Mexico vs Cameroon final score: El Tri dominant in 1-0 win

On Friday afternoon in the first of three games on the 2014 World Cup schedule, Mexico vs Cameroon took place to begin their campaigns at Estádio das Dunas in Natal. Mexico put on a dominant performance on their way to a 1-0 win.

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It was a great start for El Tri, who was pushing the tempo, but the poor officiating in Brazil continued to be a story line.

Just over ten minutes into the game, Giovani Dos Santos sent the ball past Charles Itandje and into the back of the net following a beautiful ball from Héctor Herrera. It appeared that Mexico had the early 1-0 lead, but the referee flagged Dos Santos for offsides and the goal was disallowed.

On the replay, Dos Santos was clearly on side but the game must go on.

Later in the half following a corner kick, Dos Santos put the ball into the net again, but he had a second goal disallowed for offsides.

The ball had deflected off of the head of a Cameroon player, Eric Choupo Moting, so it was yet another poor call by the officials.

Mexico should have been up 2-0, but instead they were sitting even at the half – which they dominated with 68 percent of the possession in the opening 45 minutes.

El Tri kept up the pressure in the second half, with both sides knowing they needed to come away with points in this match to keep pace with Brazil.

In the 56th minute, Mexico’s Hector Moreno drew the first yellow card of the match.

Just a few short minutes later, Oribe Peralta cleaned up a rebound that came off of a shot from Giovani Dos Santos and put it in the back of the net for the first goal of the game.

With that, Mexico had the 1-0 advantage.

In the 73rd minute, Peralta came off the field as Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez entered the game off of the bench.

Cameroon picked up their pace in the closing minutes in an effort to even up the score.

Mexico dropped Dos Santos back and used Chicharito as the lone striker in order to form a cluster in the midfield and raise the difficulty level for Cameroon and thwart the offensive attack.

Cameroon was having success in the final minutes and was putting El Tri in a defensive hole, but they were struggling to get a clean shot through and on Memo Ochoa.

Four minutes of stoppage time was added, and Mexico was able to hang on to the lead to pick up three points.

El Tri remains unbeaten in the last five World Cup openers.

Mexico’s next outing will be on Tuesday, June 17 against host nation Brazil, while Cameroon will face Croatia the following day.