No aztecazo obtained is NOT a problem!

Exactly one week ago, Honduras played against Mexico at Mexico City in the Azteca. As a Honduran, we were all hoping for an “aztecazo” or even a point… we got back with no points. Mexico kept the three points with a 1-0 win. I’m not going to go that much into the game but here are some observation points I retrieved.

Honduras played defensively. I did not think that was going to happen this time but only Rueda knows why. Commentators and fans keep saying that professor Rueda is a coward. I don’t share the same idea with them because he has demonstrated maturity and professionalism in his job but at the Azteca the only way you can defeat Mexico is by attacking, which we did not do. A famous professional player once said, “the best way to defend is none other than by attacking.” I’m with him. Honduras visited the Azteca last year and they barely attacked, result: 2-1 loss. With that lesson I thought things this time were going to be different, unfortunately they weren’t.

Luckily this time Honduras did defend themselves very good I might say except in some situations. Noel Valladares did a very well job, if it wasn’t for him, Mexico would’ve won by more than one goal. So we were good in defense but thats it. The midfield was lost and the attacking side even worst.

Costa Rica was able to beat Mexico in 2001 because they played the same way as Mexico, attacking. We didn’t, we barely had goal opportunities.

Mexico’s goal was probably the worst way to decide this match but, oh well what can we do. It was a doubtful penalty but who knows, the referee at that point has to much pressure and with the Mexican players on him, even worst. Valladares was so close of impeding Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s penalty shot by an inch.

The goal came at the 75th minute. After that Honduras decided to attack. Unfortunately, it was too late for us. At this point Honduras did well on the attacking side and they were even close to tie the game. Memo Ochoa saved a powerful shot made by Julio Cesar “Rambo” de Leon. With this said, if Honduras would’ve attacked since the beginning of the game, they would’ve had a better chance of going up on the scoreboard.

Honduras dropped two positions, from 1st to 3rd. It could’ve been worst if El Salvador wouldn’t have beaten Costa Rica, so we should thank El Salvador for being in the 3rd position and not 4th. The good thing is that we still only depend of our own results. Our two qualifying last games are against the US at Honduras on October 10 and against El Salvador at San Salvador on October the 14th. A win against the “gringos” at San Pedro Sula will grant us a ticket to South Africa so it’s a huge game for us. Hopefully we keep the good pace we’ve had throughout the WCQ at the Olimpico, of not losing a single game.

The position table stands this way:

As a side note, The Costa Rican Soccer Federation fired Rodrigo Kenton with two games left. The Brasilian Rene Simoes will have the responsibility to command the Costa Rican team to the world cup. I don’t think this is a good idea, having in mind that they are in the border of elimination, with two games left and with less than a month of practice. We’ll see how that goes…

Below is a simulating calculator of what can possibly happen on the rest of the qualification. If everything goes as planned we at least need 2 points. That is just if the obvious happens. Here you can try it yourself with various results. Check it out, try various possibilities and find out we are still on the run for South Africa 2010.

http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/ESPECIALES/2009/agosto/hexaconcacaf/