Reggae Boyz meet tough Azteca crowd

MEXICO CITY: A Mexican national football team that has shown little flair and enjoys even less fan support faces Jamaica today in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament.

Thursday’s scoreless drawn against Honduras earned the Mexican team first place in Group “A” with four points, leaving Brazil in second place with three points. Honduras were eliminated from the tournament that features nations from the Americas. Jamaica will face Mexico at Azteca Stadium, where Mexican fans on Thursday jeered at the home team for not scoring. Tens of thousands of seats were left empty during the match against Honduras, a result of the fans’ growing impatience with coach Ricardo Lavolpe’s team. Mexico’s 1-0 Gold Cup victory against Brazil was played before 80,000 fans at the 105,000-seat Azteca Stadium. Fewer than 15,000 fans attended the Honduras match. Lavolpe had promised the fans a victory against Honduras but acknowledged after the match that his team is not playing well.

The win against Brazil snapped Mexico’s losing streak that included a 2-1 defeat to El Salvador two weeks ago. Jamaica lost their opening Gold Cup match 1-0 to Colombia but advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Guatemala 2-0. The victory gave the “Reggae Boyz,” as the team is known at home,  second place in Group “B”, behind Colombia. Jamaica coach Carl Brown predicts the semifinal against Mexico will be no walkover. “It is going to be tough. It is always tough to play there,” Brown said, referring to Azteca Stadium. “But it is part of the game, and we realise that throughout CONCACAF at some time you will have to go to Mexico.”