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Mexico’s Rafael Marquez (L) celebrates a goal with teammate Jesus Escoboza (R) during their 2014 World Cup playoff first leg qualifying match against New Zealand at Azteca stadium in Mexico City on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Mexico took a huge step toward next year’s World Cup finals, shaking off recent bad form to pummel New Zealand 5-1 on Wednesday in their intercontinental play-off first leg.
Playing in Mexico City’s imposing Azteca Stadium, El Tri delivered on their manager Miguel Herrera’s pre-game call to take a big goal advantage into the second leg in New Zealand on November 20. It was a massive turnaround for Mexico, who barely made it to the play-off after struggling in their North and Central America and Caribbean regional group, finishing fourth out of six teams. “We had a debt (to the fans) and we have not finished paying it,” said Herrera, who last month became Mexico’s fourth manager in six weeks. After winning just twice and scoring a paltry seven goals in 10 games within the CONCACAF final group, the Mexicans looked like a revived team as they came out charging against the All Whites. Herrera shook things up after taking over, calling up only domestic league players while leaving out Europe-based stars such as Manchester United’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Villareal’s Giovani dos Santos. On loan from Club America, which he coached to a Mexican league title this year, Herrera fielded seven players from his Mexico City team against New Zealand.
The outspoken manager had voiced confidence that Mexico would win, even asking his squad to score at least three goals to take them closer to Brazil next year. New Zealand, who made it to the 2010 World Cup after a memorable play-off victory against Bahrain, had hoped to keep it close but Mexico were the stronger side.
Mexico have played in 14 of the last 19 World Cups while New Zealand only appeared twice, making them massive underdogs against the CONCACAF giants.
The All Whites were missing their captain, key defender Winston Reid, who was ruled out of the play-off due to an ankle injury he suffered with his English Premier League club West Ham.
“The public probably saw the Mexican team that they are used to seeing ... and they really delivered tonight and I think we contributed to helping that,” said New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert, adding that the team struggled in areas where “normally we are very strong”.
“We’re going to make it as tough as we can in Wellington,” he said.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
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