Mexico Earn Vital WCQ Win vs. Jamaica, but It Wasn't Pretty

The table says Mexico are first place in The Hex after four matches, and even though they catapulted past four teams after beating Jamaica in Kingston, the 1-0 victory wasn’t exactly something to write home about.

While El Tri often enjoyed extended spells of possession, much of their attacking play was forced wide by Jamaican midfielders who weren’t long in picking up on their guests’ preference for springing wingers instead of moving the ball up the middle.

Should Mexico stand a chance of getting out of their group at the Confederations Cup later this month—nevermind retaining one of CONCACAF’s three World Cup berths—they will have to diversify their buildup play or risk being found out time and again on the counterattack.

But for Jamaica’s own inability to generate meaningful offense, they would surely have been punished severely for their giveaways. Instead, goalkeeper Jose de Jesus Corona’s most important saves came on a series of Jermaine Hue corner-kicks, and the Reggae Boyz’ best chance of the night—a headed opportunity from Marvin Elliot in the 72nd minute—failed to even test the 32-year-old.

Of course, there were some positives for Mexico to take from the match. They did win it, after all.

Corona was certainly one of them, and he will no doubt start against Panama on Friday. Diego Reyes was also a bright spot—his pair of blocks on Garath McClearly denying Jamaica what might have been their most dangerous shots of the encounter. And Giovani Dos Santos, who only came on in the 67th minute, immediately added an element of creativity to the Mexican attack that had been nonexistent before his arrival.

Finally, manager Jose Manuel de la Torre will have breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Aldo de Nigris open the scoring just three minutes after the restart. Javier Hernandez had come into the match with four of Mexico’s last five goals to his name, and to see another striker on the scoresheet must have been a relief to the Guadalajara and Toluca boss.

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De Nigris had yet to open his account in World Cup qualifying, but if his headed goal from a well-placed Carlos Salcido cross was the opening of the floodgates, Mexico’s route to Brazil will be that much smoother.

As for Jamaica, Friday’s match at home to the United States is now far more important than they will have wanted it to be. The Americans will be looking to build off their 4-3 win over Germany, and a win in Kingston would set them up nicely for a pair of upcoming home matches against Panama and Honduras.

That said, CONCACAF qualifying is a funny thing, and if Jamaica could win even one of their next two matches against the United States and Honduras, they would remain very much in the picture heading into the final rounds of play in September.

After all, they call it "The Hex" for a reason.