Diego Cocca unveils Mexico's first roster after World Cup failure, excludes historic players

Mexicohad their worst performance in decades at theQatar 2022 World Cup. The squad led byGerardo Martinocouldn’t surpass the first round in Group C againstArgentina, Poland and Saudi Arabia. Since 1994, in an amazing feat,Mexico’s national team had advanced seven straight times to theRound of 16. That streak is over.

So, after the failure, Gerardo Martino’s contract wasn’t extended as coach of the national team andDiego Coccahas been chosen as the new man in charge towardthe biggest project ever: the2026 World Cup. It’s important to remember that Mexicowould be host alongside Canada and theUnited States.

Now, after winning the race over Guillermo Almada and Miguel Herrera,Diego Cocca faces his first challenge in Mexico’s national team schedule for 2023 with the Concacaf Nations League. Read here to check out the details about this roster full of surprises.

Mexico’s roster for Nations League: Chicharito, Andres Guardado and Hector Herrera out

Diego Cocca will make his debut as Mexico’s national team coach in the last matches of the group stage at the 2022-2023 Concacaf NationsLeague. Mexico will play on March 23 at Suriname and on March 26 at home against Jamaica. Those games will determine thewinner of Group A in the tournament.

If Mexico win Group A of the 2022-2023 Concacaf Nations League, they will play on the Final Four of the tournament during the summer. This is the first challenge for Diego Cocca after the World Cup failure and that’s why he chose a very competitive roster.

However, there are many important players who have been left out of the list. For example, Hector Herrera, Andres Guardado, Rogelio Funes Mori and Chicharito Hernandez. It’s important to remember that Alexis Vega and Jesus Corona are recovering from injuries.

Another crucial detailis that Julian Araujo, recently signed by FC Barcelona, gets the call for Mexico when he could have played for the United States. Meanwhile, as expected, Alejandro Zendejas isn’t on the squad, because his intentions are with the USMNT.

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa, Carlos Acevedo and Antonio Rodriguez.

Defenders: Israel Reyes, Nestor Araujo, Hector Moreno, Jesus Gallardo, Gilberto Sepulveda, Kevin Alvarez, Jesus Angulo, Julian Araujo, Jorge Sanchez, Cesar Montes, Johan Vasquez and Gerardo Arteaga.

Midfielders: Luis Romo, Uriel Antuna, Alfonso Gonzalez, Roberto Alvarado, Fernando Beltran, Carlos Rodriguez, Marcel Ruiz, Erick Sanchez, Luis Chavez, Diego Lainez, Sebastian Cordova, Edson Alvarez and Erick Gutierrez.

Forwards: Hirving Lozano, Orbelin Pineda, Henry Martin, Roberto de la Rosa, Raul Jimenez and Santiago Gimenez.