As the World Cup qualifiers are getting closer, the competition is heating up. Mexico and Honduras both managed to win their games at home, with Mexico defeating the United States 2-1 and Honduras humiliating Costa Rica by winning 4-0.
Costa Rica still enjoys first place in the standings with 12 points, followed by Honduras and the United States with 10 and Mexico at the bottom with 9. All of the teams have four games left. Only the first three positions will qualify for the World Cup in South Africa next year; the fourth will play a team from South America for a berth. Mexico, currently in fourth, has won all of its games at home; unfortunately for the team, all four games left will be played as visitors. Nevertheless, the Mexican team has enjoyed a great deal of success against the United States.
The US has lost all of the last 19 games played against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium, and yesterday, in front of 105,000 fans, was not an exception to the trend. The US managed to open the score after Charlie Davis hit the ball past Guillermo Ochoa in the ninth minute of the game.
The Americans maintained the lead for only 11 minutes, after which Israel Castro made a long distance shot that equalized the score 1-1. With only eight minutes to finish the game, Miguel Sabah scored the victory goal, giving the El Tri another win this month against their longtime American rivals. “Today is a day to celebrate, and then get back to work,” said Coach Javier Aguirre, who came to the Mexican squad to replace Sven Goran Eriksson after a bad start to Mexico’s campaign. “Everybody will go to bed tonight a bit more relaxed.”
Honduras, several hundred miles south of the US-Mexico game, won a very important match against the leader of the group, Costa Rica. The victory by the Catrachos in San Pedro Sula kept the Mexican team in fourth place. The game was a very one-sided one. The Honduran star of the night was Carlos Costly, who scored two of the game’s four goals; he also assisted Melvin Valladares and Carlos Pavon to complete the rest of his team’s goals against a weak Costa Rica team.
Costa Rica was not even a shadow of what we saw at the Golden Cup; the defense left much to be desired and the performance was, in general, very weak against a team like Honduras. Granted, Honduras has its limits as well, but the team was clearly motivated by the desire to accomplish a dream like going to the World Cup. Honduras continues to fight for a spot in that competition, as the country hasn’t enjoyed a spot in well over 20 years, since 1982.
Costa Rica, on the other hand, is on its third successive World Cup qualification. The next round takes place on September 5th, when Mexico will visit Costa Rica while Honduras will host Trinidad and Tobago and the United States will host El Salvador. This will be a decisive date; we can only wait and see what will happen, and wonder who will qualify.
