Mexico crushes Trinidad, 7-1, in Olympic soccer qualifier
So much for the vote of confidence.
With Mexico needing no worse than a runner-up finish in the eight-team CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament to secure a place in this summer’s London Games, Coach Luis Fernando Tena is already facing questions about his future should that fail to happen.
And that was before his team took the field Friday.
But Tena had reason to breathe easier after Mexico overcame a slow start, riding Marco Fabian’s hat trick to a 7-1 win over Trinidad and Tobago in the first round of group play before a Home Depot Center crowd of 8,521.
In Friday’s first game, Honduras got second-half goals from Mario Martinez and Alexander Lopez in an impressive 3-1 win over Panama. Honduras meets the Mexican soccer squad Sunday afternoon following the Trinidad-Panama match.
No country is under more pressure in Olympic qualifying than Mexico, which has missed two of the last three Games. And that, by extension, means no coach is sitting on a hotter seat than Tena, whose U-23 team of talented underachievers is facing high expectations after winning the Pan American Games last fall.
“I’ve accepted my responsibility since I was invited to participate with the national team,” Tena said in Spanish. “Never has anyone with the federation told me I could be fired ? but those are the risks of the head coach.”
Mexico dominated from the opening whistle Friday, but despite the final score, it was the kind of imperfect performance that will do little to completely quiet Tena’s critics. Mexico had numerous scoring chances, getting off 35 shots -- but until late in the second half, it was sending more balls into the crowd than into the net.
Tigres’ striker Alan Pulido, for example, misfired on three excellent opportunities before finally scoring in the 29th minute, deflecting in the rebound of a Diego Reyes header.
Chivas teammates Miguel Ponce and Fabian hooked up in the 33rd minute to make it 2-0 with Ponce’s long, bending cross finding the well-marked Fabian deep in the penalty area, from where he headed the ball in.
Mexico’s best work of the night gave it a 3-0 lead just after the intermission. The play started with Andre Marchan, Trinidad’s overwhelmed keeper, batting down David Cabrera’s free kick, allowing Hiram Mier, sliding in from the right wing, to redirect the ball back in front. Reyes headed it home.
But Mexico didn’t let up, with Fabian adding two more goals in the final 30 minutes, sandwiching Israel Jimenez’s whistling free kick from well outside the penalty area. The match disintegrated after that, with Trinidad’s Kevin Molino and Mexico’s Javier Cortes exchanging goals in the closing minutes.
Mexico will face a much stiffer test against speedy Honduras, which ran out to a 2-0 lead against Panama on Eddie Hernandez goal’s in the 19th minute and Martinez’s score from 35 yards out less than two minutes into the second half. Panama came back on a goal by Yairo Glaize in the 55th minute, but Lopez put the game away eight minutes later.
