If New Zealand beat Mexico to qualify for the world cup, it would go down as one the biggest upsets in the history of recorded sport.
What bollocks. Mexico just lost to Honduras at home, who are only ranked 13 places above us. They failed to even score a goal against any other team in this round of the qualifiers, including Jamaica who haven't had a single win. They appear to be in total crisis.
Now you can give me the whole spiel about the rankings not being accurate, the dynamics of CONCACAF qualifying, Mexico's coaching situation, Mexico "getting up for the big games", and whatever else. Yes it will be an upset, yes they'll be firm favourites, and yes the All Whites have a huge job to do if they want to go from where they are presently to where they'll need to be to get to Brazil. But to say it would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of recorded sport is just absurd.
I've been quite surprised at the defeatism around here in the last week. Lots of people seemingly assume that beating Mexico over two legs is literally impossible, and beating Honduras or Panama will be a lot easier. The way I see it, all three teams will be hard to beat, and the odds are against the All Whites qualifying, but no more so than they've always been.
It'll be very tough, but we're still just 180 minutes away from qualifying for Brazil.