Time to face a bit of a fact, right now Mexico are playing as well- if not better- than anyone in our region. Facing a B team or no, they just won the Gold Cup on the road 5-0, beat the USA at home in a come-from-behind effort, and just took out Costa Rica 3-0 in their house, a loss so ugly people were leaving Saprissa with 20 minutes to go. All under Aguirre. He has their confedence back, and they no longer look like the shaky uncoordinated bunch of malcontents they were back when they were dropping a 2-0 game to the US or needing a late goal in garbage time to 'only' lose 3-1 in Honduras. Aguirre did drop the El Sal road game 2-1, but only after a late penatly in a game tied 1-1 in the 84th. El Tri has totally turned around their fortunes from the group we saw in the early part of the Hex. Which gets me around to thanking our numero uno hombre, Sven Goran Erikkson. I think our chance to win the Hex basically comes down to two things: key home wins, and Mexico struggling early under Swedish Mr. Burns there (SGE). Playing as they are now, you could see them taking a point vs. us in Columbus and at least not losing to El Sal had he more time to turn the ship around. It's woulda-coulda-shoulda time, but if Aguirre is there from x-mas 2008 onwards, Mexico could be leading the Hex right now. And, they may yet. Looking at our respective schedules, the US has @ T&T, at Hondo, and home to CR, a team that could be fighting to avoid 4th place and a home & home vs. Colombia (or, gasp, Argentina). Mexico on the other hand has home to Hondo, home to El Sal, at T&T. You could see them running the table and winning the group on 21 points, if we can only manage two wins from three and come second on 19. Should we pull out a win of this Hex, my first 'attaboy' goes to Bob Bradley, but my first beer goes to Sven. Thanks, you skirt chasing freak, I really enjoyed this summer of thinking that Mexico was in such a bad position that they really could finish 4th. Now that it is fall, back to school, back to work, Mexico back to the top end of the table. Fun while it lasted.
Good points. I'll add a tip of the hat to Hugo Sanchez, too, who left the team in a considerable amount of turmoil.
Cant help but agree...but I dont care who finishes first and wins the hex as long as we have a top 3 spot im good
I don't know what's wrong with Diego. He's never been a good coach and might be leaving Argentina just luck Sanchez did with Mexico. Not playing Riquelme should be a crime
Good post, though. I started watching the Mex-CR game late and for a while I thought CR was winning. I started to ask myself. Who are these guys wearing the Mexico uniform? Where have they been. I am not complaining, but this is turning into a hollywood type ending for them.
Hugo Sanchez team was flying high; third place in Copa America (destroying the likes of Paraguay 6-0)and a one-nil friendly win over Ghana in England. Sanchez was sacked because of political reasons with the U-23 Olympic qualifier debacle at Carson used as an excuse. Had Sanchez remained at the helm the Tricolor would of not had any problems in the first round of qualifiers and would of been playing as good as they currently are under Aguirre. As for Sven; his main problem was timing. Sven was brought in with WCQ underway and a NT which was divided. Blanco retirering, during the Swedes tenure, and now back with the NT but Oswaldo Sanchez and Pavel Pardo (who both held the Captains armband under Sven) no longer in the picture is no coincidence. In any case Mexico's main problems have been internal. We can not expect a team that has had 4 coaching changes in one WCQ cycle to maintain a competetive level. Anyways, given enough time to work with the NT and figure out WTF was going on with the Tricolor I am sure that Sven would have eventually figured things out. If anything the Gold Cup has been key in helping Aguirre get the Mexican NT back in shape.
I still think we're better than them, and with a little better play from Clark and Bradley, we beat them in Mexico.
As long as we are giving thanks, let's also tip our hats to CUBA. Were it not for their amazing upset of Guatemala, our boys might be playing in the unfriendly confines of Guatemala tomorrow, instead of in TnT.
For Mexico it was not really a tactical change that Aguirre did but he moved out some incompetents (Pardo, Sanchez) and brought in Blanco who is now pulling the strings and a couple others. Blanco has really taken to the MLS fitness program. I am not sure if that head case Nery Castilllo is long for that team either.
No way. Thank you Aguirre. We need to test ourselves. The last 3 years feel like a series of false confidence builders. I would much rather the US be in a qualifying group with Denmark, Portugal, Finland and Serbia. We have tried to play very good teams, but it seems friendlies to them are just kind of a run in the park.
One could play this game forever, Mexico playing the way it is now, maybe gets a point in Columbus or better.
el tri gets too full of itself and honduras will get points wednesday evening... that's the sort of hex it's been..
Or... Screw you, Sven. If you had been able to win or draw down at Honduras, we would have three clear now at the top of the table.
Honduras might pull something out. They are playing well right now.. but I think they'll shit the bed in Mexico.
Excellent post, interesting how crazy it got for Mexico in one cycle and they could still win the group. I really care about the US clinching, but it would be sad if mexico did not make it.