MEXICO ELIMINATED: SUPERB TRI NOT ENOUGH PESKY MEXICO FALLS TO ARGENTINA ARGENTINA 2, MEXICO 1.

Byline: SCOTT FRENCH Staff Writer

LEIPZIG, Germany -- Argentina, the best team in the World Cup, at least through the first two weeks, needed a goal of stunning beauty to stave off Mexico in a second-round showdown Saturday night.

There might be no higher praise for the Tricolores, who capped what had been a fairly disappointing tournament with, by a considerable margin, their best performance.

That it wasn't enough doesn't shake its importance. Mexico was the Argentines' equal, more or less, through 90minutes and into overtime, and if the better team won, the lesser demonstrated, finally, its quality.

Or, as coach Ricardo Lavolpe declared when it was over: ``Everybody in the world knows Mexico plays good football.''

They do now.

Maxi Rodriguez's volley eightminutes into overtime finally separated the teams, sending Argentina to a 2-1 triumph in front of 43,000 at Zentralstadion and into a quarterfinal with host Germany, a rematch of the 1986 and 1990World Cup finals. Mexico heads home with its fourth successive second-round loss, disappointed to be done so soon but buoyed by its parting shot.

It was an impressive outing in a classic encounter, filled with give and take, fine combinations, a few outstanding chances, some wonderful ball play and, especially, superb defense, on both sides.

Jared Borgetti was back from a torn thigh muscle, instilling needed confidence into the Tri attack, which struck quickly -- Rafael Marquez finishing in the fifth minute -- and just as quickly gave a goal back.

Solid play in the back, especially by Ricardo Osorio and Carlos Salcido, shut off Argentina's heralded offense, and Mexico impressed on the wing, with 19-year-old debutant Andres Guardado and Jose Antonio Castro, and in the middle, with Pavel Pardo, then Gerardo Torrado, then Zinha at the end.

It led to 30 minutes of overtime and the promise, perhaps, of penalty kicks, but then Rodriguez stepped up with a glorious shot. It arrived in the 98thminute at the end of a sequence that started with Juan Roman Riquelme, the playmaker through whom Argentina's attack flows, then to teen phenom Lionel Messi, who sent the ball wide to Juan Sorin.

Sorin picked out Rodriguez at the corner of the Mexico box, on the right, and sent a long cross. Rodriguez eluded Gonzalo Pineda, taking the ball on his chest, then -- before it touched the ground -- volleying it with his left foot around goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez and into the upper-left corner.

It was a golazo by any standard, and it was the end for Mexico.

``It could have gone into the stands just as easily as it went into the net,'' Rodriguez said. ``But it went into the goal, and that's the way those kind of goals happen.''

Mexico started strongly, going ahead when Marquez, at the far post, scored when Mario Mendez flicked on Pardo's free kick from the right wing, but Hernan Crespo pulled Argentina even just five minutes later from Riquelme's corner kick.

Well-marked by Borgetti, who stepped in front with a plan to head the ball away, Crespo extended his foot as the cross arrived, coming up under Borgetti's arm and beating him to it.

Both teams had their chances, but Osorio, Salcido and Torrado anchored a solid Mexican defense, and Sanchez came up big early in the second half, parrying a Rodriguez volley in the 57thminute and swatting away Javier Saviola's one-on-one shot from Riquelme's through ball two minutes later.

Borgetti had Mexico's best opportunity, a 22-yard blast that Argentina goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri tipped over the crossbar.

Mexico was limited tactically after Pardo and then Guardado fell injured. Pardo, Mexico's midfield foundation, left for Torrado in the 38th minute; Guardado, hurt in a collision with Rodriguez, was gone in the 66th.

``I feel sad and mad ... '' said Lavolpe, a backup goalkeeper on Argentina's 1978 World Cup title-winning team.

``Pardo's injury changed the whole picture of the game. And the second substitution was the same thing, another sub without (tactical) meaning. It made an impact, especially in overtime."

As Lavolpe altered his game plan, Argentina coach Jose Pekerman worked his to perfection, bringing in Messi, who turned 19 Saturday, and Carlos Tevez -- possibly the two best reserve players in the World Cup -- to bolster the attack late in the second half. Argentina had a touch more than Mexico, and that won out in the end.

``It was a very difficult game, a very complicated game ... '' Pekerman said. ``But we won because we were the better team in various aspects -- emotionally, mentally, the tactical. Argentina was a just winner."

Mexico, which gave a fine second-half performance in its Group D opener against Iran, then struggled to finish in a tie with Angola and a loss to Portugal, redeemed its World Cup despite the loss -- and bolstered CONCACAF's reputation, harmed when the United States, Trinidad & Tobago and Costa Rica posted a combined 0-7-2record.

But second-round exits, no matter how impressive, are growing old. In 1994, Bulgaria won on penalties. In '98, Germany rallied from a late deficit. In 2002, the U.S. won the ``clasico.'' And now it's Argentina's turn.

``Always the same thing happens to us,'' forward Francisco ``Kikin'' Fonseca said. ``We deserve to achieve something more. We don't get what we deserve, and I don't know why. (But) we always go home with our head held high.''

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(color) From left, Mexico's Jose Antonio Castro, Mario Mendez and Zinha leave the field after Saturday's loss.

Claudio Cruz/Associated Press