Remember 1980 - U2 were a hot young band, the Cure made a
NINE concert tour of NZ, Toy Love split up, Piggy Mudoon was PM....
and Mexico went down 4-0 in Auckland - and it was Herbert's debut for NZ (and probably Wednesday will be his last as manager).
And we have to win 4-0 on Wednesday to make the World Cup! (or else win by any five goal margin)
Brazil, USA, Panama and South Korea were the only other countries to beat Mexico in 1980 (P:25 W:9 D:8 L:8):
http://www.11v11.com/teams/mexico/tab/matches/season/1981
NZ BEAT MEXICO 4-0
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/football/277564/football-day-nz-beat-mexico-4-0
"...The result, at Auckland's Bill McKinlay Park in 1980...
Excellent post Big Pete. The article says 5000 people watched the All Whites that night. It was a long time ago, but I recall a lot less people than that. The one thing I do remember clearly though, is the positivity and energy the team played with, they really took it the Mexicans. The same thing is needed on Wednesday. Being at sea-level should help.
Apologies if I missed the irony but really? What has changed since Thursday morning to make you think we can replicate a fluke result from 32 years ago?
Well, apart from a dream I had last night where the players locked Ricki in a cupboard over the weekend and wouldn't let him out (except for short stretches in a straight jacket to let him breathe) and Ryan Nelsen coached them over the phone from Toronto -
....what has changed is Mexico probably don't travel well - in fact they very, very rarely play outside of CONCACAF and when they do, they don't win many - last year they won three competitve matches away from home (all in CONCACAF & two of those were v Guyana and El Salvador); this year they've won only two competitive matches away from home (v Jamaica & v Japan, their sole win in the Confeds Cup).
Of course not that Mexico will be so bad we'll win 4-0, but who knows, maybe it's possible to get a 2-1 or 2-0....
But, please Ricki, no Jeremy Christie and give Roux, Tuiloma and Henderson a run, Rojas and Smeltz more time and start James...
Mexico doesn't play outside of CONCACAF that much cuz the FMF makes lots of money playing in the US, even if against rubbish teams most the time (we have played NZ two times for the same reason), while they're mostly boring games, they have helped financing our youth teams and women sides, so I can't complain much.
Now, Mexico don't travel well in CONCACAF, cuz there's a huge hostility in the area, especially in Central America. When we have played outside of Concacaf we have done ok most the times (most of the past Copas America, except the last one where we had a U-22 team and the Confed, but it was a team in crisis).