EVER since a stylish Brazil side won the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, the Mexicans have had a fixation with the golden yellow shirt. They’ve wanted to beat Brazil in football. They’ve wanted to be good enough to beat Brazil at a World Cup. They don’t hide that desire or their obsession to want to play like Brazil.

“Brazil are a great team … I’d even go so far to say they are the best team in the planet which enjoys a lot of support from the neutrals because of the way they play football,” Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio said at a news conference on the eve of El Tri’s last-16 match against the Selecao on Monday.

Since they became fans of Brazilian football, Mexico have recorded some famous wins against their more illustrious opponents, the most recent coming in the gold medal match at the 2012 London Olympics.

Seven of the current Mexican side played that match. Brazil’s inspirational striker Neymar was in that Brazil team, so was their current captain Thiago Silva. Monday’s game, though, is a World Cup game — the competition that Brazil feel every time they enter it, it’s theirs to win. And midfielder Hector Herrera was quick to take note of that.

“It’s all in the past,” he said, sitting alongside Osorio. “We need to live in the present.”

In an open World Cup that has had its fair share of upsets, Mexico go into the game secretly believing they can create history by beating Brazil. They already have beaten one big team at this tournament — defending champions Germany in their opening game. Another victory followed against South Korea but the Mexicans came unstuck against a Sweden side that denied them space and pumped three goals past them. That result put Osorio’s side in Brazil’s path. “We deserve to be where we are and months ago [when the group stage draw was made], there was a strong possibility that we will have to play Brazil and here we are,” said Osorio.

History suggests Mexico’s chances of advancing past Brazil are slim. For a seventh consecutive World Cup, Mexico are in the last-16 but on the last six occasions this has been a hurdle too high for them. The fifth match at a World Cup, ‘Cinco’ in Spanish, is what they’re trying to reach against Brazil. Naturally, their failure to reach the ‘Cinco’ was mentioned on Sunday.

“I’m not superstitious … but we don’t want to talk about the fifth game just yet,” said Osorio.

Despite his team’s high confidence, Osorio has reason to be cautious. The last time Brazil failed to make the fifth game was back in 1990. The five-time champions obviously enter the game as hot favourites but coach Tite, attending a news conference before Osorio, refused to dwell on the past.

“The statistics are just a piece of information just like other references,” said Tite when asked about Mexico never having beaten Brazil at the World Cup.

Mexico and Brazil crossed paths in the group stage at the last World Cup where the Central American’s held the hosts to a goalless draw, exposing the chinks in the Brazilian team that Germany exploited ruthlessly to send them packing in a humiliating 7-1 thrashing that forced the record world champions into a major rethink and a lot of soul-searching. After their experimentation with Dunga failed, Brazil stumbled upon the right man when they hired Tite. Since then, Brazil haven’t looked back, going from strength to strength under their experienced and calm coach. They opened the tournament with a draw but then saw off both Costa Rica and Serbia to finish top of their section.

“I hope the team repeats the standard of the last match,” said Tite, referring to the 2-0 victory over Serbia where Brazil showed flashes of their trademark flair. “In the previous match, all of the athletes did very well and that strengthens the team. Those who came in [as substitutes] were also good. The pack needs the wolves and you need different kind of wolves. That forms the essence of a strong team.”

If both the teams play to their strengths, the game promises to be a goal-fest. Osorio acknowledged the danger posed by the likes of Neymar and Gabriel Jesus, but also the ‘goal-scoring abilities’ of Philippe Coutinho —arguably the star of the tournament so far for Brazil — and Paulinho. Brazil captain Silva, sitting next to Tite, noted how Mexico’s front three of Hirving Lozano, Carlos Vela and Javier Hernandez made ‘smart runs to occupy spaces’ and the others in midfield who “play quality balls to them”.

Thankfully, Osorio isn’t the coach who would be cowered by the opposition. He made it clear that Mexico will not change tact against Brazil.

“Defending is an option but our style has to do with creating problems,” he said. “We won’t throw the towel or give up attacking. We will have at least five attacking players.”

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2018