Nerves, tension, but also excitement for Qatar 2022 are being felt more and more intensely. Mexico wants to show its best version of itself at the upcoming FIFA World Cup, and to that end is facing its first set of preparation matches against opponents with different styles of play. Gerardo Tata Martino has already announced a list of 38 called-up players with some interesting twists and turns.
Mexico will face two types of matches in the last week of May and the first week of June. The first will be completely friendly and probably the most difficult of this block. Martino’s team’s opponents will be Nigeria, Uruguay and Ecuador.
Afterwards, El Tri must fulfill its obligations as a member of Concacaf and thus face the group stage of the Nations League, in which its opponents are not among the elite of world soccer but will surely play with full intensity and could complicate the matches in some way: Surinam and Jamaica.
The absencesin Tata Martino’s Mexico roster
Every National Team roster has an impossible mission to fulfill: to satisfy absolutely all opinions. Thus, there will always be players singled out for not having the level to be part of the team and other discarded players acclaimed to be included. The same old story.
Among the notable absences from Gerardo Tata Martino’s El Tri squad are four big-name players: Hirving Lozano of Italy’s Napoli, Carlos Rodriguez and Rogelio Funes Mori of Monterrey and Chicharito Hernandez of the LA Galaxy. Each has different contexts that have led to their absence.
In the case of the first two, Lozano and Rodriguez, injuries are the main impediment to Martino’s decision not to include them in the roster for the summer block of preparation matches. As for Chicharito, the possibility that he could return to El Tri to play in Qatar 2022 is increasingly diluted. At least as long as Tata is the head coach.
Hirving Lozano, Mexico National Team. (Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Mexico National Team’s biggest surprise for summer friendlies
Undoubtedly, the absence of Hirving Lozano created a vacancy in Mexico, and Martino chose Arsenal’s wonderkid Marcelo Flores, who will have the opportunity to live, for the first time, with the team’s top players such as Guillermo Ochoa, Hector Herrera, Andres Guardado, Raul Jimenez and Tecatito Corona.
The 18-year-old recently announced on social media that he was giving up any chance of representing Canada or England at the senior international level to focus entirely on Mexico. His wishes came true and very soon he could even play his first official matches with El Tri, this in the Nations League against Suriname and Jamaica.
Marcelo Flores, Arsenal. (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Mexico National Team’s complete roster for itssummer friendlies matches
Goalkeepers:Guillermo Ochoa, Alfredo Talavera, Rodolfo Cota, Carlos Acevedo
Defenders:Erick Aguirre, Kevin Álvarez,Julián Araujo, Jorge Sánchez, Gerardo Arteaga, Jesús Gallardo, Julio César Domínguez,Jesús Angulo, Nestor Araujo,César Montes, Héctor Moreno, Israel Reyes, Johan Vásquez.
Midfielders:Edson Álvarez,Fernando Beltrán,Erik Lira,Erick Gutiérrez,Andrés Guardado, Héctor Herrera,Luis Chávez,Diego Lainez,Erick Sánchez, Orbelín Pineda, Rodolfo Pizarro,Sebastián Córdova,Luis Romo
Forwards:Jesús Corona, Marcelo Flores, Santiago Giménez, Raúl Jiménez, Henry Martín, Alexis Vega,Roberto Alvarado, Uriel Antuna.
