Before a packed crowd at Estadio Azteca, Mexico's U-17 footballers fulfilled the wishes of an entire nation and won the World Cup for their age group, 2-0 over Uruguay. Uruguay played a tight defensive match, faithful to the style of the senior charrúas, but the Mexican juniors found their legs and took full advantage of a set-piece to open the scoring. The second half was more fight than football as Uruguay attempted to find a way back into the game and Mexico sought to score the clincher. Deep into stoppage time Casillas' goal set off massive celebrations in the stadium and around the country.
A deserved second world title for Mexico's U-17s, who became the first hosts to win the U-17 title. In the process they won all seven of their matches in the tournament and swept the best player awards. Júlio Gómez of Pachuca won the Golden Ball, Jorge Espericueta of Tigres won the Silver Ball, and Carlos Fierro of Guadalajara won the Bronze. There is some reflected glory for the USA as Mexican goalkeeper Richard Sánchez plays in the FC Dallas youth system.
At around this time two years ago there were some uncomfortable questions being asked about the performance of Mexican national teams over all age levels, and the U-17s had just failed to qualify for the World Cup. Two years later, the young talent from 2005 and 2007 has emerged to become key contributors to their clubs and to the national team, and the current U-17 generation is the second Mexican cohort to be able to call itself world champion. The gauntlet has now been thrown to the USA, but the last two to three generations of youth national teams have not given much confidence that they are rising to the Mexican challenge.
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