England takes care of Mexico 3-1 at Wembley

Despite being outplayed for long stretches of the match England took advantage of a pair of set pieces to grab a 3-1 victory at Wembley.  Mexico came in oin the front foot as they had already played three friendlies over the past two weeks and it showed as they dominated the opening minutes almost scoring twice.  England was missing their Chelsea contingent as Ashley Cole, Lampard, Terry all rested and they were missed.

For all the good play from Mexico, it was poor set piece defense that ended up costing them on the night.  In the 17th minute the towering Peter Crouch redirected a corner kick to Ledley King who headed home from close range.  The marking was more than suspect on the play.

Mexico went right back to work though.  Dominating possession and attack time.  Unfortunately, in the 34th another set piece would put England in front 2-0.  Again lax marking was to blame as Wayne Rooney rifled a header off the crossbar.  The ball fell to Crouch who was offside the entire play and he chested it home.

Mexico grabbed one back on a corner kick of their own at the death of the first half when Guillermo Franco touched in from close range.  The second half saw plenty of substitutions, but it was still Mexico bossing the game.   Another defensive lapse allowed defender Glen Johnson to make a long run and grab the third goal on the night.

For the match Mexico tallied an amazing 23 shots on goal and had 65% of the possession and somehow lost 3-1.  It goes to show switching off on set pieces will cost a team.