Mexico’s 3-2 defeat by Colombia on Tuesday dominated the country’s headlines after Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino’s side took a 2-0 lead, with the Record El Tris newspaper dubbing the ‘sinking ship’ the ‘Tritanic’ .
With the World Cup less than two months away, Mexico’s second-half performance was described as disastrous as Colombia staged a spirited comeback to win in California.
“Tata’s team is sinking. She sailed at full speed and dominated the first half with goals from (Alexis) Vega and (Gerardo) Arteaga but Colombia came back and Mexico melted embarrassingly,” Record said on its front page.
The loss was Mexico’s second in three games after being beaten 1-0 by Paraguay last month before beating Peru 1-0 at the weekend.
The ESTO newspaper also focused on the manner of the defeat.
“The tricolor had two faces, a good first field and a second that they didn’t know how to react to,” it said.
“The worrying thing is that there are still seven weeks to go before the tricolor meets Poland in Doha. Colombia has exposed all of Mexico’s shortcomings.”
Reforma’s Cancha newspaper was far more succinct with a one-word headline: “Disappointment.”
“The Tricolor wowed their fans with a good first half but in the second they collapsed against Colombia and raised doubts ahead of Qatar,” they added.
Martino was attacked by fans after the game and criticized by the media.
ESPN Mexico said the team went to the World Cup with “a lot of doubts surrounding them, the same ones that have been in power for Gerardo Martino for the last two years”.
Others highlighted the overconfidence with which Mexico’s players went into the second half against a side that failed to qualify for the World Cup.
“Mexico forgot they were playing a CONMEBOL-level rival and paid the price,” Excelsior newspaper said.
Mexico play two more warm-up games against Sweden and Iraq in November before heading to Qatar for their World Cup Group C opener against Poland on 22 November.