Mexico player ratings vs Venezuela: Nightmare night for Santi Gimenez and Orbelin Pineda as El Tri's Copa America hopes hang by thread

Despite all that had gone wrong, Mexico had another chance to steal a result. That's exactly what they had done in their Copa America opener, stunning Jamaica in a 1-0 win.

And on Wednesday night, trailing Venezuela 1-0 late, Mexico were handed a penalty - and another opportunity to escape with a result they certainly hadn't earned.

The Soccer Gods were not so generous, this time. El Tri were blessed against Jamaica, but they had no such luck against Venezuela as Orbelin Pineda saw his penalty saved to doom Mexico to a 1-0 defeat.

And they deserved it. This was a rough performance from El Tri. Without midfield superstar Edson Alvarez, this Mexico team is simply missing too much. It took until the game's final moments for Mexico to show much of anything and, by then, it was too late.

Aside from Pineda's penalty miss, the game's big moment came in the 57th minute, when Venezuela scored a penalty of their own. A bad foul from Julian Quinones handed Salomon Rondon an opportunity from the spot, and the legendary Venezuelan striker made no mistake with his own penalty kick.

Now, Mexico will have it all to play for in their third match. Up next Ecuador and - due to goal difference - a draw won't be good enough. El Tri are in very real danger, and Wednesday's defeat proved that their flaws may be too big to overcome.

GOAL rates Mexico's players from SoFi Stadium.