Thursday, August 21, 2008

Dodging Bullets

Mexico was lucky to sneak out of last night's World Cup qualifier with a 2-1 victory over Honduras. After a golazo on a free kick from Parma's Julio de León in the first half, Mexico looked out of sorts and uncoordinated. Sven-Goran Eriksson started Giovanni Dos Santos and Carlos Vela together at forward, a risky move given their lack of experience. Those two may be Mexico's future, but they had little success last night linking up with the rest of the squad. After pulling Vela and Dos Santos (for Omar Bravo and Guillermo Franco) shortly after the half, el Tri saw some more chances, and the tying and then winning goal two minutes later came from an unusual source: defenseman Pavel Pardo. Whew. Losing in Estadio Azteca in Sven-Goran's first meaningful game would have been a disaster.

I'd like to have more to say about the US win over Guatemala, but as is often the case, they didn't televise it here in Mexico. If Nafta is renegotiated next year, Mexico's blackouts of the US national team should be at the top of the agenda.

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