Tan cerca, tan lejos: Rayados repeats the eternal wait

After dazzling performances in the Club World Cup, Monterrey fell short and was eliminated in the Round of Sixteen.

The brilliance of Tecatito Corona wasn’t enough. The monstrous stamina of Nelson Deossa wan’t enough. The thunderous header of Sergio Ramos in the dying minutes wasn’t enough.

The green, white and red glued to their chest made the allegiance real. Rayados represented Mexican football, and they did it with a lot of pride and effort. Fifteen minutes of defensive inefficiency and Dortmund’s crazy precision led to the 2-1 defeat in Atlanta.

We can say that el trago es amargo because the effort and display merited a victory, haven’t we seen this before? Haven’t we seen this at the national team level and club level? Our teams playing the games of their lives just to fall short by the most minimal details.

We can’t hide away from it, and it’s frustrating to see it over and over again.

So when we see our teams actually win something like it was the case in 2012 with the gold medal in the London Olympics or Pachuca winning the Copa Sudamericana it feels surreal, someone pinch me, did that actually happen?

I applaud Rayados because they showed conviction while being down 2-0. There was a sense that although the challenge looked unsurmountable, they knew the plan to break down Dortmund. A Mexican club took the game to the Germans displaying a very intense style; it’s a scene that will be hard to forget. There were multiple plays that could have been the 2-2, or heck the 2-3.

Corona at 32-years-old is giving us his last dance. What made him a special player stood out on Tuesday night. The gambeta was there, even his ability to break into open space. He had Dortmund’s defense on their toes throughout the game, and maybe, just maybe, Torrent made a mistake on taking him off the pitch. Dortmund, and Niko Kovac, certainly appreciated it.

I would have wished to have seen Sergio Canales at his maximum, but I’m afraid that a combination of the poor state of the pitch and him not being totally healthy, caused him to take extra precaution. Canales, who has suffered multiple serious knee injuries, understands how to keep his body safe and that may have caused a poor performance for his standards. Rayados missed his potent left shot, which could have led to rebounds for either Germán Berterame or Tecatito.

Thank you Domenec Torrent, because in a short period of time with Rayados, you connected all the dots that make Mexican football special. Of course, your team included a heavy international presence, but throughout this tournament Mexican players showed their worth and why Liga MX, ultimately, is a very competitive league.

And my last lines go for you, Deossa. I’m not sure if he’ll leave Liga MX in the next weeks, certainly if he leaves, we’ll be talking about a transfer fee way above the $15 million mark, but he deserves it. In other times, perhaps, Deossa could have accomplished what Miguel Calero, Andrés Chitiva and Aquivaldo Mosquera did at Pachuca. But the market is different, and Pachuca needed to sell him to Monterrey to keep a healthy budget. What Deossa did at Pachuca, he improved it with Monterrey, and at 25-years-old, he’s garnered international attention in unprecedented fashion. At this rate, he’ll be starting for Colombia pretty soon, and no one will question it.