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Mexico's de facto captain Andres Guardado wants respect for El Tri's World Cup qualification record to date and has asked fans to lay off coach Juan Carlos Osorio. El Tri currently sits in first position in the CONCACAF Hexagonal table and on the brink of qualification for Russia 2018 and the Real Betis midfielder said fans and critics should be pleased. "We've had a couple of World Cup cycles in which we've suffered a lot [to qualify] and this time we can do it in a less fraught way, without as much pressure and that's something to appreciate," said Guardado after training in Cuernavaca on Tuesday. Mexico will almost certainly be guaranteed a place at Russia 2018 with a win against Panama in Estadio Azteca on Friday, or next Tuesday against Costa Rica in San Jose, which stands in stark contrast to four years ago, when El Tri almost didn't make the World Cup in Brazil. Despite the relative ease with which Mexico appears to be heading to Russia 2018, there is still a lot of criticism surrounding El Tri and Osorio in particular, although Guardado is backing the Colombian wholeheartedly. "We don't stop to think about the topic of the criticisms and if they are just or not," said Guardado. "We are convinced about what Juan Carlos Osorio is for us as a coach and how he works and we've always expressed that." Like teammates Javier Hernandez and Hector Moreno, Guardado wasn't happy at the way Osorio was treated after the Gold Cup disappointment in July, with a small number of people shouting for him to "go back to Colombia." "There have always been critics in the national team, I remember it's been the same with all the coaches," Guardado said. "What is unjust is that they went after him personally. The way Osorio was received here, with the insults ... was not right." Meanwhile, Panama is preparing for Friday's game in Atlanta and Houston Dynamo defender Adolfo Machado has added some edge by suggesting Mexico isn't as good as it thinks it is. "Mexicans are living off history, they think they are the last Coca Cola in the desert," Machado told Panamanian press on Tuesday. "They have to understand that all that has changed. Panama has developed a lot." "Mexico is a great team, but it isn't invincible. "We've scored on them and given them good games in the Azteca and we're going with the idea of picking up a good result."
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