Relief for Mexico in Seattle

Mexico came out ahead tonight beating Canada 2-Nil in front of a record Seattle Gold Cup crowd of 28,354 people and about 95% of them were here for Mexico.

“Our fans are very supportive and demand good results,” said Mexico head coach Jose Manuel De La Torre through an interpreter, “It is always nice and important to win and climb the table.”

In the first half it was very one sided as Mexico seemed to dominate for the most part not allowing Canada get into its territory very often but when they did they came shooting.

The best chance for Canada to put one in the back of the net came in the first half at the 28^th minute when Marcus Haber shot a header that would have gone in the left corner of the net had it not been deflected by Mexico goal keeper Jonathan Orozco.

Then the scoring got started in the 41^st minute when Mexico’s Raul Jimenez took and put a header in the left hand corner of the net off of a corner kick and assist by Jorge Enriquez. Prior to that Mexico kept the pressure on Canada, getting an impressive eight corner kicks in the first half.

At half-time the teams went into the locker room and Mexico showing it had command having with five from seven shots on target and Canada only getting three shots off with two of them on target.

Both sides came out strong in the second half; however Mexico just couldn’t be stopped, in the 56^th minute they were awarded a Penalty Kick by the official Joel Aguilar.

Marco Fabia shot it in the left corner, Canada goal keeper Milan Borjan went right and it skipped right past him to put Mexico up 2-0.

Things started to get ugly, in the 67^th minute Canada player David Edgar found his way into the official’s book with a little karate kick just outside the penalty box. It was quite surprising that it took that long to have someone carded seeing as both sides were going back and forth most of the match.

In the 88^th minute Marcel De Jong put a beautiful shot up off of a free kick that looked destined to finally get Canada on the scoreboard but it instead ricocheted off of the top of the crossbar and back onto the field of play where it was then knocked out by a Mexico player leading to a Canada corner that resulted in nothing.

From there the officials added 3 extra minutes of stoppage time that once again, like most of the match, Mexico dominated almost getting a third goal in the 90+ range that went high just above the crossbar.

This was a much needed from win for the beleaguered Mexicans to advance in the Gold Cup after they lost last Sunday 2-1 against Panama. Panama are sure of advancement after they beat Martinique earlier in the day here at Centurylink Field 1-0

Tonight’s loss for Canada will just about put a nail in the coffin for them as they lost to Martinique in the first round 1-Nil.

On Sunday both teams will take to the pitch once again in Denver where Canada will be playing the 100% Panamanians and Mexico will take on Martinique who is also 1-1-0 and the winner of that match up will advance on in the tournament with Panama.

Mexico head coach De La Torre was asked what changes will come before Sunday’s match, he said that they need to evaluate where everyone is after today’s match and see how Martinique looks following there match and what changes they may make before Sunday.

One of the tough parts and a key to the match in Denver is the high altitude, where players will need to get used to the thinner air that could lead to and make a difference during those matches.

However Mexico’s coach feels that won’t be an issue for his team seeing that they practice in Mexico City where they are also higher then sea level altitude and his team will be ready to take on that challenge.