PHOENIX – The last time Sven-Goran Eriksson was in the United States with the Mexico national team was September, for a friendly against Chile at the Los Angeles Coliseum. He charmed Mexican media by conducting a news conference in Spanish, slipping up only when someone asked him if he eats chiles and he gave an answer about the cuisine of Chile, the country.
Everyone laughed.
The mood was positively less jovial in Phoenix yesterday, the tension hanging ominously in the desert air, as El Tri prepared for tonight's friendly against Ecuador at Chase Field. It is the final tuneup before next week's 2010 World Cup qualifier at Honduras, and Mexico finds itself in the uncomfortable, unenviable and highly unusual situation of needing at least a tie to guarantee it will advance.
And that's just to reach the final round of qualifying for the CONCACAF region.
But this is why they hold qualifying for two exhausting years before a World Cup, why it is not a mere formality for the sport's superpowers, why it is not a waste of time, because a nation you just assume will make it inevitably does not.
Iraq, the reigning Asian Cup champion, is already out. So is Senegal, which made that magical run to the 2002 quarterfinals.
Portugal, a 2006 semifinalist, is in third place in its European qualifying group (only the group winner is guaranteed a spot in South Africa) after four of 10 games. The Czech Republic is fifth out of six teams in its group. France has won just one of its first three qualifiers and is a distant third in its group.
In South America, where the top four teams qualify from a grueling 18-game schedule, mighty Argentina is in third place after 10 games and closer to eighth than first.
But there may be no greater shock than what has transpired with Mexico, which is supposed to be the whale in a region filled with soccer minnows. It is the earliest El Tri ever has been in serious jeopardy of elimination.
“I didn't expect us to be in the situation we're in today,” says Eriksson, the well-traveled Swede who took over in July for Hugo Sanchez with huge fanfare and a huge contract. “But that's it. Now we have to solve it.”
The situation: To control its own destiny, Mexico (3-1-1) needs a tie or win at Honduras (3-2-0) next Wednesday in the final match of CONCACAF's semifinal qualifying round. Otherwise, a loss in Honduras – where El Tri has dropped its past two qualifiers – combined with a Jamaica victory against winless Canada would put Mexico in a second-place tie with Jamaica. Only the top two teams in each group advance.
The tiebreaker is goal differential, and Mexico is currently plus-four to Jamaica's minus-three – meaning Mexico would have to lose by a bunch of goals and Jamaica win by a bunch of goals to eliminate El Tri.
Still, that it even has come to this is troubling for Mexico, particularly after opening the six-game semifinal round of qualifying with three wins. But they were all at home, and El Tri hasn't won since. It looked “very bad,” to use Eriksson's words, in a 1-0 loss at Jamaica and then tied Canada 2-2 in a match that easily could have been a loss – Canada had a shot hit the crossbar late in the game and Tomasz Radzinski missed an open net from close range.
“If you go to Jamaica losing, and you go to Canada and make a draw, you are criticized,” Eriksson says. “That's fair. I accept that. That's life in football. Things change.”
The United States, meanwhile, has long since clinched a spot in the six-team, 10-game final round, from which the top three teams go to South Africa in 2010. The Americans host Guatemala next Wednesday in Commerce City, Colo., and coach Bob Bradley summoned a team of youngsters for the meaningless match. Costa Rica and El Salvador are also in, and Trinidad and Tobago is close.
Eriksson had hoped to do the same thing, using the Honduras game to blood younger, inexperienced players while giving his big guns in Europe some much needed rest. Instead, Pavel Pardo, Rafael Marquez and the rest of the crew will board flights for the arduous trans-Atlantic journey and spend next Wednesday night in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
But that's the situation they are in. Now they have to solve it.
Admits Justino Compean, the president of Mexico's soccer federation: “We did not think it would be so much of a struggle.”
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com
