Nigeria vs Mexico Ends In a Draw

By Arinze Ude

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were held to a 2-2 draw by 10-man Mexico in a friendly played in Houston, USA on Friday in front of a mostly pro-Mexico crowd of 62,107. Manchester United’s Javier Hernandez opened the scoring in the 21st minute, taking a cross from former West Ham winger, Pablo Barrera and slotting it past the Nigerian goalie from 9 yards. Barrera went from provider to villain when he was red carded in the 29th minute for a hand ball in the box, Brown Ideye equalised through the resultant spot kick. Nigeria couldn’t capitalise on the numerical advantage but went ahead in the 40th minute when John Ogu’s shot took a deflection off Mexico’s Diego Reyes and flew into the net. The Mexicans had the cross bar to thank for not conceding another goal when Nnamdi Oduamadi’s shot bounced off the crossbar in the 63rd minute. Hernandez made Nigeria rue their chances when he grabbed his second goal of the game in the 70th minute, tapping in an Angel Reyna cross. Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi was pleased with his boys’ performance despite playing with an additional man for more than an hour. “We should have won convincingly because they had 10 men and we had 11? It doesn’t play out that way,” Keshi said. “You have seen many games I’m sure where you have seen 10 men come back to win a game against 11.” “It’s just how guys pursue yourself, how you address yourself on how you played. We were up, and we were thinking that was it. We lost our focus and concentration, and they came back to score.” Mexico coach Jose Manuel de la Torre was happy with how his team handled being a man down. “It’s always important that your team be able to adapt to any circumstances,” de la Torre said. “You have to be able to focus on what you can make a change on, and that’s what my team did today.”