play is still in my memory: Maxi receiving the ball with his chest and striking it in the air, defender Gonzalo Pineda staring at the ball while Oswaldo Sanchez flies trying to stop the ball. This was Oswaldo's last match in a World Cup.

An interesting fact about this match - Ricardo La Volpe, the Argentinian coach of Mexico at that time, went to the locker room while the Argentina anthem was playing, in order to sing it without the public criticizing him about it.

Answer: South Korea

South Korea was by far a much easier team to beat than Argentina, but Mexico didn't capitalize against a rather weak South Africa, and lost against Uruguay when there was a chance to win that game. South Korea was eliminated by Uruguay in the round of 16.

Javier Aguirre decided to include Guillermo Franco, Oscar Perez and Adolfo Bautista in the final list, even though these players had already experienced the best moment of their career, so they weren't in good shape. Perez (goalkeeper) did a good job, but Guillermo Ochoa was the best option for the majority of the Mexicans. Franco didn't perform as Aguirre expected, and Bautista did not play well in the only match he did play, against Argentina. Aguirre's decision to let Bautista play the first half against Argentina was surprising for most, if not all, fans. This was a player who had not played a single minute of the World Cup, wasn't playing well at his club, and was not in good shape. Aguirre realized his mistake (if he ever did) at the half-time, substituting Bautista. The player was further mocked after a statistic FIFA released, which stated that goalkeeper Oscar Perez ran more kilometers than Bautista during the game.

Answer: Roberto Rosetti

Carlos Tevez scored a goal in clear offside position in the 26th minute. Rosetti and his assistant, Stefano Ayroldi, did not see the offside, provoking the entire Mexican team to complain. The replay was shown in the stadium's screens, exposing the referee and his assistant. The Mexican players desperately pointed to the screens, showing Rosetti his mistake but, due to FIFA rules which stated that a ruling on the field could not be overturned with the use of technology, there was nothing that could've been done. FIFA President Joseph Blatter later apologized to the Mexican federation, but that didn't change anything did it? Rosetti retired shortly after this incident.

Leaving all of this aside, Mexico did not compete enough to beat Argentina, their second goal in the 33rd minute was a big mistake by Ricardo Osorio, Mexico's concentration fell apart after the goal that should've been disallowed. Blame the referees, blame the coach, blame the players, but any way you see it, Mexico was again eliminated from a World Cup. They 3-1 to Argentina.

Answer: For a cooling break

With Jose Manuel de la Torre, Mexico struggled against nations who had been easily defeated before, such as Honduras and Costa Rica. Honduras even won in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, becoming the second nation to do this (th first was Costa Rica in June 2001). "Chepo" was fired after this incident, and Herrera managed to get Mexico in the World Cup via the inter-confederation play-off route.

Mexico finished second in Group A behind Brazil, to face The Netherlands in the Round of 16. Mexico exploded in joy in the 48th minute when Giovani Dos Santos kicked the ball from outside the box and scored. It all seemed like Mexico was finally going to play a fifth match (the quarter-finals), for the first time since 1986; but that did not happen.

FIFA had previously stated that cooling breaks would not be made official for all 64 games; instead it would be determined on a match-by-match basis. A Brazilian court ordered FIFA to implement cooling breaks due to the high temperatures in Brazil. The Holland-Mexico match was the first in history to have official cooling breaks, and in my opinion, the cooling breaks killed Mexico, as The Netherlands used this to completely reorganize their tactics, while the Mexicans lost the fast-pace they were playing with.

Answer: Arjen Robben

Germany vs. Mexico, Round of 16 match at France 1998 - Germany scored a goal in the 86th minute (to win the game 2-1), just when everyone thought Mexico had that match in control. Every Mexican had a flashback of this event at the 87th minute of the Netherlands-Mexico match in Brazil 2014, but worse!

It was the 93rd minute, injury time was being played to recover the lost time of the cooling break, and Arjen Robben had the ball inside the box. Defender Rafael Marquez tried to take the ball away from him, and slightly extended his leg, then Robben fell. It was five seconds of suspense for me, it all happened so quick! And then Proença, the referee, blew his whistle and a penalty was given. Klaas Jan Huntelaar took the penalty and a goal was scored, breaking millions of hearts in Mexico, including those of the players, who cried at the end of the match. The penalty created enormous controversy - Robben became public enemy #1 in Mexico and the international press accused him of cheating. Twitter was flooded with the hashtag "#ItWasn'tAPenalty" (in Spanish "#NoEraPenal"), to the extent that even President Peña Nieto mentioned said phrase during a speech. I've seen the replay more than 10 times and there is still not a clear perspective of the play. I personally think it wasn't a penalty, as Marquez didn't touch Robben the way I saw it. Some others did see a contact, and according to FIFA rules, even the softest contact in the box can be considered a penalty. It is, of course, understandable, that the referee has to make a decision in seconds, and if I couldn't tell if it was a penalty after 10 slow motion replays, imagine a referee on the pitch!

Of all the World Cups I've witnessed, this was the most painful Mexican elimination. What was unbelievable was the fact that it was all a matter of mentality. Mexican players did not believe that they were about to beat the Dutch, so they didn't. On the other hand, the Dutch fought until the end, and never gave the game away.