Mexico Loses Friendly to Croatia; Javier Hernandez Sets Career Goals Record

Javier Hernandez made history, but it wasn't enough to lift Mexico to a friendly win Saturday night inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. El Tri fell 2-1 to Croatia.

Hernandez scored his 47th career goal for Mexico, moving him ahead of Jared Borgetti, per ESPN Stats & Info:

But goals from Duje Cop and Fran Tudor propelled Croatia to the victory.

With El Tri preparing for the 2017 Confederations Cup next month, coach Juan Carlos Osorio selected a relatively strong lineup for the friendly.

Croatia, on the other hand, only dressed 16 players, and coach Ante Cacic excluded almost all of the team's marquee stars. Cacic likely didn't want to risk injury to his key stars ahead of Croatia's 2018 World Cup qualifier against Iceland June 11. The team sits top of its table through five matches.

As a result of the gulf in experience between the two sides, most expected Mexico to be in the driver's seat for much of Saturday's match.

Instead, Mexico flattered to deceive in the first half and surrendered two goals in a little over a minute of game action.

In the 36th minute, the Mexican defense attempted to play an offside trap, but the linesman kept his flag down as Tudor received a pass on the edge of the six-yard box. From there, he found Cop, who had a simple finish to put Croatia ahead.

Then, Diego Reyes gifted the Croatians a second goal in the 37th minute. He underhit a back pass to goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, which allowed Tudor to swoop in for the interception. The Hajduk Split winger slid a shot into the open net.

Goal's Jon Arnold made light of Reyes' mistake:

ESPN FC's Eric Gomez attempted to cope with Mexico's poor first-half performance:

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Lakers center and Croatian national Ivica Zubac had the opposite take:

Osorio attempted to change things up early in the second half, bringing on Jonathan dos Santos, Andres Guardado and Carlos Vela on within the first 10 minutes. Hernandez's addition in the 66th minute coincided with a turnaround for El Tri, and they played the final 13 minutes plus injury time with a man advantage following Mile Skoric's sending-off in the 77th minute.

Chicharito cut the deficit in half in the 87th minute with a header. From there, Mexico threw everything at the Croatia goal in pursuit of an equalizer. Hector Moreno was in a great position to tie the score in the 88th minute but hit his close-range header straight at Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic.

Hernandez's goal gave Mexico fans something to cheer about but didn't erase what was a lackluster showing from the team as a whole. There's no shame in losing to a full-strength Croatia, but El Tri should've been able to handle what was the Vatreni's "B" team.

The Confederations Cup will provide Osorio and Mexico an opportunity to make supporters forget about Saturday's loss.