Mexico beats Honduras 3-0, closes in on World Cup berth
MEXICO CITY (AP) Oswaldo Alanis, Hirving Lozano and Raul Jimenez scored, and Mexico moved closer to a 2018 World Cup berth by defeating Honduras 3-0 Thursday night on the 55th birthday of El Tri coach Juan Carlos Osorio.
Alanis scored on a header off a corner kick in the 35th minute, his second international goal. Lozano doubled the lead in the 63rd and Jimenez rounded goalkeeper Donis Escobar to score the final goal in the 66th.
Mexico rested Javier Hernandez, Hector Moreno, Andres Guardado, Miguel Layun and Rafael Marquez ahead of Sunday's home qualifier against the United States.
Seeking its seventh straight World Cup berth, Mexico has four wins and a draw for 13 points at the midpoint of the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, followed by Costa Rica (eight), the U.S. (seven), Panama (six), Honduras (four) and Trinidad (three).
The top three qualify, and fourth-place team advances to a playoff against Asia's No. 5 nation.
''We are going to try to win the game against the United States to get closer to our goal (the World Cup), we know for a fact that we will face a very tough opponent, but I know that they feel the same way about the Mexican team,'' Osorio said.
Mexican had not beaten Honduras in Azteca Stadium since September 2010. Honduras won in Mexico in 2014 and played a 0-0 draw last year.
After Sunday's match, Mexico travels to Russia for the Confederations Cup, where it plays Portugal (June 18), New Zealand (June 21) and Russia (June 24) in the group stage.
