Mexico didn't go quietly, but in the end it did go. El Ti were eliminated from the Olympics with a 1-0 loss to South Korea on Wednesday.
The defending gold medalist poured forward late in the final group-stage match, as it had done for most of the game. Korea was content to sit back on the counterattack, knowing that it had the advantage with a draw seeing it through.
Chang-Hoon Kwon's excellent individual goal in the second half meant that not only would Mexico have to break down the Korean defense once, it would have to do so twice. There were chances for Erick "Cubo" Torres, Hirving Lozano, even defender Carlos Salcedo, but goalkeeper Sung-Yun Gu stopped all the opportunities Mexico had, and the team will now catch an early flight back to the Northern Hemisphere.
The losses of forward Oribe Peralta and Rodolfo Pizarro were more painful than perhaps they initially looked. Without Peralta, Mexico lacked an experience scorer who creates havoc in the box, something that would've been welcome against the Koreans' cohesive unit. In Pizarro, Mexico was missing a player who has become accustomed to getting in dangerous areas and setting up teammates or finishing off on his own, as he did against Germany.
Torres started in the absence of Peralta, and while the forward looked like a promising piece as the team started its preparations in 2014, he's yet to score a goal with the Houston Dynamo, a team he joined midway through 2015.
All tournament, Lozano looked fatigued. The attacker seemed every bit like a player who had played a regular season, every match of the postseason in a championship run with Pachuca, logged plenty of minutes in the Copa America Centenario, played more minutes with his club, then gotten on a plane to Rio. Manchester United may still be above his level, but he does have the talent to make it into Europe. Still, no player could perform at the top of his capacity with such an arduous schedule.
Lozano's club teammate, Erick Gutierrez, showed against Fiji that he can impose himself. "Guti" will be remembered as one of the standouts of the Olympics, but while a dominant individual performance can beat a minnow like Fiji, an organized side like South Korea takes a team effort to break down.
The writing was on the wall for Mexico earlier this year after a poor showing at the Toulon Tournament where El Tri lost to France and the Czech Republic, drew with Mali and got a 1-0 win over Bulgaria. The group looked difficult heading into Rio. The federation's goal before the tournament was mostly reasonable. They were hoping Mexico would return to the medal stand. But now, after a disappointing showing in Brazil following a disappointing exit from the Copa America Centenario, Mexico and its fans will hope future triumphs erase the memory of this summer.
That future is unlikely to include Mexico's current Olympic coach Raul "Potro" Gutierrez, whose substitutions and risks taken before and during the tournament didn't pay off. Even if Mexico had a decent tournament, the coach probably was on his way out. The failure to exit the group stage seals his fate.
The players will return to their clubs disappointed, but there's still a bright future for many of them. Whether the same can be said of the team remains to be seen.
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