Trying times abound for the Mexican national soccer team as they head into their World Cup qualifying game this Saturday on zero points after their humbling - although expected - 3-1 defeat to the United States last month left them at the bottom of the CONCACAF table.

For years 's passage to the World Cup has always been a shoo in. This time around, CONCACAF - the soccer sporting body that oversees North and Central America - decided to divide the qualifying round into four stages. , as with 11 other nationalities, were given a bye to the second round. At that early stage the competition was negligible for a side ranked 23 in the world. Mexico thrashed neighboring Belize 9-0 (on aggregate) and qualified for the third round with no real idea if they were playing well or badly - Belize are ranked 178 in the world to put things into perspective.

With a new manager at the helm of "El Tri" - as Team is affectionately known - many soccer pundits expected the side to cruise through the third round especially as many of its star players are based in Europe which boasts the best leagues in the world. Unfortunately, managed to just scrape through to the final round and only on a better goal difference.

Sven Goran Eriksson, who had been unveiled last year as the manager to turn the national side's fortunes, came under a torrent of abuse for his erratic selection policy. The Swede, who had previously coached the likes of England and Italian side Fiorentina, was  criticized by the local media as just another foreigner who was here for the money - Mexico has the richest league in Central and Latin America and attracts many foreign players and coaches. Eriksson has insisted on including European-based players in his first XI despite the fact many of them don't play regularly for their clubs. With a string of poor results, critics are clamouring for him to field players that are performing well at club level. However, Eriksson confounded everyone last week by not including playmaker Antônio "Sinha" Naelson in his squad even though the player has been in exceptional form for Toluca who currently top the Mexican soccer division. His reasoning was that Naelson didn't fit in with the system he wanted the national team to play.

Meanwhile, former coach Javier Aguirre, who was fired from Spanish side Atletico Madrid in February, is the people's favorite to take over the reins from Eriksson if the Swede fails to score a win in Saturday's game. The Mexico Soccer Federation maintain they will stand by their man especially as Eriksson will be due a hefty compensation pay out should they release him before his contract expires but the idea of not qualifying for the World Cup - to be held in South Africa in 2010 - is unthinkable for a nation who have participated in 13 World Cup Finals and have hosted two.

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