Mexico City, June 26:
Mateo Chavez and Julian Quinones scored in a six-minute span early in the second half, and Mexico beat the Czech Republic 3-0 on Wednesday night to win all three of its World Cup group-stage matches for the first time. The 22-year-old Chavez, in his first World Cup, opened the scoring in the 55th minute and Quinones scored his second goal of the tournament in the 61st.
Alvaro Fidalgo added a goal in second-half stoppage time. Mexico’s previous best group-stage performance was two wins and one draw, done in 1986 and 2002 and both featuring Javier Aguirre, the first as a midfielder and the second as El Tri’s coach.
Aguirre is back as coach this year, his third stint leading the team. Already the winner of Group A, Mexico will play again at Estadio Azteca on Tuesday in a round-of-32 match against an opponent to be determined. Mexico is undefeated at nine World Cup matches at the massive stadium, which was packed with 80,824 fans on Wednesday.
El Tri has only two losses at Azteca, most recently in World Cup qualifying against Honduras on Sept. 6, 2013.The match included nods to Mexico’s past and future. Gilberto Mora, at age 17, became the youngest Mexico player to start in a World Cup. And 40-year-old goalkeeper Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa entered in the 77th minute, joining Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to appear in six World Cups.