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Mexico win boosts 2010 qualifying hopes

  • Story Highlights
  • Mexico bounce back from two successive defeats to beat Trinidad and Tobago
  • Javier Aguirre experiences first victory since taking over again with 2-1 triumph
  • The result puts Mexico up to fourth in six-team CONCACAF group at halfway
  • Honduras move up to third position in the group after defeating El Salvador 1-0
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(CNN) -- Mexico bounced back from two successive defeats to beat Trinidad and Tobago 2-1 on Wednesday and keep alive hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals.

Mexico's match-winner Oscar Rojas tussles with Trinidad and Tobago's goalscorer Hayden Tinto.

Mexico's match-winner Oscar Rojas tussles with Trinidad and Tobago's goalscorer Hayden Tinto.

The result lifted the Mexicans up to fourth place in the six-team CONCACAF group, from which only the top three nations automatically progress to next year's showpiece in South Africa.

If Javier Aguirre's side cannot do any better than the position they find themselves at the halfway stage of the qualifying schedule, then a two-leg play-off against the fifth-best team from the South American group will follow.

Mexico, on six points, are one behind third-placed Honduras, who defeated El Salvador 1-0 on Wednesday thanks to a 14th-minute winner from Carlos Pavon.

Aguirre experienced a much more positive result than his first match in charge, a 2-1 defeat away to El Salvador on Saturday.

In Mexico City, Guillermo Franco gave the hosts a perfect start when he cut in from the right and beat goalkeeper Clayton Ince.

However, Hayden Tinto made Mexico pay for missing several chances when he pounced on a defensive mistake and fired into the top corner on the stroke of halftime.

But Oscar Rojas netted a long-range winner three minutes after the interval to leave the bottom-placed Soca Warriors with just two draws from five outings.

Costa Rica top the group on 12 points, two ahead of the United States.

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