Zinha- Mexico’s Brazilian born hero (L) Oswaldo Sanchez- Mexico’s goalie who lost his father recently (R)
Iran’s goalkeeper, Mirzapour made a weak kick and his defence made a hash of the clearance. Zinha, Mexico’s Brazilian player fed in a deft pass and Omar Bravo tapped the ball in. Minutes later, Zinha all 5’4″ of him elevated up and angled a header in. Mexico 3 Iran 1.
Ricardo LaVolpe looked like a genius for all those early head-scratching substitutions.
There are so many stories in this match. Osvaldo Sanchez losing his father and all of Mexico wondered whether he would start. And he did and performed magnificently. I think his father Felipe, would have been proud of his son’s performance. The selection of Zinha and Guillermo Franco, one Brazilian born and the other Argentinian, started a nationalistic furore in the media and the ire of the Mexicans, when LaVolpe named them to his squad. He was accused of taking in non-Mexicans. Much was made of the fact that La Volpe is Argentinian.
And now they have Zinha, the pint sized Brazilian to look to this win. And Guillermo Franco, for a stellar display in midfield. This is just Mexico’s second win on European soil, despite their impressive 12 appearances in the World Cup. The immigrants have made their mark. I think Mexico should open up its borders to new talent in the US and South America and they’ll have a chance of doing better than the quarterfinals, their best showing in the 1970 and 1986 World Cups. Just kidding!
Iran came to Nuremburg, the city which saw the World War II tribunal try the Nazi war criminals. In fact, it is so strongly associated with this event that we forget that it is actually a city with inhabitants. But what made it interesting as a choice of venue for an Iran match is the fact that Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Iran’s president made a controversial statement that questioned the Holocaust. There was much talk of Iran being banned from the World Cup after that and with the rumor that Ahmedinejad was going to attend the matches. The EU parliament tried passing a resolution to ban the Iran team but Angela Merkel stepped in and the EU was forced to abandon it.
And now to the Angola and Portugal match with its Brazilian connection, Deco covered by Soccerblog. And the Soccerblog story on the history shared between these two countries, as Portugal, the colonizer and Angola, the colonized. Another connection that ties the world of soccer together.
Angola meets Portugal in a Group D encounter in the beautiful city of Cologne, Brazil’s party headquarters at 9:00 PM German time (3:00 PM EST).