The response from El Tri after an embarrassing home loss to the United States last month was to firmly grasp control of World Cup qualification. There were no underlying effects from losing to the Americans.

After a rather easy 2-0 win against Costa Rica on Friday, Mexico leads CONCACAF'S Group B with a commanding nine points, five points ahead of Costa Rica.

El Salvador lags far behind in third place with just two points (the top two teams in the group advance to the next round). With only three matches remaining -- two at home, and the only road match being against the minnow Guyana -- it will take a rather massive collapse for Mexico not to advance to the hexagonal. Not topping the group would be a surprise at this point.