Mexico ease past El Salvador to open World Cup qualifying

By foxsports
Published

MEXICO CITY -- Andres Guardado, Hector Herrera and Carlos Vela scored to lead Mexico over El Salvador 3-0 on Friday night in Juan Carlos Osorio's debut as coach of El Tri.

In Mexico's first qualifier for the 2018 World Cup, Guardado scored on a free kick in the seventh minute, Herrera doubled the lead in the 42nd and Vela scored in the 63rd.

Mexico has won four straight qualifiers over El Salvador. El Tri plays Honduras at San Pedro Sula on Tuesday in its next qualifier.

Osorio was hired last month to replace Miguel Herrera, who was fired after punching a reporter on the day after Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Osorio started Moises Munoz in goal over Guillermo Ochoa, moved defender Miguel Layun from left to right back and started Hugo Ayala instead of Diego Reyes, considered a popular option to replace the injured Rafael Marquez.