Mexico nears World Cup berth after poor start

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Mexico faced the stark possibility just a month ago of missing next year’s World Cup in South Africa. El Tri, under coach Javier Aguirre, responded, beating the United States and Costa Rica in its last two qualifying matches.

Now a victory over Honduras on Wednesday in Estadio Azteca would put Mexico in good shape to reach its fifth straight World Cup.

The United States can nearly clinch its sixth straight berth with a victory at Trinidad and Tobago, the last-place team in the CONCACAF qualifying group. In the third match, Costa Rica plays at El Salvador.

"We’re at the stage of qualifying now where all the points are critical," Aguirre said.

The battle among the top four at the top of the standings is too close to call. Honduras and the United States have 13 points — Honduras leads on goal difference — and Mexico and Costa Rica have 12 each. El Salvador and Trinidad have five points.

The first three advance automatically to next year’s 32-team tournament in South Africa, and the fourth-place team faces a playoff with the fifth-place team from South America for another berth. Awaiting could be countries like Argentina, Colombia or Ecuador.

Mexico will be without starters Guillermo Franco at forward and captain and midfielder Gerardo Torrado, both suspended after picking up yellow cards in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Costa Rica.

The last time Honduras and Mexico played, Sven-Goran Eriksson was coaching Mexico. The Mexicans lost the April 1 match 3-1, and a day later Mexico fired Eriksson and brought in Aguirre. Eriksson, a former England coach, won four of nine qualifiers and dug Mexico into a hole from which Aguirre is still trying to escape.

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