Key events
71 min Off we go again and, seeing as we’re talking about it, I totally understand the need for breaks – player safety has to be paramount, though I don’t think it’s that hot today, and surely there should be some temperature that needs hitting for one to be in operation. Nor do I think Fifa really understand that by instituting one, they’re affecting the game by disrupting flow and momentum.
69 min Time for another hydration break and, judging by my inbox, numerous adverts everywhere in the world but the UK.
GOAL! Mexico 2-0 South Africa (Raul Jimenez 67)
What a moment! After everything he’s been through and four World Cups without scoring, Raul Jimenez has his moment and doesn’t he enjoy it, eyes welling with tears – I daresay his aren’t the only ones. He holds adroitly then passes to Quinones in midfield, whose clever feet work more space and allow him to find Alvarado down the right. The cross is a beauty and Jimenez, now inside the box, heads down and inside the near post.
66 min Two changes for Mexico and the crowd like one of them. Off go Gutierrez and Fidalgo, who’ve controlled this game; on come Chavez and Mora, the crowd chanting his name.
63 min “I didn’t have high hopes for this Mexican side, but maybe their long training camp has worked,” posits Kári Tulinius. They look like a team with a plan of attack. If England or Croatia end up facing them in a knockout tie, I don’t think the European side can expect to control the match. That said, as you’ve noted, South Africa haven’t been up to much.”
Yup, if the seeding works out, it’ll be Mexico v England at the Azteca in the last 16. England might, I think, be getting better at controlling games now they’ve got Tuchel as manager – Anderson, Rice, Bellingham is a proper midfield, though I’d be thinking about sneaking Mainoo in for the first of those. We can never be sure they’ll turn up on the day, but I’m beginning to like their chances even if I think a few mistakes were made with the squad selected.
61 min Another change for SA, the veteran midfielder Zwame replacing the disappointing Adams.
60 min I hate to say it, I really do, but SA have been absolutely dreadful today. However they’re still in the game and, if they can avoid conceding a second, you never know what might happen on the counter or from a set-piece – and if the score stays as it, Mexico will get nervous, unsure whether to stick or twist.
58 min Mexico win a free0kick down the right, Gutierrez behind it, and he teases in an outswinger for Reyes, off whose head the ball skids to safety.
57 min Change for Mexico, Mbatha replacing Foster.
56 min A rare sortie forward for SA, Modiba looking up 25 yards out and, with no one closing, he opts for a shot, Rangel failing to hold the ball, not for the first time, but tidying thereafter.
55 min “My first World Cup memory was as a nine-year old in 1966,” says Tim Brightwell. “I watched the final on our black and white set. A mixed day of sun and showers. It was an uncomfortable watch. The agony of West Germany’s late equaliser followed by pure joy in extra time.
After the final whistle, ecstatic, I quickly grabbed my football and ran to my friend Geoff’s house to celebrate with a kickabout. I knocked on his door. His mother answered. Could Geoff come out to play? I asked. No! she replied. But England have just won the World Cup, I pleaded. I don’t care, she said, he’s having his tea!”
What was on the menu? We must be told!
53 min Mexico push for a second, winning a corner down the left that’s cleared. SA just want it all to be over, but know their World Cp will be decided by the games against South Korea and Czechia, who meet later on.
52 min Jimenez will take Mexico’s free-kick, almost dead centre and just outside the D … which he hits straight into the wall.
RED CARD FOR SOUTH AFRICA’S SITHOLE!
50 min Oh my days, poor Sithole is having one. A ball in behind and again, Gutierrez is the man making the run, this time through the middle. He’s really crafty in cutting across poor Sithole, as he’ll be known forever more, making almost impossible for him not be fouled, and sure enough, heel catches shin or shin catches heel, the ref has a quick think, then shows the red card. Agony for the SA man, all his life striving to get to this, and now look.
48 min What on earth was said in the SA dressing room at half-time? “All good lads, just keep doing what you’re doing?
46 min Gosh, SA make a mess immediately and when I tell you what happened, you won’t believe me, but here we go. Williams passes out, dead straight, to Sithole, who didn’t want it last time and definitely doesn’t want it now. Well, it’s his lucky day, because this time the pass is so poor it doesn’t reach him, going straight to Fidalgo, who rolls studs over it to move past the defender, should shoot, doesn’t, takes another touch that takes him too wide, so when he screws square, Williams can smother.
