The World Cup qualifying playoffs will have one of the more anticipated matches of the day starting up late on the east coast, as Mexico will take on New Zealand in a second leg match on Wednesday morning/night at Westpac Stadium in Wellington and the match will be live on ESPN starting up at 1:00 AM ET and 7:00 PM local time and streaming on the WatchESPN website online.
The match will be on UniMas for Spanish speakers in the US and Sky Sports 1 in New Zealand and the second leg comes after a dominating win by Mexico and now the Kiwis must try and recover as they have one last chance to get to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. Mexico came into the first leg just happy to be alive, as the team finished behind the US as well as Costa Rica and Honduras during CONCACAF qualifying and they nearly scored, butting in seven goals in 10 games, which is why the explosion in the first leg was so surprising and very necessary for the team.
The United States helped the team with a win over Panama that saw two goals scored late in extra time to push Mexico into the playoffs and that might be the first time the two rivals helped each other out and this was in a big way. El Tri now is sitting pretty and the math is on their side, as it will be nearly impossible for New Zealand to make up the goal deficit before time is up on Wednesday. During the qualifying run, Mexico lost to Costa Rica to put themselves in the tough position, but after being bailed out by the US, it appears that the team is finally back on track and now has the chance to put things right.
ESPN reported that hundreds of millions of dollars were on the line for the team if they didn't make it to the World Cup and that includes in the local economy as well as television deals, TV sponsorships, jersey sales and more. Mexico now is in position to get through and if they had been eliminated, it would have been the first time since back in the 1980's that it happened in qualifying and even without star Javier Hernandez playing, the team was able to get things right.
The 5-1 match in the first left was at home and that is one reason why the game went Mexico's way, but for the first time it appeared they were playing without any pressure and after taking a 2-0 lead in the first half, the team pushed it to 5-0 with three goals in the second before NZ was able to add a goal and that at least makes the second leg a bit more manageable for the team. The clubs ahead of Mexico in CONCACAF all punched their tickets and now Mexico is right on the cusp and all they need is one more solid performance and they will be through.