3 min readJul 5, 2026 05:42 PM IST Along with European champions Spain, co-hosts Mexico is the only team yet to concede a goal in the World Cup, which explains the enormity of the task confronting Harry Kane and his England side in the Round of 16 match at the Azteca Stadium. In modern football, teams generally attack and defend as a unit. But there are still individuals who are key to the effectiveness of the endeavour. In the case of the Mexican defence, they are Cesar Montes and Johan Vasquez, two friends who hail from the same region of the country, have grown in the game together and are now jointly responsible to keep El Tri’s back door shut, giving their attacking players the freedom and confidence to go in search of goals. “I think I was about 10 or 11 years old when I first saw him. We met at Pachuca, and that’s where we realised we were from the same state, the same region, the same area,” Vasquez told FIFA about his …