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Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium reverberated to the words “el Chucky Lozano” sung along to the tune of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army; the party went long into the Moscow night as Mexico fans danced in what El Tri’s faithful had dubbed “la calle de las luces” (the street of lights) close to Red Square.
El festejo en la calle de las luces. Latiendo junto a ustedes… @miseleccionmx
Lo ganamos desde la caravana #CorazónAzteca#LatiendoJuntos pic.twitter.com/Kqr1P4L7Qb
— Corazón Azteca 🇲🇽 (@micorazonazteca) June 17, 2020
Mexico’s 1-0 victory over Germany at the World Cup in Russia on June 17, 2018 went down as arguably the country’s greatest win. The German side may have had some question marks hanging over them heading into the tournament, but Joachim Lowe’s team was still the reigning champion and the second favorite with the bookmakers heading into the tournament.
The way Mexico won with a counter-attacking style more traditionally associated with Germany saw El Tri touted as a potential dark horse to go deep. There was renewed hope that this generation of Mexico players — the majority of which had experience in Europe — would be the one to reach a World Cup quarterfinal for the first time since 1986.
And the players and fans haven’t forgotten two years on.
Hirving Lozano netted Mexico’s first half winner and became the hero of the day. “Chucky” may be in a precarious position at Napoli after he got booted out of training on Monday, but he still found time on prior to Wednesday’s Coppa Italia final to post a photo on his Instagram Stories of his celebration.
Hoy de cumplen dos años de este gol de @HirvingLozano70 con @miseleccionmx pic.twitter.com/8zth5MgTBA
— Fernando Quirarte (@F_Quirarte) June 17, 2020
Germany fans were in the minority — one group of El Tri fans even arrived on a Mexico-inspired school bus — and it felt at times as though Guillermo Ochoa’s goal was being protected by the Mexico faithful, with the keeper repeating some of his heroics from the 2014 World Cup against Brazil — incidentally six years ago to the day — to stop the Europeans from scoring.
17 de junio, en 🇧🇷 2014 y 🇷🇺 2018:
@yosoy8a sorprendió al mundo y dio actuaciones MEMORABLES con @miseleccionmx dejó en ceros a Brasil en su casa y a Alemania en Rusia. ¡HISTÓRICO!
🦅 #ÁguilaDesdeLaCuna #PasiónYOrgullo 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/315cnHLXfT— Club América (@ClubAmerica) June 17, 2020
Other players such as Carlos Salcedo joined in on remembering the occasion, while the Mexican national team’s official account released a video to commemorate the win.
Two years ago, this beauty happened!!😍😎🇲🇽⚽️
What a better way to start the day than remembering that dreams come true!!!!💚🤍❤🤜🔥#PasiónyOrgullo | #FMFporNuestroFútbol pic.twitter.com/exfuJDCYN0
— Mexican National Team (@miseleccionmxEN) June 17, 2020
“I think it was marvelous, all the stadium was green, everyone was singing,” explained Hirving Lozano in the video. “It was very special. I got goosebumps and almost wanted to cry.”
“I felt happiness and pride at being Mexican,” added Jesus Gallardo in the same video. “The people deserved that triumph.”
The wait for Mexico to reach a “fifth game” continues. El Tri defeated South Korea in its next game in Russia, but then lost 4-0 to Sweden and 2-0 to Brazil in the Round of 16. In that sense, the game against Germany didn’t change anything. But it’s also tough to believe the even eventual winners France celebrated as hard as El Tri fans did on that Moscow night two years ago.