Mexico continues its preparations for Qatar 2022. And on the horizon is the first friendly match of the year, which will be against Guatemala at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. For this match, Tata Martino has already offered his list of called-up players, in which there is one detail that stands out: the absence of Chicharito Hernandez and the presence of an MLS player who has not been active so far this year.
Martino has the responsibility to find all available weapons for El Tri, in order to face the upcoming FIFA World Cup in which his team is seeded in Group C, along with Argentina, Poland and Saudi Arabia. It is a fact that the great mission of the Argentinean coach is to get the Mexican team not only through the group stage, but also through the Round of 16.
It should be noted that the match against Guatemala is not part of the official FIFA dates, so it is difficult to count on players who play in European soccer. However, it is feasible to count on local or nearby players, as in the case of MLS with Mexico, in order to observe them live to define the squad that will play Qatar 2022.
Chicharito’s absence with Mexico
Javier Hernandez is not only the top scorer in the history of the Mexico National Team with 52 goals scored. He is also one of the two Mexican players who have scored the most goals in FIFA World Cups, with four goals between South Africa 2010 (2 goals), Brazil 2014 (1 goal) and Russia 2018 (1 goal).
However, this has mattered little to Gerardo Tata Martino, who has not called up the current LA Galaxy MLS striker since an episode of indiscipline and off-field conflict. Despite requests from fans, media and even current El Tri players for the return of Javier Hernandez, the future does not seem to be bright for Chicharito,even though he is one of the current top scorers in the 2022 MLS regular season.
Chicharito having a talk with Guillermo Ochoa and Gerardo Martino during his last games with Mexico. (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Controversial MLS player called up by Tata Martino
The current Mexico coach had some difficulties in putting together his list of players for the friendly match against Guatemala, due to the fact that Mexican players playing in European clubs could not attend and that some Liga MX teams, such as Pumas, had commitments that prevented them from lending their players considered by Martino.
It was then the ideal time to reach out to other players on his radar, especially in MLS. However, Tata Martino’s surprise call-up was not Chicharito Hernandez, but Real Salt Lake goalkeeper David Ochoa, who also holds U.S. citizenship.
The controversy comes after contextualizing that Ochoa has not played a single official game so far in 2022, so his shapeis an unknown, especially for what it means to play for a team like Mexico that is still looking to find the ideal players to dispute Qatar 2022.
David Ochoa, Real Salt Lake. (Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