46 min We go again…
“Like Arran Robertson, my first World Cup memory is the 2006 edition at six years old,” says Daniel Halladay. “I recall watching the final at a friend’s house, though I have precisely zero memory of the Zidane headbutt, despite the fact that it’s quite possibly the tournament’s most shocking moment. Instead, I distinctly remember watching David Trezeguet hit the bar with his penalty, as well as a television commercial involving cavemen (I believe it was for FedEx).
Also like Arran, my father and I are regular MBM correspondents, though at the time of writing we are yet to both feature in the same one.”
My old fella barely knows what one is and has definitely never read one. But that’s one for my therapist, because our teams are back with us.
Half-time email: “I was 9-years-old in ‘66 for my first,” says Roger Kirkby, “and obviously watched it at home with my family. I always wondered what that night was like for the pub-going generation. After starting work I asked a guy who was 10 years older than me what was it like for him. He said he watched it at home, went down the pub at seven and left just after nine because they wanted to watch the replay at 10 and the pub had no telly. Most underwhelming.”
Swinging Sixties or what?
Siri, what is art?
HALF-TIME: Mexico 1-0 South Africa
Mexico have played fairly well; South Africa have barely played at all.
45+3 min SA need to have a word with themselves because this has been a total no-show. And as i type, they almost concede a second, Gutierrez – who’s been the best player on the park – again breaking into the box at inside-left, shaping to curl towards the far corner but changing his mind at the last second, attempting a toe-bunger and skewing the ball sideways.
45+1 min We’ll have four additional minutes.
45 min “Ally McCoist and Jon Champion should probably steer clear of politics,” says my colleague Philip Cornwall, “given their claim that Claudia Sheinbaum is unpopular and would need to give away tickets to the entire population to rescue her position. Not even in his delusions does Donald Trump have an approval rating approaching 70%.”
Assuming he can stay awake long enough to complete them, of course.
43 min But here come Mexico again. Montes retrieving a ball that’s run away towards the right side of the box and feeing into Quinones, whose touch is lovely – so too the use of his body to hold off the defender. Back to goal, he ushers into the path of Gutierrez, who caresses a side-footer goalwards … but into the base of the near post. Lovely football, no reward.
42 min Mexico probe outside the box and a lovely clip into the box from Gallardo picks out Jimenez, the keeper unable to move till he sees if there’s any connection … and there isn’t, the ball running away.
40 min Sithole, who’ll still be feeling poorly after his goal-creating mistake, is late on Lira, knee digging into thigh to administer a dead leg. With no yellow card shown, as per the new law, if Lira needs treatment, he’ll have to leAve the pitch … but he’s OK.
39 min “1966 for me,” emails Alan Kirkup. “Dad (who was a professional footballer in his younger days) had booked a family holiday at a B&B in Cumberland the week of the final. He reckoned England had no chance of reaching that far so no problem. Sadly the B&B had no TV, so there we were with a few others outside a tv show room in Keswick watching the final. My memory is that the shop owner decided to close up at half-time. We never saw the rest of the game…”
He did what?!
38 min Better from SA, Mbokazi crossing from the left but without much pace, so when Foster jumps to head, he’s got to really crank his neck muscles, sending a floaty effort wide.
35 min Quinones appears near the left corner of the box, looking inside to feed a cunningly disguised reverse-pass down the line for Alvarado, who takes a touch when he shouldn’t and crosses low to the keeper.
33 min “1966 for me, as a 12-year-old, recalls Richard Hirst. “Vividly recall hiding my face behind a cushion when West Germany equalised so my parents couldn’t see me crying. But it turned out all right in the end. Then there were the incomparable Brazilians of 1970, the best I’ve ever seen. But then the greatest team to not win the World Cup: the Dutch in 1974 and 1978. That’s when I knew for sure that football wasn’t fair (though having watched Fulham since 1965 I should already have known!). I’ve not been so invested in a World Cup final since.”
I’d say Brazil1 982 were better than the Netherlands without Cruyff and Van Hanegem, Hungary 1954 also, but no, football definitely isn’t fair. Luckily, life is.
32 min The break has interrupted the flow somewhat – I daresay there’ll be teams glad of it when on the rack, because momentum is crucial to breaking down a rearguard. Burt as I type, a long ball finds Modiba down the left, and his cross goes behind off Reyes … then the offside flag goes up.
