Soccer World Cup 2002 / Mexico

This article covers the Mexican national team at the 2002 World Cup .

qualification

Mexico qualified directly for the second round. There you met Trinidad and Tobago , Panama and Canada . After a surprising defeat against Trinidad and Tobago they straightened things out with a 7-0 win in the second leg. A draw against Canada on the last day of the match made them second, but this had no effect on the rest of the game.

Mexico had big problems at the beginning of the finals. After the first half of the season you had just 4 points in your account. In the second half of the season they were able to qualify for the World Cup thanks to a significant increase in performance (13 points).

Intermediate round:

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Trinidad and Tobago	14: 7	15th
2	Mexico	17: 2	13
3	Canada	1: 8	5
4th	Panama	1:16	1

Panama	-	Mexico		0: 1
Trinidad / Tobago	-	Mexico		1-0
Mexico	-	Canada		2-0
Mexico	-	Panama		7: 1
Mexico	-	Trinidad / Tobago		7-0
Canada	-	Mexico		0-0

Finals:

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Costa Rica	17: 7	23
2	Mexico	16: 9	17th
3	United States	11: 8	17th
4th	Honduras	17:17	14th
5	Jamaica	7:14	8th
6th	Trinidad and Tobago	5:18	5

United States	-	Mexico		2-0
Mexico	-	Jamaica		4-0
Trinidad / Tobago	-	Mexico		1: 1
Mexico	-	Costa Rica		1: 2
Honduras	-	Mexico		3: 1
Mexico	-	United States		1-0
Jamaica	-	Mexico		1: 2
Mexico	-	Trinidad / Tobago		3-0
Costa Rica	-	Mexico		0-0
Mexico	-	Honduras		3-0

Mexican contingent

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	birthday	Games	Gates
goalkeeper
1	Óscar Pérez Rojas	CD Cruz Azul	02/01/1973	4th	0	0	0	0
12	Oswaldo Sánchez	Deportivo Guadalajara	09/21/1973	0	0	0	0	0
23	Jorge Campos	UNAM Pumas	October 15, 1966	0	0	0	0	0
Defender
2	Gabriel de Anda	CF Pachuca	06/05/1971	0	0	0	0	0
4th	Rafael Marquez	AS Monaco	02/13/1979	4th	0	0	0	1
5	Manuel Vidrio	CF Pachuca	08/23/1972	4th	0	1	0	0
16	Salvador Carmona	Deportivo Toluca	08/22/1975	4th	0	1	0	0
20th	Melvin Brown	CD Cruz Azul	01/28/1979	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Alberto Rodríguez	CF Pachuca	04/01/1974	0	0	0	0	0
midfield player
3	Rafael García	Deportivo Toluca	08/14/1974	1	0	0	0	0
6th	Gerardo Torrado	Sevilla FC	04/30/1979	4th	1	1	0	0
7th	Ramon Morales	Deportivo Guadalajara	10/10/1975	4th	0	0	0	0
8th	Alberto García Aspe	Puebla FC	05/11/1967	1	0	1	0	0
11	Braulio Luna	Necaxa	09/08/1974	4th	0	0	0	0
13	Sigifredo Mercado	CF Atlas	December 21, 1968	3	0	0	0	0
14th	German Villa	Club America	04/02/1973	0	0	0	0	0
18th	Johan Rodríguez	Santos Laguna	08/15/1975	3	0	0	0	0
19th	Gabriel Caballero	CF Pachuca	02/05/1971	3	0	0	0	0
21st	Jesús Arellano	CF Monterrey	05/08/1973	3	0	1	0	0
striker
9	Jared Borgetti	Santos Laguna	08/14/1973	4th	2	0	0	0
10	Cuauhtémoc Blanco	Real Valladolid	January 17, 1973	4th	1	1	0	0
15th	Luis Hernández	Club America	December 22, 1968	3	0	1	0	0
17th	Francisco Palencia	Espanyol Barcelona	04/28/1973	2	0	0	0	0
Trainer
	Javier Aguirre		December 01, 1958

Mexican team games

Preliminary round

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Mexico	4: 2	7th
2	Italy	4: 3	4th
3	Croatia	2: 3	3
4th	Ecuador	2: 4	3

