Speedy Mexico Edges South Korea, Races to Top of Group F

As with most options in life, there are two reasons to watch an outta-town scoreboard:

• Because you want to, and
• Because you need to.

The first option is much less stressful, and that's why this match is a destiny game for Mexico.

As in control over.

 

South Korea is the side that fate forgot in this group. The Taegeuk Warriors were actually a fairly feisty crew in their loss to Sweden. If nothing else, 'keeper Cho Hyun-woo has proven himself to be a bastion of supreme quality.

Dude knows his angles. The Swedes blistered him all game, and yet, were fortunate victors.

With Cho between the posts, this would be a challenging game for El Tri, too. Safe to say they were up to it, closing out the Koreans, 1-2.

 

The first telling chance came from Mexico in the 24th minute. As in the German match, El Tri deployed exceptional speed to pressure their opponent. In this instance, it caused Korean defender Jang Hyung-Soo to make decisions beyond his pay grade.

Dude opened his arm inside the box and made contact the with ball. Carlos Vela dutifully strode to the spot and perfectly ripped his shot home, sending Cho to the wrong side:

What in the name of Diego Maradona did the defender think he was doing? Hailing a cab?

For most of the match, South Korea had difficulties creating good chances, as Mexico swiftly recovered every time the Warriors found an advantage.

El Tri, on the other hand, were breaking into dangerous positions, but Cho continued to turn their efforts aside.

 

However, in the 66th minute, the Mexicans created another strong chance.

After stealing the ball from the Korean captain Ki Sung-Yueng, Hirving Lozano passed it to Javier Hernández on a counterattack. Dude's aim was true:

Maybe FIFA briefed the refs prior to the tournament that fans were gonna get their money's worth of game time one way or another. They've been adding on chunks of extra clock.

Here, it was five minutes of additional time, enought for and Tottenham's Son Heung-min notched his first World Cup goal with a stunning long-range finish in the 93rd minute:

Totally accurate that Guillermo Ochoa didn't stand a chance.

Both of Group F's bracket allowances are still up for grabs, but Mexico did what it needed to control its own destiny by winning two consecutive World Cup matches for the first time since it hosted the tourney in 1986.

It just may be, though, that destiny will required El Tri to win a third straight match. The challenge continues.