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Paul Aguilar grabbed a ball in the air when the ghost of penalties was haunting the Mexican national soccer team. He sent a shot to the right side of the American team's net 118 minutes into the game, and Mexico got the ticket to the Confederations Cup 2017 in Russia with a victory of 3-2 over the U.S. in overtime.
Interim coach Ricardo Ferretti can truly say that he has fulfilled the mission that the president of the Mexican Soccer Federation, Decio de María, entrusted him with. "Tuca" took 'El Tri' to a victory in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The game began with a clear Mexican supremacy allowing Paul Aguilar, Raúl Jiménez, Oribe Peralta and Javier Hernández to combine efforts and allow "Chicharito" to brush the ball and score the first goal just nine minutes into the match.
And the Mexicans seemed poised to win, in the face of a clear bewilderment of the American team. But they responded and Geoff Cameron tied the game on the 15.
That shocked the Mexican team, but it retained the control of the ball, even while "Chicharito", Oribe and Jiménez wasted chances to score again. In the midst of the vertigo surrounding the game, referee Joel Aguilar pardoned two hands from the U.S. team that could easily have defined the game. And he continued with such attitude in the forthcoming extra times.
From there on, the macabre spirit of the penalty shots was stalking Mexico until Oribe found the goal on the 96. The U.S. was wasted, physically, but not mentally. And such remarkable strength became clear when DeAndre Roselle Yedlin sent a pass to Bobby Wood, who placed it between Moses Muñoz's legs on the 108.
