Mexico national football team at the 2006 Football World Cup

By user Bobo

Mexico, the so-called "Giants of CONCACAF", have reached the second round in each of the last three world cups. A rather favourable draw puts them in with the Angolans and the Iranians.

Their best position so far in the World Cups is the quarter finals, and at the risk of sticking my neck out, I'd rather like to see them do that again. It's good for the game of football, and with such a good draw, it's very possible. The Mexicans have finished as champions of the Gold Cup four times, and have once won the Confederations Cup. They're a good team, and I'll be damned if anyone writes them off at this early stage.

That said, let's look at the draw. Wins against two of the three teams would be likely to put them through as winners, sticking them against quite possibly any of Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire, the Netherlands or Serbia and Montenegro. That's probably the toughest group to call out of the lot, so I'm not even going to begin placing my bets on that. Yet.

I'm not saying the team are lacking in household names by any means. Chivas USA have Claudio Sánchez, and Jared Borghetti is a member of Bolton Wanderers' first team, having moved their last autumn.

Their household names could easily get them through, and they have a good record of qualifying since their disqualification for fielding an overage player in the 1989 World Youth Championship. Possibly the only welcome relief to the self-styled "dullest world cup ever".

I have no idea what these guys are going to do. They could either go out in the first round, with oppos like Argentina having a good chance to overcome them, or they could pull off a good result against Côte d'Ivoire and consolidate with a position in the Quarter Finals. Either one of those results could be easily achieved, but as for going further... may not be feasible.