By: Jonny Rico
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The Mexican National Team played to a 2-0 win over Jamaica on Thursday night at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA. The win was its second in as many matches in the 2016 Copa America Centenario and with the win it wrapped up its qualification to the quarterfinals of the commemorative South American tournament. But it has not wrapped up Group C top spot.
It was popular believe that Uruguay and Mexico were the favorites to advance on to the next stage of the competition and that it was only a matter of which team went through as first and second place to face the Group D counterparts. As group leaders the winner could potentially face Chile as oppose to Argentina, the assumed runner up and group winners of Group D.
With all of the following assumption in mind, the first game of the tournament between Mexico and Uruguay was suppose to settle which team went on as first place and which team went on as second place. Mexico took a 3-1 win, Uruguay now had to go on and win against Venezuela and Jamaica in order to advance to the next round.
But the two-time World Cup winners followed up the loss to Mexico with a 1-0 loss to Venezuela also on Thursday evening. The result sealed Uruguay’s group stage elimination and Venezuela’s quarterfinals qualification as it had also beaten Jamaica in the opening matchday.
With Mexico and Venezuela both on six points and both with quarterfinals tickets in hand now the third and final match between the two has new meaning. With the above assumptions of the tournament outcomes, Mexico were suppose to come into the match already qualified (which it has) and Venezuela was suppose to arrive in Houston already eliminated (which is has surprised).
Mexico and Venezuela will now play for the top spot of Group C. El Tri will take the top honors with any win or a draw, Venezuela needs to beat the Mexican side in order to top the group. With the current Group D results, the winner of Mexico vs Venezuela will move on to Santa Clara, CA to possibly play against Chile while the other will have the daunting task of traveling to Foxborough, MA to face tournament favorite Argentina.
Copa America
