Mexico vs. Costa Rica: Takeaways from El Tri's 1-0 Win over Ticos

With Mexico's 1-0 win over Costa Rica on Tuesday night, El Tri is officially through to the final stage of World Cup qualifying.

Mexico's fourth win of the group propelled them to 12 points, while second place El Salvador, which beat Guyana, has just five points. With two third-round matches left to play, Mexico is already king of the group.

That is downright impressive, even if Tuesday night's performance wasn't. 

Let's take a look at what you can take away from the win.

A Win is a Win

Again, the performance was less than spectacular. 

Despite being at home and being heavily favored, El Tri was simply outplayed by Costa Rica, especially for the first 45 minutes.

But as it goes with soccer, sometimes the team that has the worse night comes away with the three points, and that is an important lesson Mexico needs to learn for the World Cup. 

This win was certainly an ugly one, but knowing how to win when you don't play to your full capabilities is incredibly key. El Tri isn't always going to win 3-0. They need to know how to grind out victories, and this was a good win to teach them that lesson. 

Three points is three points, and they should be happy with that, no matter the process. 

If playing like this against lesser teams starts becoming a trend, though, that's a different story. 

Javier Hernandez is Back. Kind of. 

I don't think anyone was really worried about Chicharito, but the nerves regarding his play were certainly starting to increase. In the Manchester United starlet's lasts four games with the national squad, he had scored precisely zero goals and dished out zero assists. 

Well, the drought is over.

Hernandez netted the only goal of the game with a beautiful header in 61st minute. Finally.

Chicharito, along with the rest of the squad, was fairly sloppy during the rest of the match, but him getting the monkey off his back is without a doubt a good sign for the rest of Mexico's qualifying. 

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