• June 3, 2002; 3:30 p.m. in Niigata Croatia - Mexico 0: 1 (0: 0)
  

In the first half, Mexico let the World Cup third party from 1998 act largely and limited itself essentially to destroying the Croatian attack attempts. In the second half, the Mexicans stepped up their offensive efforts. The key scene of the game was the 59th minute when Cuauhtémoc Blanco ran away from his guard Boris Živković , who could only pull his legs away. Because the irregularity happened in the penalty area , the Mexicans were awarded penalties . The fouled himself took responsibility and created the 1-0 final score with his converted penalty. It was relatively easy for the Mexicans to defend their narrow lead because the nine remaining Croatian outfield players couldn't think of much after Živković was sent off.

• June 9, 2002; 3:30 p.m. in Rifu Mexico - Ecuador 2: 1 (1: 1)
  

The first shock for "El Tri" came the day before the game, when Croatia beat Italy and the group was completely open again. In this respect, a victory was now a must in order to maintain the three-point lead over the Croatians and Italians and to leave the Ecuadorians behind. The second shock came in the fifth minute of the game, when Agustín Delgado headed in a cross from Ulises de la Cruz to take Ecuador by surprise. After that, it took almost a quarter of an hour before the shocked Mexicans found their way back into the game. The equalizer, well deserved, fell in the 28th minute through Jared Borgetti after a cross from Ramón Morales . A shot fired from the edge of the box by Gerardo Torrado in the 56th minute struck José Cevallos unsustainable . Because Mexico largely controlled the game afterwards and there was not much left from Ecuador, it was a deserved 2-1 win for Mexico.

• June 13, 2002; 8:30 p.m. in Ōita Mexico - Italy 1: 1 (1: 0)
  

The starting situation for Italy was extremely unfavorable. Because the "Azzurri" had a tied point only one goal difference (3: 2) against Croatia (2: 2), who had the supposedly easier opponent with the bottom Ecuador. In this respect, the Italians had to play for victory in order not to run the risk of having to return home prematurely. At the same time, league leaders Mexico (with a score of 3: 1 goals), who were previously free of loss points, were threatened with premature failure if Croatia had won, as all three teams would have had six points in their accounts.

The Italians started off aggressively and developed a number of good opportunities in the first half hour. One of them landed in the Mexicans goal, but because the team of referees mistakenly believed the goal scorer Filippo Inzaghi was offside , the goal was denied recognition. Mexico took the lead with their first chance. After a cross from Cuauhtémoc Blanco , Jared Borgetti cleverly headed the ball sideways with the back of the head and out of reach for Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon into the far corner. Angry attacks from the Italians ensued, but Mexico took the lead into the break. After the Italians had initially dominated the opening phase of the second half, the growing Mexicans had a total of four good opportunities between the 54th and 66th minute, which, like all previous attempts by the Italians, were also unsuccessful. The final stages belonged to the Azzurri, who pushed for the equalizer and were rewarded with a header from Alessandro Del Piero in the 85th minute. The simultaneous win of Ecuador in the parallel game against Croatia meant that both Mexico and Italy qualified for the round of 16 and took it easy in the final minutes of the game.

Round of 16

• June 17, 2002; 3:30 p.m. in Jeonju Mexico - USA 0: 2 (0: 1)
  

For the first time ever at a World Cup that was not held in their own country, the Mexicans were able to make it to the quarter-finals, because Mexico was the favorite against arch-rivals USA . Correspondingly self-confident, “El Tri” started the game and got his first chance in the third minute. The Americans scored the opening goal through Brian McBride in the ninth minute. Although the Mexicans pushed for the equalizer afterwards, they found no way to crack the safe defense of the USA or ultimately failed because of their goalkeeper Brad Friedel . After the referees had denied the Mexicans a clear penalty in the 57th minute after a handball from John O'Brien and Landon Donovan successfully completed one of the few but always dangerous US counterattacks to 2-0 nine minutes later , the game was in principle decided.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fussballdaten.de: Croatia disappointed immensely against solid Mexicans
2. ↑ fussballdaten.de: Mexico's work victory against too defensive South Americans
3. ↑ fussballdaten.de: Only Del Piero scored for the negligent Italians
4. ↑ fussballdaten.de: Astonishing counter-strength of the US boys decided the game