Just 2 months ago, the Mexican national team was in dire straights, and what were distant thoughts of potentially missing a World Cup, were becoming a serious possibility. Going into last nights game, if the result had been different against the U.S., you may as well have placed me on suicide watch. Luckily for me, Mexico played arguably their best all-around game in quite a while to beat out Costa Rica 3-0. Aided by a monster performance from Giovani Dos Santos, I feel comfortable putting away the bottle of Flintstones tablets I looked to o.d. on.

Costa Rica came out looking to impose their strength, and attempted to pin Mexico back with constant pressure, and hard fouls. It worked for most of the 1st half as Mexico looked imprecise, and appeared to be playing into Costa Rica’s hands. A great outside shot by Gio II Saints put Mexico up just before the half and appeared to settle the team down at which point they never looked back.

For the second half, Mexico took possession, but also took advantage of Costa Rica’s desperation on 2 fantastic counters each resulting in Dos Santos assists and goals for Franco (ugh), and Guardado respectively. The first of which was started with an Efrain Juarez (who haunts Landon Donovan’s dreams, I’m sure) sprint to beat out 2 Costa Rican players to a loose ball just past the halfway line. That kid plays balls out and is deserving of a constant starting role on this team, in my eyes.

The positives were the team’s play as a unit. They moved the ball around well, and didn’t overly depend on individualities to generate offense. This became more obvious once Guardado was brought in and swift passing and speed were the m.o. It gives me hope that one day I’ll be able to see a front four of Guardado, Vela, Arellano, and Dos Santos. That’s some hard-on inducing shit right there.

Regardless of the individuals mentioned above, the entire team performed well (except for you, stone-footed Franco), and I can only hope that the momentum they’ve built up can carry them comfortably toward South Africa.

The Goals are below: