Mexico get 2012 off to a winning start

An experimental line up of home grown players overcame a combative Venezuela in Houston last night to give national team manager Chepo de la Torre a 3-1 victory in the team's opening fixture of 2012. The scoreline flattered the "home" team, which included a number of younger players who've impressed in the Primera Division in the last year or so, such as Javier Cortés (Pumas) and Marco Fabián (Chivas), and it took the experience of the likes of Carlos Salcedo (Tigres) to turn the game around.

Venezuela took the lead six minutes after the break, Jesús Corona (Cruz Azul) unable to keep out Edgar Greco's header from a near post corner from the right, and it wasn't until the 68th minute that Salcedo's right foot drive took a big deflection to bring the hosts level. A draw then seemed the most likely outcome, international friendlies being what they are, but Mexico finally took the lead with just a couple of minutes to go, Rafael Márquez Lugo (Monarcas) stretching to follow up Fabián´s short range shot from the left. The icing on the cake came just a minute later, when Oribe Peralta (Santos) found himself in possession unchallenged just outside the Venezuelan box, from where he curled a crisp left footed shot into the top corner, sending the vast majority of the big crowd in the Reliant Stadium home happy.

The size of the attendance is probably the most important statistic of the night, certainly according to those who voted on a Fox Sports LA poll asking what the motivation was for playing the game: "looking at new players" and "preparing for the Olympic campaign" received fewer votes combined than the runaway winner "to make money".