Without its top target, Mexico practices set pieces in secret

— -- HANOVER, Germany -- Jared Borgetti's injury took away one of the prime targets for Mexico's set pieces. Or have four days of practicing without him -- and away from the prying eyes of journalists and spies -- given coach Ricardo Lavolpe a chance to come up with a whole set of new schemes for Friday's World Cup match against Angola? Pavel Pardo, who takes the team's corner kicks and most of its free kicks, would know. But on Thursday night, after El Tri's training session at the FIFA World Cup Stadium, the America midfielder threw back his head and laughed when asked if Mexico might unveil some new strategies against the Black Antelopes. "Yes," he said, still laughing. "Maybe. Always, when we practice for the games, we want to do something new." Mexico, which has not scrimmaged in public since Borgetti was hurt, conducted a closed training session earlier Thursday at its World Cup headquarters in Goettingen. Thursday night's session in Hanover was devoted to stretching, light running and lighthearted ballhandling games. Borgetti, Mexico's leading career scorer, tore a left thigh muscle in Sunday's opener, a 3-1 victory over Iran. The Bolton forward is out for the Angola game and questionable for Mexico's last Group D game, on Wednesday against Portugal. "I think I could play tomorrow, but it's not possible," said Borgetti, who will be re-evaluated on Tuesday. But even before Borgetti went out early in the second half against Iran, Mexico had shown what it could do without him on restarts. Early in the match, Iran committed its fouls far enough away from the penalty area to give its defense time to adjust to free kicks. But later in the first half, after a foul deep in the Iranian end, Guillermo Franco headed Pardo's free kick to Omar Bravo, who tapped it in from the back post for Mexico's first goal. "Borgetti has scored a lot of goals for us, and a lot of them from free kicks, of course," Pardo said. "But Franco and Bravo can do the same, and they will." Mexico's set-piece skills impressed Angolan defender Delgado. "They are very good technically," he said earlier this week. "Latin America has very good football, and our football in Africa is of a very different style. This is a worry, but I think that from what we have seen of their game we will try to take lessons." After Angola's training session on Thursday, coach Luis Oliveira Goncalves insisted that the Black Antelopes were ready for anything Mexico might do. "We are already prepared," he said through a translator. "We know their strong and weak points and we will try and make the most of their weaknesses." One of Angola's biggest weaknesses is inexperience at the game's highest level. The team, ranked 57th in the world, is making its first trip to the World Cup -- and it showed early in its opener against Portugal. But after surrendering Pauleta's fourth-minute goal, the Black Antelopes turned the Portuguese back several times, after which the European side played more cautiously in its 1-0 win. "Sometimes you think, 'Their defense is not good,' but we don't think so," Pardo said. "We think they are very good. We need to have a good game."