Turning towards my other team, El Tri, big game tomorrow with the Netherlands.

If the thing could be decided by raw energy emanating from the bench, Mexico would be a lock.

Miguel Herrera, their coach, may be the most demonstrative manager in World Cup history. He loses his stuff every time Mexico scores a goal, as can be seen in this slide show or this glorified gif which, at least, has the moment when an ecstatic Herrera ended up on top of one of his players.

Know who he reminds me of?

Yes. Chris Farley. The comic actor, from Saturday Night Live. Now dead, of course. And a little of John Belushi, too, another overweight comic actor of SNL fame. Also dead. Each at the age of 33.

Hmm. Herrera, at least, is 46, so perhaps he is semi-calm when not watching his teams play.

When Herrera loses it, though, it’s like one of Farley’s characters, all raw energy inside a corpulent body, throwing himself around … and you fear for the man’s health. Farley’s … and now Herrera’s.

Thing about Mexico, who wouldn’t even be in Brazil if Graham Zusi hadn’t scored for the U.S. at Panama, back in October … is that they were neither as awful as they looked during the hexagonal (two victories in 10 games, loss at Azteca to Honduras), nor are they as good as they have looked here. Unless they somehow got about 1,000 percent better without a dramatic change of their personnel.

El Tri have been solid in the back (one goal conceded, so far, and the return of Rafael Marquez has been huge) and their keeper, Guillermo Ochoa, has been outstanding, and they get forward fairly well.  Victories over Cameroon and Croatia, the scoreless tie with Brazil. Good results.

But, then, they were more than a little lucky (as well as good) against Brazil, who could have scored three or four without the Ochoa heroics and, in retrospect, Cameroon was the worst team in the tournament, and Croatia not much better.

The Netherlands are the real deal, with lots of individual talent, as always, but they also often suffer meltdowns inside the team, and maybe it’s time for them to have one.

I’m glad this one is the early game, 8 p.m., in the UAE, because I will be able to see it in semi-sociable hours.