Mexico Stumbles, Sent Packing from the Copa

Mexico finished their Copa América escapades in misery.

El Tri were ambushed, 1-2, by  Ecuador and finished at the bottom in their group. 

The Mexican Copa story wasn' supposed to go like this. A happy ending to their script seemed realistic at the beginning, but that's the downside of actually having to prove it on the pitch. Mexico was expected to land second place in Group A -- at least -- but that's not gonna happen without a victory or two.

Ecuador kept their game on the carpet, and then crafted great team plays like this:

Not sure if that was a shot from Walter Ayoví or if he was passing to Miller Bolaños, but who cares? Certainly not fans from a little nation named after the Equator..

The second for La Tri -- aka that crew of the Amarillo persuasion -- was a classic example of taking space from lazy defending, as Mexico was caught flat-footed.

José Corona kept waiting for Enner Valencia to make his move, but the West Ham winger was sneaky-subtle, and that was that.

The move got the job done, but it still wasn't as good as this one from the once-super Mario Balotelli.

Mexico got one back from the spot, where Raúl Jiménez seemed to have an issue shifting gears:

Still, no matter how weird you hit it, if it crosses the line, it counts.

All count as one.