El Tri has crushed New Zealand in the first of two playoff games to finally qualify for the 2014 World Cup. With new coach Miguel Herrera (Herrera being the fourth coach in less than 2 months) picking only national players, and not calling up on stars that play in European leagues like Javier Hernandez who plays for Manchester United. Mexico who was extremely lucky to qualify for the play-off games had a rather lack luster performance in qualifiers, scoring only seven goals in a total of ten games. With new coach Herrera, it seems like he has the team firing on all cylinders. When asked why he went with an all national line-up, Herrera said, "It was partly to deal with Mexico City's altitude of 7,350 feet, which seems to fatigue the New Zealand players."
Mexico reached the play-off spot for the CONCACAF group finishing fourth, behind USA who are first, Costa Rica who are second, and Honduras finishing third. On top of that Mexico secured their fourth place finish due to the U.S. scoring two really late goals against Panama, in what was a great comeback performance from the Stars and Stripes.
New Zealand never really was in the game as the Mexicans seemed really comfortable playing at home at the famous Azteca stadium. As well as controlling the majority of the game and setting the tempo. More importantly Mexico looked like Mexico again. Combining well in the mid-field and completing crisp combination passes to set-up play. New Zealand also had it's hands full when it came to containing certain players, for example Oribe Peralta (who was my favorite player on the field today) and his darting runs, not to mention him scoring a pair of goals.
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| Oribe Peralta (19) celebrating after scoring. My Man of the Match for the game. |
All in all, Mexico is only 90 more minutes away from officially booking their trip to Brazil. I think its safe to say that they are in. New Zealand just isn't a good enough team, and they haven't been for awhile. Which concerns me for Mexico cause if they want to go far in the World Cup, they need to really start coming up with game plans that will work in containing world class team's in the World Cup. Sure New Zealand was a great game for El Tri, but if they want to step away from the shadows of mediocrity, Mexico still has a long way to go.
