Eduardo Vargas scored four goals, Edson Puch added two, and defending champion Chile thoroughly dismantled Mexico from every angle in a 7-0 Copa America quarterfinal trouncing Saturday night.
The loss was Mexico's worst ever in an official match and ended its team-record unbeaten streak in embarrassing fashion at 22 matches, one day shy of a year since El Tri's last loss, to Ecuador in the Copa group stage.
Mexico's fans still regularly used their traditional homophobic chant even after being urged to stop by tournament organizers, national sport officials and even the players, especially in the wake of the recent Orlando shooting.
After Vargas found the net for the final time on this extraordinary display of shot-making, the star forward jumped in the air and pumped his right fist as his shaggy hair swayed in the Bay Area breeze. And a sold-out stadium of 70,547 that began the night like a Mexico home game quickly emptied of El Tri fanaticos as the clock wound down.
Alexis Sanchez had a goal and two assists, and Puch scored the bookends for Chile - starting things off in the 16th minute and punctuating this dominant night with an 88th-minute score.
Vargas scored the first goal of this career performance in the 44th minute, five minutes after an offside call cost him another score, then added goals in the 52nd, 57th and 74th minutes as Chile kept adding on to demoralize Mexico in one of El Tri's worst defeats ever in a competitive match - right up there with a 6-0 loss to Germany in the group stage of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Mexico suffered an 8-0 loss to England in a 1961 friendly.
Fifth-ranked Chile, the runner-up in Group D to top-ranked Argentina, matched its scoring total from the entire three-game group stage. La Roja advances to take on Colombia on Wednesday night in Chicago.
Chile's only other win against Mexico in the Copa America came 2-1 in 2011.
Chile surely will be playing with some serious momentum after this one. What a statement of Chile's determination to follow up on last year's Copa win with another strong run in the special 100th-year edition of the tournament.
Sanchez found Vargas in the 44th minute to send Chile into halftime with a nice cushion, then Sanchez scored in the 49th minute off a pass from Arturo Vidal.
Puch got things going in the 16th minute for Chile after capitalizing on a deflected shot by Marcelo Diaz off Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa. After Puch controled the rebound on Diaz's shot from 20 yards out, he had an open net with Ochoa still out of position and beat the goalie at the near post.
Sanchez's 34th goal for Chile tied him with Ivan Zamorano for second on the team's career scoring list behind Marcelo Salas with 37.
It was the largest soccer crowd and scoring total for soccer at 2-year-old, $1.3 billion Levi's Stadium.
In what began as a fiesta of Mexican fans outside, with makeshift concerts and countless cheers, turned into a forgettable night in a hurry with this result.
Group C winner Mexico is ranked 16th in the world and had topped an unbeaten stretch of 21 matches by the 2004-05 team coached by Argentinian Ricardo La Volpe.
La Roja already played once in Santa Clara, losing to top-ranked Argentina 2-1 on June 6 in a rematch of last year's Copa final played in Chile.
El Tri dropped to 3-3-1 against Chile in the tournament and had beaten Chile 1-0 in an exhibition matchup June 1 in San Diego, getting a goal in the 86th minute from Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez but not playing its top soccer.
Lionel Messi had the ball along the sideline, closer to midfield than the goal, in what seemed to be a harmless position.
One well-placed entry pass later, the ball was in the net and Argentina was on its way to a Copa America semifinal matchup with the United States.
"He knows that he's a game-changing player," Argentina coach Geraldo Martino said Saturday night after Messi scored a goal and added two assists to beat Venezuela 4-1.
"Everybody's trying to cancel him. But he knows when to play one against one. He knows when to pass the ball to other players. There may be times when he lets some other player take advantage of this."
Messi's goal in the 60th minute gave Argentina a 3-0 lead and was his 54th in international play, tying the national record set by Gabriel Batistuta, according to Argentina's governing body. The Barcelona star also took over the Copa America scoring lead with his fourth goal despite making his first start of the tournament.
Argentina has two days to rest before playing the U.S. in Houston on Tuesday night. The Americans have been off since beating Ecuador on Thursday.
"I don't think we're too worried about that. We're very focused on our goal," Martino said. "This is not a big deal, the rest time."
With many in the Gillette Stadium wearing No. 10 from Messi's national team and La Liga jerseys, the five-time FIFA Player of the Year started the game after playing a total of just 74 minutes in the three group stage matches. Just eight minutes in, he connected with Gonzalo Higuain on a long entry pass to make it 1-0.
Eight days after recording a hat trick in just 29 minutes against Panama, Messi gathered the ball in at the sideline and lofted a long pass to Higuain, who split two defenders took the ball on a short hop and booted it in.
"We tried to force them to play long balls," Venezuela coach Rafael Dudamel said. "They have that stroke of genius that changes all your schemes. They had an incredible pass from Messi, and they scored. When you lose so early in the game, it's almost like a knockout."
Higuain scored again in the 28th to make it 2-0, picking up an errant backpass by Venezuela midfielder Arquimedes Figuera and sidestepping goalkeeper Dani Hernandez before left-footing it into the net.
In the 42nd minute, Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero took out Josef Martinez's legs with a headfirst dive. But on the resulting penalty kick, Luis Seijas tried to scooch it straight up the middle and Romero took a small stutter step to his left before catching it.
Messi made it 3-0 when he took a pass from Nicolas Gaitan just outside the 6-yard box.
Venezuela finally beat Romero in the 70th minute when Salomon Rondon headed the ball in, nicking the post on the way. But Messi assisted again on Erik Lamela's goal a minute later to make it 4-1.
Argentina is 6-2-2 against the U.S., with the teams playing to a 1-1 draw in a 2011 friendly in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The last American win was in a 1999 exhibition in Washington, D.C.
Recovering from a back injury, Messi sat out the group stage opener this year and played just 29 minutes against Panama — but still managed to record a hat trick. He came on as a second-half substitute in the group stage finale against Bolivia on Tuesday.
But Messi played the entire game on Saturday, giving a scare when he was taken down from behind in the penalty box in the first half and was slow to get up.
"We're very happy with the way that he has been evolved, the way that he recovered from his injury," Martino said. "His reinsertion into the team, we really value that, and we're happy to have him in good shape now that we're facing the semifinals."
Martino said he was pleased to see Messi tie the national record, but he would wait to comment on it until the record was broken "and I would like that to happen in the Copa America." With a semifinal and then either a championship or third-place game, that's a good bet.
"I tied it, still haven't broken it," Messi said. "But I'm happy to be next to Bati, with all that means."
Bautista also scored twice in an exhibition against Slovakia in 1995 that is included in FIFA's records but not the national federation's; that would give him 56 goals.
For Venezuela, which finished fourth in the 2011 Copa America, it was a reminder of how far La Vinotinto have to go.
"It's not what we were hoping for, nor what we would imagine," Dudamel said. "We found ourselves watching a very strong team, ranked No. 1, and they have been very unforgiving with our mistakes. When you play an adversary like this, any mistake you make they do not forgive. They just kill you."