Mexico's Under 23s are London Bound, Santos Stay First

The Mexican Preolympic squad secured qualification for the 2012 Olympics on Saturday after a 3-1 victory over Canada in the CONCACAF Semi Finals. This followed routine victories over Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras and (eventually) Panama in the group stages. The other qualifier from the region is Honduras, who saw off El Salvador 3-2 after Extra Time in the other Semi. Earlier the Salvadoreans had eliminated the USA with a late equaliser in their final group match, the USA having lost their second game to Canada. The stars of the Mexican qualifying campaign have been Alan Pulido of Tigres and Marco Fabián of Chivas, with five and four goals respectively. The tournament ends tonight in Kansas City with a largely pointless final between the two qualifiers.

Meanwhile, while the nation's attention has been on Olympic qualification, Santos, Tigres and Monterrey have all continued their good form domestically. Santos won 3-1 at Toluca on Sunday lunchtime, with Oribe Peralta, Cristian Suárez and Darwin Quintero sharing the goals. Tigres destroyed erstwhile form team Monarcas 4-1 on Saturday evening - Lucas Lobos was the main architect with a goal and two assists. The real drama of the weekend was at the Azteca on Sunday afternoon, where Los Rayados (the "striped ones") of Monterrey twice came from behind to beat América 3-2.

Chucho Benitez opened the scoring for América in the first half, before "El Chupete" Suazo equalised at the start of the second half, with what seemed like his first touch of the game. The game was then delayed for seven minutes due to the "spidercam" breaking down whilst at pitch level. Benitez headed his team back into the lead before substitute Abraham Carreño equalised with five minutes of normal time remaining. Finally, in the fifth minute of ten added on, Angel Reyna scored a deserved winner against the club which fired him during the previous tournament. To add insult to injury he celebrated in the "archer" style, a celebration normally associated with América.

Elsewhere, Cruz Azul managed to win against San Luis, and also managed not to have a player sent off for an off the ball headbutt - Emanuel Villa had emulated his team mate Néstor Araujo the week before against Puebla. Omar Bravo scored a brace in a 3-1 win. Pumas played out another dismal 0-0, this time at Atlas, and the other game played in Jalisco was heading the same way until a farcical own goal with five minutes to go gave Estudiantes an unlikely win over the previously resurgent Chivas. Estudiantes, however, are doomed for the drop.

Next weekend there are two big derbies to look forward to, with the Monterrey derby between Los Rayados and Tigres on Saturday evening, and then on Easter Sunday the Súper Clásico, between Chivas and América. Can't wait!