MEXICO CITY, 9 September 2005 — Mexico clinched its fourth straight World Cup berth Wednesday, routing Panama 5-0 while preventing the visitors from a single serious shot on goal.
In other North and Central American and Caribbean region qualifiers, the United States, which had already booked its spot at next year’s World Cup in Germany, played out a scoreless draw with Guatemala, while Costa Rica kept its finals hopes alive with a 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago.
With two games remaining, Mexico and the United States lead the CONCACAF standings on 19 points, ahead of Costa Rica with 13, Guatemala with eight and Trinidad and Tobago on seven. The top three qualifiers earn an automatic World Cup berth while the fourth placed team enters a playoff against Asia’s Bahrain or Uzbekistan for another spot.
Mexico took the lead in the 31st minute when Panamanian defender Gabriel Gomez outleaped Jared Borgetti on a corner kick, and Luis Perez scored off the rebound from 15 meters (yards) out.
In the 54th minute, Rafael Marquez maneuvered himself into the penalty box and gently headed home a goal off a free kick by Pavel Pardo.
Borgetti scored five minutes later with a penalty kick that narrowly slipped past the fingertips of goalkeeper Jaime Penedo.
Francisco Fonseca scored off of a pass from Gonzalo Pineda in the 75th minute and Pardo struck two minutes later with a long-distance shot through the rattled Panamanian defense.
With frustration building, Panama lost Ricardo Phillips and Felipe Baloy to a red cards in the final 10 minutes.
At San Jose, Costa Rica, Alvaro Saborio and Walter Centeno both scored to give the home team a convincing win over Trinidad and Tobago.
Saborio opened the scoring in the 14th minute off a pass from Ronald Gomez. Centeno followed five minutes after the break with a free kick.
The visitors came close to scoring in the 43rd minute, but goalkeeper Jose Francisco Porras made a spectacular save of a shot by Christopher Birchall.
At Guatemala City, the United States started sloppy and let easy chances slip away late in its draw with Guatemala.
The United States had already clinched its fifth straight World Cup berth with a win over Mexico on Saturday, allowing coach Bruce Arena to excuse most of his regular starters from the trip.
Eddie Johnson had the Americans’ best chance in the 81st minute, but his open header off a Donovan cross went wide. Taylor Twellman failed to connect on a good second-half chance for the United States.
Guatemala nearly scored in the 90th minute when Edwin Villatoro’s shot bounced off a post.
Eriksson Job on Line After More Embarrassment for England€
Three weeks ago, England was hailed as a genuine challenger to Brazil for the World Cup and Sven-Goran Eriksson’s unbeaten record in qualifying games showed no sign of ending.
Now the fans are calling for his head and he’s under pressure to resign.
Instead of taking another big step toward the World Cup, England is virtually standing still at a time when the other big contenders are moving forward.
While a typically top quality Thierry Henry strike put France back on course for the finals in a 1-0 victory over Ireland, a Luca Toni hat-trick pushed Italy closer with a 4-1 victory at Belarus. Two Jan Polak strikes helped the Czech Republic beat Armenia 4-1, and group rival the Netherlands outplayed Andorra 4-0 with Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring twice.
Yet no more European teams managed to join the eight who have already qualified to join host Germany — Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United States.
With just two rounds of games to go, there will be a late scramble for the other European spots, with eight group winners and the best two runners-up qualifying, and the other six going into playoffs.
The tightest competition is in Group 4 with Switzerland winning 3-1 at Cyprus and Israel beating the Faeroe Islands 2-0 to stay in contention. That put pressure on Ireland and France in Dublin, and Henry’s wonder strike gave the French a 1-0 victory which dropped the Irish to fourth.
Portugal stayed five points clear after a 0-0 draw with Russia in Moscow and, with rivals Slovakia and Russia still to play each other, is within touching distance of the finals.
