Mexico beats U.S. 2-1 in soccer World Cup qualifier

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Mexico beat the United States 2-1 in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium on Wednesday, keeps the Mexican soccer team in the running for a ticket to 2010 World Cup due in South Africa.

The team fought back from an early setback when the U.S.' Charlie Davies scored the opening goal after just nine minutes. However, it took just 10 minutes for Mexico's Israel Castro to score the equalizer, leaving the teams 1-1 at half time.

The hard-fought second half saw goalscoring chances for both teams and it was not until minute 81 that Mexico's Miguel Sabah scored the decisive point, just four minutes after coming on to substitute teammate Guillermo Franco.

Towards the end of the game, U.S. players grew increasingly aggressive, tripping and pushing Mexican players who got the ball. Three U.S. defenders got yellow cards: Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit and Carlos Bocanegra.

Mexico was in fourth place in the six-nation qualifier for the Concacaf region, which covers North and Central American and the Caribbean. Only the top three teams go through automatically. The fourth-placed team has to play the fifth-placed South American team for a ticket to the Cup.

Costa Rica remains the leader of the qualifying competition with12 points, and the U.S. is in second place with 10. Mexico is now in third place with nine points.

The next two games in the competition are Trinidad and Tobago versus El Salvador, in last place and penultimate with five and two points respectively; and Honduras, in fourth place with seven points, versus leader Costa Rica.