The Mexican team concluded its World Cup rehearsals ahead of its World Cup debut next Thursday against South Africa with a 5-1 win over Serbia, in a result that did not clarify all the doubts that “Vasco” Aguirre may still have in his formation due to the weakness of the rival.

The reality is that it would be reckless to shout about this result and say that Mexico is ready to play, enjoy and win in the World Cup debut, especially because in these last three games there was very little time that the national coach had to test what his starting eleven will be against Bafana Bafana.

It could be said that the starting eleven against the Serbians will be the closest thing that starts against the South Africans, but there are doubts such as Jorge Sánchez or Israel Reyes in the right sector of the defense, Álvaro Fidalgo or Luis Chávez, Edson Álvarez or Erik Lira or Julián Quiñones himself or Alexis Vega, since the rest seem nailed with Raúl Rangel, César Montes, Johan Vázquez and Jesús Gallardo, Brian Gutiérrez, Roberto Alvarado and Raúl Jiménez.

Of the starting eleven there are seven sure ones and the rest will be defined in the coming days, since the speed of the South Africans will not forgive the failures that Mexico's low team had and ahead we will have to work on the block that the South Africans will put in search of getting a favorable result in the World Cup debut.

The most favorable part of the Mexican team's last preparation duel was in the first half, where both Tricolor and Serbia sought to put the best of their repertoire and if it had not been for a blunder by Jesús Gallardo and Johan Vásquez at 19 minutes, the Aztec team would have had no opposition and the score would have even been more comfortable.

In this first period we saw a light Mexican midfield, with good ball handling and easy arrival, with Roberto Alvarado, Álvaro Fidalgo and Brian Gutiérrez accompanying Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez on the offensive front.

Later, Mexico came back with the equalizer scored in the 34th minute by Johan Vásquez and a rude own goal by Stefan Bukinac, who returned the ball to his goalkeeper without seeing where it was and with that put the ball in his goal.

In the second half, the string of changes took away the strength of style from both teams and Mexico took the advantage with goals from Raúl Jiménez in the 57th minute, an own goal from Adam Advic and a great goal from Luis Chávez that allowed Mexico to take the people's affection from Toluca for the 5-1 score, but not for the performance.

A childhood mistake spoiled the good

The Mexican team spoiled its good performance in the first half with a very serious error by defenders Jesús Gallardo and Johan Vásquez in the 19th minute, when they were very hesitant in the search for a ball and allowed Petar Stanić to sneak between them to line up in front of Raúl “Tala” Rangel and beat him with a cross shot that put the Mexican team against the wall.

If not for that failure, the first half was complete for Mexico, but the lack of a goal was the mission that remained pending for the Aztec team, which generated at least four goal actions before Johan Vásquez, at 34 minutes, achieved the tie with an exact cross from Brian Gutiérrez.

There Mexico reacted well and was able to take advantage with the own goal almost at the end of the first half by Stefan Bukinac, which at least justified what really happened on the Nemesio Diez field with a Mexican team looking for the rival goal and some Serbs playing the Mexican error to go to the showers with the 2-1 in favor.

Rosary of changes and Aztec victory

For the second half, both teams made a series of changes in the desire to see the majority of their players, especially on the Mexican side, trying to dispel more doubts for the World Cup debut and in Serbia, where they hit their weak capacity as an opponent.

This is how he saved the first ten minutes in which the air of the Balkan team's newcomers offered resistance to put Mexico's goal in trouble; The rest was in favor of Tricolor with goals from Raúl Jiménez in the 57th minute, then an own goal from a corner kick by Adam Advic and, finally, a great goal from Luis Chávez in the 90th minute.

It was during this period that we saw Edson Álvarez, Memo Martínez, Israel Reyes, Gilberto Mora, Luis Chávez, Orbelín Pineda, Alexis Vega, Luis Romo and Mateo Chávez, with Santiago Giménez, César Huerta, Armando González, Obed Vargas, Memo Ochoa and Carlos Acevedo being the only ones who did not see action.