It was half time and they cut the lights.Orchestral music played on the PA system. Supporters at the Azteca waved spotlights, sang along, swayed in unison. Down on the pitch, Mexico’s substitutes went through warm-up routines, lit only by the ambient glow of the advertising boards.All, that is, except one.As the strings swelled and the crowd swooned, Guillermo Ochoa just stood there. He looked up and out into the night, turning slowly to take it all in. Were there tears in his eyes? It was hard to tell in the gloom, even as his face was picked up by the stadium cameras. No matter; they were full of wonder and appreciation. They invited you inside his reverie.Ochoa does not have many nights like this left. He will turn 41 next week. This is his sixth World Cup and also his last. He will step away from the Mexico national team when it is over. Away from his career, too. It will be the end of one of the great Mexican football stories and one of the great love affairs. No wonder he was keen to soak it all in.Ochoa soaks up the pre-match atmosphere at the Azteca (Lars Baron/Getty Images)The best part of his night would come later. In that moment, though, Ochoa must have been thinking back — back to the start of his journey, to the twists and turns that made him, that ennobled him, made him something like a deity to the fans that gazed back at him.Ochoa made his professional debut at the Azteca, for Club America back in 2004. Within a few months he was playing there for Mexico, too. His reflexes and bravery made him an instant favourite. It did not hurt that he was also deeply loveable, a bundle of puppy-dog energy beneath a mop of hair, a goalkeeper who — like Jorge Campos, another Mexican icon — rose to the top of the game despite not being a giant.In 2014, at the Brazil World Cup, Ochoa went global. After a watching brief as a youngster in 2006 and the disappointment of 2010, when he was dropped on the eve of the tournament by Javier Aguirre, he played like a man desperate to make up for lost time. He flung himself across his goal time and again to repel Brazil in Fortaleza, earning comparisons with Gordon Banks. By the time Mexico went home, after losing to the Netherlands, Ochoa was being tipped for superstardom.It never quite happened at club level. For his country, though, he was a rock. He excelled at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, cementing his legacy as a cult hero for those who only watched Mexico every four years. Those who followed them in the in-between times — he has over 150 caps to his name — were even more smitten; Ochoa played like one of them, his connection to the jersey obvious in everything he did.