Photo: Etzel Espinosa / Imago7
In the middle of a difficult weather condition of at least -8 C (16 F) in Edmonton, the Mexico’s team lost against its Canadian counterpart (2-1), which surprisingly takes the lead of the Concacaf Octagonal .
The cold and the previous heavy snowfall were factors that played against El Tri, in addition to the poor performance of its captain and goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa , who collaborated on both entries.
When the first half was over, Ochoa “spat” a distant shot in a play in which Orbelín Pineda had previously missed. Cyle Larin took advantage of the rejection inside the area to make it 1-0 to the 45 + 2.
In the celebration of the goal there was a crossing of words and the benches were heated . Canadian coach John Herdman was effusive and overjoyed making gestures towards the Mexican band, which provoked the ire of assistant Jorge Theiller, who was later joined by some members of the coaching staff and players.
The clash between the two did not end there and were for much of the game throwing crosswords .
At second half when the Aztec reaction was expected, Larin scored again to cool down his rival in the snow. The goal in a fixed tactic came when Memo stayed anchored , when he could well have come out to cut or clear.
Finally Héctor Herrera approached when the game was over at the minute 90 in a header after the center of “Tecatito” Corona, which helped the Mexican reaction, but which seemed to come in late for change.