Lightning delayed kickoff for an hour. Eighty thousand people waited beneath the concrete bowl of the Azteca while the storm rolled overhead. When play finally began, Mexico looked like the only side that had been waiting to attack.
Twenty-two minutes in, Julián Quiñones broke through in transition and hammered a finish high past Hernán Galíndez. Nine minutes later he turned provider, exchanging passes with Raúl Jiménez, who curled the second into the top corner. Ecuador barely laid a glove on the contest before halftime. By the break Mexico had taken ten shots to Ecuador's two, and a stadium that had waited forty years to celebrate a knockout victory already sensed it was coming.
Mexico did not edge Ecuador. They overwhelmed them, and then — two goals in hand — spent the second half letting Ecuador tire themselves against a back line that has not been breached all tournament. Ecuador had more of the ball after the break and did nothing with it. Rangel, called upon once before the interval to deny Yeboah, was barely troubled again.
That back line has carried GoalPost's read on Mexico for three weeks. Four games. Four clean sheets. Mexico are the only team left in the tournament yet to concede, and one of just four sides in World Cup history to open with four consecutive shutouts. The defensive platform is real, and GoalPost has rated Mexico a genuine contender on the back of it while the eye test kept looking for reasons to doubt.
Tuesday supplied the missing piece. The doubt was whether the forwards could win a knockout tie the defense could not win alone. Quiñones answered emphatically. He now has three goals and an assist, level with Luis Hernández's 1998 mark for the most goal involvements by a Mexican at a single World Cup. Jiménez, with his second of the tournament, moved past Jared Borgetti into second on Mexico's all-time scoring list, five short of Chicharito. For a team whose reputation this month has been built on keeping the ball out, both goals were the work of forwards who knew exactly what they were doing.
The goals belonged to Quiñones and Jiménez, but the tempo belonged to a 17-year-old. Gilberto Mora — the second-youngest player ever to start a World Cup knockout match, behind only Pelé — knitted the attack together with a composure that belies his age, and increasingly looks like the point around which this Mexico team turns.
History arrived with the final whistle. The score was 2-0, just as it had been against Bulgaria in 1986 — the last time Mexico won a World Cup knockout match, and the last time they hosted the tournament. Aguirre played in that team. On Tuesday he stood on the touchline and watched another finally end the wait. "It had been about 40 years since the last time I saw the Azteca like this," he said.
For three weeks Mexico have convinced everyone they could defend. Tuesday was the night they convinced everyone they could attack. Forty years after the last knockout victory at the Azteca, the old expectation returned with the noise of eighty thousand people. Mexico no longer look like outsiders built only to frustrate favorites. They look like one themselves.
Also in this series: The Group Stage Is Over · More from The Data Says coming daily during the knockouts.