México continued their disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign with a 0-0 draw against Hexagonal rivals Costa Rica at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday night.
El Tri, which has only scored three goals in six World Cup qualifying matches, struggled to produce offensively and relied on goalkeeper Jesus Corona to salvage a point over the Central American nation.
The Ticos, who arrived to Estadio Azteca late due to México City traffic, controlled the tempo in the first half and limited the Mexican counter-attack for majority of the match. The match took an ugly turn in the second half, as Mexican fans hurled objects at Costa Rican captain Carlos Ruiz.
The result leaves Méxican manager Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre on thin ice, as Mexican supporters called for his firing following his side's second consecutive draw.
The defending Gold Cup champions will now travel to Brazil where they will participate in this year's Confederation Cup. Mexico reached the tournament by rallying from a two-goal deficit to beat the United States at the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. El Tri hasn't played at the Confederations Cup since 2005 in Germany, where it lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in the semifinals.
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Lineups
México: Jesús Corona, Gerardo Flores, Héctor Moreno, Francisco Javier Rodríguez, Carlos Salcido, Jesús Zavala, Héctor Herrera (Giovani dos Santos, 74), Andrés Guardado, Pablo Barrera (Javier Aquino, 63), Aldo de Nigris (Raúl Jiménez, 54), Javier Hernández.
Costa Rica: Keylor Navas, Christian Gamboa, Michael Umaña, Giancarlo González, Jhony Acosta, Junior Díaz, Yeltsin Tejeda, Christian Bolaños (Kenny Cunnigham, 65), Michael Barrantes (Celso Borges, 76), Joel Campbell (Alvaro Saborio, 85) and Bryan Ruiz.
The Associated Press was used in this report.
