Ochoa Saves Mexico from Neymar and Brazil

After last night, Mexico has a new hero to put alongside its already long list of national heroes: The national team's goalkeeper, Guillermo Ochoa.

Brazil Put to a Halt

Brazil came to the Estadio Casetlao at Fortaleza yesterday steadfast and ready after its rather controversial 3-1 victory against Croatia in the tourney's opening last week. In retrospective, it looks as if they should have thought better: The "El Tri" have the best record against Brazil in the past 14 years, with six wins, two draws and four losses in twelve games.

The game was immensely satisfying with opportunity chasing opportunity, but the lack of finishing skills and Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa have brought the game to end 0-0. Ochoa saved his team pulling a line of amazing saves to keep Brazil and star Neymar from dancing to victory.

Unbelievable Saves

Midway through the first half, Neymar received a brilliant ball into the box which he turned into an even more brilliant header with "goal" written all over it. Ochoa superbly dove into the block, denying Neymar of what would be a spectacular goal, instead making his save one of the World Cup's most impressive so far. FIFA's new replay technology has shown just how Neymar was close to scoring and how important was Ochoa's positioning.

But this was just the beginning – Ochoa carried on blocking a few more "certain goal" situations, blocking Paulinho when he rushed off his line, brilliantly stopping Neymar again and then saying "no" yet again to a spectacular header by Thiago Silva. Following the game, Ochoa's Wikipedia page heralded him as the "Mexican Jesus" and some have suggested he actually has six fingers. Meanwhile, Ochoa prepares with his team for their meeting with Croatia next Monday, where they'll fight to get to the round of 16.