This was supposed to be a formality on paper: England, top seed, against a Mexico side that would spend most of the second half playing with 10 men. It turned into the kind of Round of 16 game that makes you cancel plans. Jarell Quansah's red card should have made this easy. Instead it nearly blew the whole thing up.
Harry Kane stepped up from the spot to make it 3-1 against 10-man Mexico.
Kane's penalty looked like the dagger. PFT Commenter summed up the vibe with a shrug about the officiating (post-d3d5b08a-5e89-4bd8-b7f7-bfebbb31dc2f), and for a few minutes it felt like England could coast home a man up. Mexico had other ideas. Down to 10 and staring at a 2-goal deficit, they clawed one back from the spot to make it a 1-goal game, and Estadio Azteca turned into a furnace.
Dave Portnoy called the crowd noise borderline dangerous, saying the Azteca felt like it could explode any second (post-83f061f3-b893-4abe-ac5a-3decb2074dda), and Barstool Gambling noted the stadium was still rocking 5,500 miles from home (post-50bac9f1-8362-4045-88aa-9719899e5b19). Unbiased Ev compared the chaos to a vintage Big 12 shootout, which, given the scoreline swings, tracked. England held on for a 3-2 win, and the picture at the final whistle told the whole story: Mexico's players scattered around the pitch, a man down and out of the tournament, England's celebrating in the corner.
The final whistle: England 3, Mexico 2, with Mexico finishing the match down to 10 men.
The moment that'll linger, though, wasn't a goal. It was Memo Ochoa, Mexico's longtime keeper, in tears on the sideline as his likely final World Cup appearance ended in a loss on home soil. Barstool's own clip called it what it was: an emotional send-off for a guy who's been between the pipes for Mexico across multiple World Cup cycles.
Guillermo Ochoa, visibly emotional on the Mexico bench as his World Cup run came to an end.
England didn't waste any time enjoying it either, gathering with traveling fans for a Wonderwall singalong that Kayce Smith rightly pointed out is objectively hilarious in the middle of Mexico City (post-6f370033-13b8-4431-bc47-ae4f0a968db6). Jude Bellingham got his own hero's ovation from the crowd, Jordan Henderson got razzed for simply appearing on the stat sheet (post-4eb590d4-2d91-4594-9b3b-03017291fab6), and Harry Kane looked like a guy who'd left his actual voice on the pitch during his postgame interview. None of it matters much now, though. England's on to the quarterfinals against Norway, and if the last 90 minutes were any indication, nobody should expect a quiet one.