Moisés Caicedo’s Ecuador lose to Mexico in Round of 32

Moisés Caicedo’s first game as the official captain of the Ecuador national football team did not turn out the way he would have wanted to, coming out on the losing end of a 2-0 defeat against Mexico, who thus advance to the Round of 16. Ecuador are going home, earlier than they would have liked and earlier than most were expecting.

It was the battle of El Tri against La Tri on yet another famous World Cup night at the Azteca in Mexico City, giving the host nation massive home field advantage, which they gleefully utilized to crush, demoralize, and frustrate their opposition. It was perhaps ironic that Mexico’s first goal — a simple counter and thunderous finish — came after Ecuador weathered the early storm and started to gain a foothold in the game, but the second not long after was certainly in line with the overall flow of the game. And Raúl Jiménez being the scorer just added to the emotion of the moment.

That said, the game lacked for great chances or much glorious attacking football, but Mexico took their moments and Ecuador offered very little even as we headed deeper and deeper into the second half. As good as their defense may be, with such a low-scoring offense, they were always going to find it tough to come back. Defense may win championships, but it does help to also score sometimes.

So, it’s to the beach for Captain Caicedo (and for Kendry Páez, who did finally get to play a few minutes at the World Cup: just enough to get a yellow as Ecuador’s discipline crumbled completely at the end). See you back at Cobham soon, Moi!

Elsewhere yesterday, France kept rolling, easing past Graham Potter’s Sweden, 3-0 (Mbappé with another brace) and Norway found a late winner (through Erling Haaland of course) to edge past Côte d’Ivoire, 2-1. Malo Gusto played the final 15 minutes for the French, who are looking absolutely unbeatable at the moment.