US qualifies after blitzing Mexico

The United States and Costa Rica celebrated qualification to next year's World Cup finals in Brazil while Mexico fell further into disarray on Tuesday after a dramatic night of action in the CONCACAF region.

Second-half goals from Eddie Johnson and Landon Donovan gave Juergen Klinsmann's US squad a 2-0 win over Mexico to move it to the top of the standings with16 points.

Costa Rica drew 1-1 in Kingston against Jamaica, taking it to 15 points, and with Honduras drawing 2-2 at home to Panama, none of the other four teams in the group can push the leading duo out of the top three automatic qualifying spots.

Mexico, next to last in the six-team standings, has eight points, as does Panama.

Honduras occupies third place with 11 points, but with two rounds of games to come in October, the battle for the final automatic spot and fourth-place, which offers a playoff against Oceania winner New Zealand, is set to go down to the wire.

Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto broke down sobbing during a post-match interview.

"I've worked all my life, so hard, to make it to the World Cup, all my life ... this is sheer happiness," he said before tears overwhelmed him.

Klinsmann, a World Cup winner with West Germany as a player in 1990, was a little more restrained in his reaction but still delighted to be making a second trip to the finals as a coach following his run to the last four with Germany in 2006.

"It's a huge milestone whenever you make it to the World Cup, the biggest competition in this sport, especially hosted in Brazil, one of the biggest soccer nations," he said.

The Mexicans face a must-win match with Panama on Oct 10 and they will need to somehow pick themselves up from an abject second-half display in Columbus.

"I don't know what to tell you; we are in debt with the people and very ashamed," midfielder Christian Gimenez told Mexico's TV Azteca.

(China Daily 09/12/2013 page23)