Mexico unprepared for early onslaught as Germany rolls on to Confederations Cup final
Germany jumped out to a quick 2–0 lead and scored another two in the second half, while Marco Fabian’s golazo was the only Mexico tally in a thorough 4–1 win for Die Mannschaft in the Confederations Cup semifinal on Thursday.
The result puts Mexico into the competition’s third-place game against a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal, while Germany will advance to the final to face Chile. It’ll be a rematch of their group-stage meeting, which ended in a 1-1 draw after Lars Stindl answered Alexis Sanchez’s early opener.
Here are three thoughts on a one-sided Confederations Cup semifinal.
Boy, that escalated quickly
There was so much hype coming into this game for Mexico, with El Tri particularly eager to erase memories of last year’s Copa America semifinal meltdown. Given that objective, the game’s opening eight minutes couldn’t have gone too much worse for Juan Carlos Osorio & Co. German midfielder Leon Goretzka broke the game wide open with goals in the sixth and eighth minutes before the game had even settled down, scoring his first on well-placed first-time hit from outside the box:
Then netting his second with another well-placed finish from closer range:
Goretzka only needed one touch per goal, but those two put Mexico in a hole from which it couldn’t work its way out.
Mexico simply wasn’t ready
Osorio talked openly with SI’s Grant Wahl before the tournament about how Mexico’s 7–0 loss to Chile in last year’s Copa America quarterfinals affected his team and his own preparation going into the Confederations Cup.
“I had no Plan B,” he said of that 2016 loss. “Now we do, because from that experience we learned so much. Now we have Plan B and even Plan C. We know how to…