🇲🇽 The fear of losing...

Mexico was afraid of Messi. Now it's afraid of elimination.

At the previous men’s World Cup, then-Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio took to wearing shirts with motivational slogans pressed onto them. The most famous, especially after El Tri’s shock 1-0 win over reigning champion Germany, read, “Play for the love of winning, not the fear of losing.”

Against Argentina, Osorio’s successor Tata Martino put out a starting XI and drew up a game plan that was more focused on avoiding a loss than earning a win. It bit Mexico, which fell to Argentina 2-0 and now instead of fearing Messi and Argentina, will fear World Cup elimination at the group stage for the first time since 1978.

Martino seems to have built up in his head that the only way to beat his native country, the team he once managed, was to deny it a goal and hope to hit with either Hirving Lozano or Alexis Vega producing a moment of individual brilliance from a counter-attack or set piece.

Except Argentina was beatable.