Mexico's national soccer team manager, Ricardo Lavolpe told Mexican television station Televisa on Thursday that Angola, the country's World Cup rival on Friday, has a fast, strong team and that Mexico's team has to focus for the full 90 minutes of the game.

"Angola is a fast, strong team, and hungry too. Maybe more so than we are because we already have three points and they have nothing," Argentine born Lavolpe told cameras at the Hannover stadium where the team is training.

Lavolpe refused to guess at what tactics Angola might use, saying that first of all he has to see how Angola plays on the field.

The Mexican team needs to "maintain their attitude, concentration and tactical discipline for the whole 90 minutes," he said.

After the team's 3-1 victory over Iran, Lavolpe was scathing about Mexico's first half performance, telling media on Sunday that, "I did not like the first half. We played badly: making mistakes and losing lots of balls. There was no precision and it was not until the second half that we started to play better.

Mexico and Iran were tied at 1-1 for most of the game, and only made a decisive break for victory in the 76th minute.

Mexico, Iran, Portugal and Angola are the four teams in Group D.