Borgetti, a giant among goalscorers
30 November 2005
by FIFAworldcup.com
No team scored more goals than Mexico in the qualifying phase of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. This startling statistic is perhaps best highlighted by the fact that El Tricolor's 67-goal haul was almost twice the figure registered by the Czech Republic.
This feat was made possible by a combination of coach Ricardo Lavolpe's attacking style and the goalscoring prowess of strikers Jaime Lozano, Francisco Fonseca and, most impressively, Jared Borgetti. The Mexico number nine, known to his legions of fans as El Zorro del Desierto (The Desert Fox) was the top scorer across the world in qualifying. His total of 14 goals exceeded that of Brazil's Ronaldo, who scored ten, as well as Portugal's Pauleta and Togo's Emmanuel Adebayor, both of whom finished with 11. His closest rival was Trinidad and Tobago striker Stern John, who ironically reached 12 goals thanks to his brace against Mexico.
Borgetti began his goal spree with four strikes against minnows Dominican Republic, Mexico's opponents in the first round of the North, Central American and Caribbean qualifiers. And while it is true that Mexico hardly broke sweat en route to an 18-0 aggregate victory, the centre-forward proved he could score no matter the circumstances.
After his first-round exploits, El Zorro continued to cut a swathe though Caribbean defences as Mexico breezed through the second qualifying stage. First to be put to the sword were Trinidad and Tobago, who lost 3-1 to El Tri in Port of Spain, with Borgetti again on the score sheet. Mexico followed that with back-to-back wins against St Vincent and the Grenadines (7-0 and 1-0) with Jared netting of five of his team's eight goals.
After making it comfortably into the 'Hexagonal' final qualifying phase, the 32-year-old showed that his appetite had not been sated by his exploits against the Caribbean nations. Although Borgetti failed to find the target in his side's 2-1 win over Costa Rica in San Jose, he made up for it with the opening goal in Mexico's super-sweet 2-1 victory over arch-rivals United States at the Azteca stadium.
Five long months would pass before the striker found the net again in the qualifiers for Germany 2006. That is not to say that he lost any of his scoring touch in the meantime. During that hiatus Borgetti was one of the stars of the FIFA Confederations Cup Germany 2005, scoring three goals and subsequently earning a move to English Premiership side Bolton Wanderers. He then followed up his exploits in Germany with a double against Guatemala at the CONCACAF Gold Cup to become Mexico's all-time leading scorer.
By the autumn, Borgetti was back on the score sheet for Mexico with a vital strike in the 2-0 qualifying win over Costa Rica at the Azteca. That triumph moved El Tri to the brink of a place at the next year's finals and gave the player the outright lead in the race to be top scorer in preliminaries. To the relief of his superstitious fans, his tally of 13 then became 14 with a penalty against Panama two games later. This strike not only helped make sure of Mexico's participation at next June's world football showpiece, it also guaranteed that the player would finish the campaign with his name rightly at the top of a long list of the world's leading goalscorers.
