A triumph that smells like wet earth (and luck)
If anyone thought that women’s soccer was less dramatic than men’s, the Mexico vs. Uruguay match in Tlaxcala gave them a slap with a white glove (or rather, with a glove full of mud). In a setting that seemed more suitable for a mud festival than for an international match, the Mexicans took the 1-0 victory in a match where the true MVP was the crossbar and the law of the most slippery.
The pitch: the third team (and the most treacherous)
The Tlahuicole stadium, in Tlaxcala, became the unintentional protagonist of the match. Between puddles and areas that looked like rice fields, the players tried to play soccer while the workers removed the water with buckets as if they were sailor Popeye on a sinking ship. Images are circulating that seem to be taken from a meme, but no, it was an official match. Who needs synthetic grass when you can play in a swamp, right?
The winning goal came in a play that was more of a lottery draw than a strategy: a failed rejection by the Uruguayan goalkeeper left the ball served to Diana Ordóñez, although many swear that it was an own goal by Daiana Farías. To make matters worse, there was not even VAR to clarify the mystery. So, officially, we’ll call it the “muddy controversy goal.”
Esthefanny Barreras: the heroin that Mexico didn’t know it needed
While the field looked like a Survivor set, Mexican goalkeeper Esthefanny Barreras became the guardian of the goal (and of sanity), stopping everything Uruguay threw at her. Juliana Viera, Micaela Fitipaldi and Wendy Carballo must still be dreaming about their missed shots. And although Uruguay shot 16 times against Mexico’s 9, in the end the only thing that matters is the score. Efficiency? What’s that? It is eaten.
Charlyn Corral, for her part, was about to score a great goal that would have saved the honor of the match, but the ball said “nah, I’d better hit the crossbar”. At least it gave excitement to a match that, between slips and kicks in the air, seemed more like a slapstick comedy than a preparation match.
Moral? Mexico won, Uruguay will complain for years, and Tlaxcala showed that, against all odds, it does exist. Now, the Tri Femenil continues its preparation, probably praying that the next match will be on a field that doesn’t look like the set of La casa de papel after a deluge.
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