El Tri: Mexico 3-2 Costa Rica recap

Mexico captured a 3-2 win against Costa Rica with the new generation of players that, interim head coach, Ricardo Ferretti has established.

With goals from Victor Guzman, Henry Martin and Raul Jimenez, El Tri gave the fans in El Estadio Universitario, better known as El Volcan, a pleasant sensation with the young talented players leading up to the cycle of Qatar 2022.

Mexico started off the game with a young starting-11, featuring all players from Liga MX clubs. European-based players were relegated to the bench to start, which is sure to be slowly building the confidence for the Liga MX youngsters in the upcoming qualification cycle.

Though Mexico started by dominating the first 20 minutes, it did not take long for Costa Rica to open the night’s scoring with a header from Joel Campbell in the 29th minute off a cross from Brian Oviedo at the far post. Mexican keeper Gibran Lajud tried to react, but it was too late to make the ultimate save.

It did not take long for El Tri to score the equalizer, thanks to Victor Guzman, who scored his first goal with the national team to tie the game. He beautifully timed a volley into the top corner of the net in the minute 33 with an assist by Jose Carlos Van Rankin and set the Mexico faithful wild.

A penalty from a Van Rankin handball was taken by Oviedo in the 43rd minute and awarded Costa Rica the 2-1 lead going in to half time.

The second half was dominated by Mexico, with the substitute players making a difference. Players like Raul Jimenez, Jurgen Damm, Jose “Tecatito” Corona and Henry Martin came on and made a quick impact.

Henry Martin scored off a header in minute 56 that leveled out the score for Mexico. The assist came from the agile Jurgen Damm, who became a nightmare the entire second half for Los Ticos, using his speed and creating a gap from defenders to follow up with crosses.

Raul Jimenez who has been a consistent penalty taker converted the last goal, off a penalty kick that awarded Mexico a 3-2 win in front of 35,900 fans.

The young talent in Mexico looks promising but the task will continue when they face Chile on Tuesday, October 16, 2018 in Queretaro, Mexico.