Mexico Sweeps Group Stage for First Time in World Cup History: 'I Dreamed of This'

Javier Aguirre has been saying for a while now that the key to the Mexican team’s success at the World Cup is that they are a family. This family, it seems, is on a historic journey.

Mateo Chavez and Julian Quinones scored in a six-minute span early in the second half, and Mexico beat the Czech Republic 3-0 on Wednesday to complete wins in all three of its World Cup group-stage matches for the first time.

The 22-year-old Chávez, in his first World Cup, opened the scoring in the 55th minute and Quiñones scored his second goal of the tournament in the 61st. Alvaro Fidalgo added a goal in stoppage time.

"It was something very beautiful, and I’ll take it with me to the grave," Chávez said of his goal. "I imagined it many times; I dreamed of this."

Mexico's previous best group-stage performance was two wins and one draw, done in 1986 and 2002 and both featuring Javier Aguirre, the first as a midfielder and the second as El Tri's coach. Aguirre is back as coach this year, his third stint leading the national team.

After topping Group A, Mexico will play again at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday in a round-of-32 match against an opponent to be determined.

"Now comes the knockout stage; statistics and data don’t matter. We’re achieving things, but what lies ahead is what counts," Aguirre said. "Neither the players nor I dwell on what we’ve just done; we’re thinking about what’s next."

Mexico is undefeated at nine World Cup matches at the massive stadium, which was packed with 80,824 fans on Wednesday. El Tri has only two losses at Azteca, most recently in World Cup qualifying against Honduras on Sept. 6, 2013.

The match Wednesday included nods to Mexico’s past and future. Gilberto Mora, at 17, became the youngest Mexico player to start