Mexico gets yet another tough opponent

CHICAGO — Mexico coach Javier Aguirre would love to see El Tri back in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.

Not because he’d actually, well, see them, his three-game suspension for his altercation with Panama’s Ricardo Phillips during group play finished. Or even because it would be the second straight final for Mexico.

El Tri has had more drama than a telenovela lately, with coaches coming and going, losses mounting and a shockingly poor start in World Cup qualifying. But the players have worked hard this last month, Aguirre said Wednesday, and he’d like to see them rewarded for it.

Mexico plays Costa Rica on Thursday night in the Gold Cup semifinals. The United States and Honduras play in the first semifinal, with the winners meeting for the title Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.

“We are growing as a team. We have found our own certain style,” Aguirre said before his team’s training session. “It’s going to be a hard game. For me personally and the team, it would be great to make it to the final for this hard month of working together.”

El Tri was in disarray when Aguirre was brought back in April. Mexico had just lost its fifth straight World Cup qualifier away from home, a humiliating 3-1 loss to Honduras that dropped it to fourth in the six-team CONCACAF finals — out of the automatic World Cup spots. It had tried big-name coaches from Mexico (Hugo Sanchez) and overseas (Sven-Goran Eriksson) to no avail.

But Aguirre had bailed out Mexico before, taking over the struggling team in 2001 and getting it to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Though Mexico lost its first World Cup qualifier under Aguirre, it won its second and is now just one point behind Honduras for that all-important third spot with five games left.

Mexico finished atop its group in the first round of the Gold Cup, then routed Haiti 4-0 to reach the semifinals. El Tri has allowed just one goal in four games while scoring nine. Miguel Sabah leads all scorers with four goals.

Costa Rica is no pushover, though. The Ticos are the World Cup group leader, two points in front of the United States. Costa Rica is 33rd in FIFA’s latest rankings, three spots above Mexico.

“It’s a test for us. Every team playing the Mexican national team is significant for us,” Aguirre said. “It’s clear it’s a strong rival. They’ve done their job very well, they’ve done good things. They’re in the semifinal because of their own merits.”