Five percent of the Mexican population thinks El Tri will be lifting the World Cup trophy come July 13 in the Maracana, according to a Consulta Mitofsky poll of Mexican citizens released on Monday.
The same poll showed 34 percent of Mexican soccer fans hope to see Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez with El Tri this summer, followed by Oribe Peralta (24 percent), Rafa Marquez (24 percent) and Giovani Dos Santos (14 percent).
A total of 8 percent of Mexico fans are still hoping to see Carlos Vela in Brazil, despite that door apparently being closed.
In terms of how Mexico can do, 56 percent of the 1,000 people questioned said Mexico will have a good World Cup.
Despite that, 23 percent of Mexicans believe El Tri will not get out of the group stage, 14 percent think the team will reach the round of 16, 14 percent the quarterfinal and 6 percent the semifinal.
There was positive news for coach Miguel Herrera, who seems to be popular, with 43 percent of Mexicans having a good opinion of him and only 12 percent having a negative image of the former America coach.
If Mexico does go out early, there is no doubt that Brazil will be gaining a few fans, with 29 percent of Mexicans set to support Brazil, followed by Spain (8 percent), Argentina (4 percent) and Germany (3 percent).
One percent said they would support the United States should Mexico crash out.
Perhaps surprisingly, only 58 percent of Mexicans said they had some or a lot of interest in following the World Cup, although it was more than the 50 percent that said the same in a similar poll in May 2010.
The polling was carried out by Mitofsky between Jan. 10-13 this year and has a possible error swing of 3.1 percent.