Friday 1 November 2013

FIFA U-17 World Cup: Mexico send Brazil out in 21-goal penalty drama

THREE-time champions, Brazil on Friday ended their campaign in the quarter-final of the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates as they lost 10-11 to Mexixo via penalties after a 1-1 draw at regulation time.
The penalty drama was staged at Rashid Stadium, Dubai and marked a turning point in the history of the competition which began in 1985 as no match had ever produced such a marathon penalty kicks before.
Title-holders, El Tri of Mexico proved in the better part of the game that they were familiar with the fellow South American samba style, which helped them to keep a clean slate and even got the leader in the 80th minute through Ivan Ochoa before Brazil equalised through Natha five minutes later.
Both sides lost one of the first five kicks before it resulted in a 'sudden death' while the remaining six players on each side including the goalkeepers for both sides got their kicks right to make the scoreline 10-10.
Brazil's leading scorer in the competition with four goals, Mosquito who scored first spot kick also commenced another round of penalties but had his kick eventually saved by goalkeeper  Raul Gudino.
The match hero turned out to be Alejandro Diaz as he neatly converted his kick to send El Tri to the semi-final of the competition, where they will face the winners of Argentina/Cote d'Ivoire quarter-final match billed for Saturday.
The first time Brazil crashed out of the cadet mundial via penalties was at Scotland '89 losing 1-4 to Bahrain after a barren draw at regulation time.
Brazil invented the penalty drama in the championship having recorded a 15-goal episode at the final of 1999 edition in Auckland when they defeated Australia 8-7 via penalties after a 0-0 draw at regulation time.
Meanwhile, three-time champions, Nigeria's Golden Eaglets will face Uruguay at Sharjah Stadium in another quarter-final game tomorrow (Saturday)..
Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho is leading the adidas Golden Shoe race with five goals ahead of his teammate, Musa Yahaya with four goals.
Brazilian Mosquito finished the race also with four goals but with a comparative advantage of scoring one extra goal during the penalty shootout.
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