It was the sort of night that's best forgotten, but that might be easier said than done for Brian Kerr and the rest of the Irish party.
Losing was a bad enough blow for a team with such high hopes of doing well in the World Youth Championship, but the continuing feeling in the Irish camp that they are struggling against more than just the opposing teams will hardly have been dissipated by events during last night's Group C game at the Liberty Stadium.
Despite all the problems that marred the build-up to this tournament, the local organisers were confident that once the football started, the cock-ups would stop. It took just 66 minutes of the competition's fourth game before they were proven wrong, though, after a 20-minute floodlight failure was caused by the breakdown of not one but two generators.
The sudden darkness was met with a mixture of anger and derision by the local supporters who have to cope without power for anything up to 22 hours a day in the normal course of events. However, there was little doubt which emotion the Irish players left standing on the pitch felt, for they had been steadily getting on top in a game in which they trailed before it had even really settled into a pattern.
Earlier, the Irish team had won the hearts of the small local crowd by ending their pre-match warm-up with a traditional display of humility and respect which involved them prostrating themselves briefly in front of the two main stands. It soon seemed, however, that the Nigerians are a fickle bunch, for when the game started it was the Mexicans, with their flash antics on the ball - ball control, pace, you know these Latin Americans - that promptly won them back.
All the more so when their captain, Rafael Marquez Alvarez, put them ahead in the seventh minute. If there are two things that the fans here appear to love, it's long balls and delicacy on the ball. With his curling 20-yard free, awarded after Jason Gavin impeded Jesus Mendoza Magana, Marquez Alvarez managed the two rather impressively and his shot left Alex O'Reilly well beaten to his left.
For the rest of the opening period the Irish team was under a good deal of pressure, with the Mexicans getting about in the heat and humidity with considerably more ease. They had some nice players, too, with Carlos Morales Higuera's darting runs in from the left causing Paul Donnolly a problem or two and Mendoza Magnana's tremendous speed on the turn as he looked for shooting opportunities a constant worry.
For Ireland, Robbie Keane was the main threat, the Wolves striker repeatedly wrapping his marker - and another defender or two into the bargain - up in knots. On the one occasion he got through on goal in the first period, however, Mexican goalkeeper Christian Martinez did well to stop with his feet. Later, Martinez kept his side in front again with a save from Liam George after the goalkeeper narrowed the striker's angle well. George was the quicker to recover, but having rounded the Mexican, he over-hit a cross intended for Keane and Colin Healy.
After that, and, of course, the 20 minutes of darkness, Keane had three good chances, but couldn't quite get his final touch right. Neither, though, could the strikers at the other end where more than once Ireland looked certain to fall further behind. Indeed, but for Gary Doherty's intervention on the line in the 72nd minute, they would have.
Still the Irish pushed on and the introduction of Damien Duff, omitted from the starting line-up due to the hamstring problem that has been bothering him since Wednesday, completed the shift in superiority from one side to the other. With Keane inside him and Richard Sadlier now providing a bit of height and power in the box, a late equaliser seemed within grasp until the Brazilian referee finally drew the game to a close.
Not surprisingly, manager Kerr felt that the enforced break affected his players more than the Mexicans, who had been finding Ireland's increasingly determined push for an equaliser harder and harder to contain. "We'd had a particularly good spell just before it happened and we tried to keep everybody moving so that they would be all right when they started playing again. "Most of them were okay when the lights came back, but Stephen McPhail stiffened up and looked to be struggling from then until we took him off.
"I was pleased with Damien (Duff) when he came on, he gave them a lot of problems, and like Ger Crossley and Robbie Keane, he created chances for us with pieces of individual skill."
Duff's absence for more than an hour, however, was undeniably a problem. "Not just him," said Kerr. "Damien wasn't really fit and Keith Doyle wasn't too well and losing the two of them ended up meaning that I had to make four or five changes.
"The biggest problem was the lack of balance in the side, but we just had to get on with it and in the circumstances I thought we did quite well. After the goal they settled down and ran us around a bit, but later on I thought we came back into it well and really we should have gotten something out it in the end."
Kerr remained upbeat about the team's ability to put the setback behind them, recalling how the side in Malaysia had lost their opening game, too.
Earlier yesterday, Australian kicked off Group C with a 3-1 victory over Saudi Arabia.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: O'Reilly (West Ham); Donnolly (Leeds Utd), Gavin (Middlesbrough), Doherty (Luton), Heary (Huddersfield); Healy (Celtic), Quinn (Coventry City), McPhail (Leeds Utd), Crossley (Celtic); George (Luton), Keane (Wolves). Subs: Sadlier (Millwall) for George (62 mins), Fergu- son for Gavin (72 mins), Duff for McPhail (78 mins).
MEXICO: Martinez (M); Marquez Alvarez; Mascorro Albrego, Gonzalez (M); Mendez Olague, Rodriguez, Torrado, Gonzalez Ledezma, Morales Higuera; Nava Alvarez, Mendoza Magana. Subs: Osorno Calvillo for Gonzalez M (57 mins), Victorino (M) for Gonzalez Ledezma (63 mins).
Referee: S Peter (Brazil).
