Mexico head coach Javier Aguirre is worried about his offense, and Thursday’s match didn’t give him any sense of optimism with the World Cup less than a month away.
Despite out-shooting Angola 9-3 and producing 10 corner kicks, the Mexico offense still couldn’t score more than one goal Thursday in El Tri’s 1-0 win at Reliant Stadium.
“We have a poor offense,” Aguirre said. “We need to work on it. Our defense is working well together and doing a good job. My only concern is our offense.”
Andrés Guardado gave El Tri the lead in the 53rd minute, finishing off his own rebound. Mexico had other opportunities to score, but shots by Gerardo Torrado and two shots from Pablo Barrera were saved, and a shot by Cuauhtémoc Blanco went high.
Aguirre said the game got a little more difficult in the second half because he changed up Mexico’s midfield system at the half. Mexico only had four midfielders in the squad Thursday.
“The second half we played more open in the field, but that was a mistake because we needed to play together,” Aguirre said. “It gave Angola an advantage because they are so fast.”
Angola, who qualified for the 2006 World Cup but failed this time around, finally got a shot off in the 80th minute, but Maeco Antonio Rasca’s shot from 25 yards out was stopped by a diving Guillermo Ochoa. Angola coach Herve Renard said his team played well despite having only three weeks to prepare.
“I am very pleased with how we played,” Renard said. “I don’t care about the result. We had local players today, and we played well.”
Mexico face Chile on Sunday at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City before heading to Europe to play England, the Netherlands, Italy and Gambia. The Gambia match, set for May 30 in Germany, is a replacement for a match against Portugal that was originally scheduled.
El Tri open up the World Cup on June 11 against host South Africa.
