6/4/2006
STEVE BRISENDINE, AP Sports Writer

GOTTINGEN, Germany — Ricardo Lavolpe played it safe with his biggest star on Saturday night, holding Jared Borgetti out of a scrimmage against an overmatched regional team from Mexico's World Cup host city.

Mexico's coach gave his other forwards plenty of chances, though.

Lavolpe used as many as four strikers at once and had the midfield feed them the ball all night long, and it paid off. All three goals in Mexico's 3-0 victory came from the front line in El Tri's last live action before its World Cup opener June 11 against Iran in Nuremberg.

Chivas de Guadalajara's Omar Bravo connected from the right side of the penalty area about two-thirds of the way through the first half, and Tecos' Ramon Morales — a second-half substitution — bent a free kick just inside the left post early in the second to make it 2-0.

Cruz Azul's Jose Fonseca, who also came on to start the second half, added the third goal late.

"Today we had a big win," Fonseca, who has been used sparingly in recent exhibitions, said through a translator. "Now we want to do everything right."

Mexico's players know it won't be as easy from here on out.

"It is very nice to win our last friendly," Bravo said through a translator. "But the time has come to concentrate."

The time has also come to make a final case for a spot in the starting lineup, if Lavolpe continues to go with more than two forwards.

"All the players want to be in the lineup," Bravo said.

Lavolpe, who started last week's 1-0 loss in France with only Bravo up front, opened Saturday night's game with Guillermo Franco on the left front, Bravo on the right and Jesus Arrellano trailing just behind in the center.

With Mexico dominating the Gottingen defense to create shot after shot, Bravo could have had several more goals but for a run of near misses.

He cracked the ball twice into the side netting, was just wide across the goalmouth with his left foot and hit the right post less than a minute after he beat goalkeeper Bernd Doods for a 1-0 lead.

Morales also narrowly missed a multi-goal game, hitting the crossbar with a hard drive about 25 minutes into the second half.