FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The future of Mexican soccer may be bright. But that doesn't mean there won't be dark periods along the way.
Take Wednesday night for example. Playing in front of a raucous pro-Brazil crowd of 67,584 at Gillette Stadium, Mexico was brilliant at times.
At others, they were downright awful.
And while that added up to a 3-1 loss to the top-ranked team in the world, the result on the scoreboard wasn't the only one Coach Hugo Sanchez, tasked with rebuilding Mexican soccer, was focused on.
"This game served us as if we had played five times against Panama or against some other team," said Sanchez, whose players, nearly half of whom are 21 or younger, was believed to be the youngest Mexico has sent against Brazil in at least a quarter century. "We learned a lot. The conclusions were good. And numerous. There were a lot of things we took from this game that will make us better."
"We're not content with the results," he added "but with . . . the fact we're getting better."
Although Brazil's aggressive attack dominated play all night, Mexico actually drew first blood, scoring in the 43rd minute when 20-year-old Andres Guardado took a pass from Nery Castillo on the left wing, lured Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar away from the net and then slipped a pass across the front of the goal to a wide-open Juan Carlos Cacho, who tapped it home.
Brazil answered off a corner kick less than a minute and a half later with Ronaldinho bending a pass right in front of the Mexican net for Kleber, who stuck his left foot out from the middle of three defenders to redirect the ball past a diving Guillermo Ochoa. That score was Brazil's first against Mexico in more than three years.
But then Mexico hadn't faced this Brazilian team recently. The team Mexico surprised 2-0 in the Copa America two months ago, for example, was missing Ronaldinho, who set up the first goal, and Kaka, who scored the second, taking advantage of a poor clearance by Mexican captain Rafael Marquez in the 80th minute to ruin what otherwise was a stellar performance by Ochoa.
Afonso then scored an insurance goal in the 86th minute, getting behind the Mexican defense to run down a pass and left-foot a rocket just inside the left post.
Mexican prodigy Giovani dos Santos, 18, replaced Cacho in the 74th minute but was not a factor.
