Mexico has quickly kicked off its summer to almost full gear within a week as El Tri played two friendlies, a 2-1 defeat to Croatia and a 3-1 win against Ireland. With that, head coach Juan Carlos Osorio had to deal with different players arriving at different times due to club commitments, which lead to him having to balance a roster with a fluctuating roster of 32 players.
Now the focus switches to the next phase of Mexico’s summer as it hosts two big World Cup Qualifiers on June 8th and June 11th against Honduras and the USA at their famous Estadio Azteca.
Those who will miss out on Russia
After the two friendlies in US soil, Osorio has trimmed down Mexico’s roster but only slightly as three players were let go. Right back Raul Lopez, midfielder Erik Gutierrez, and winger Elias Hernandez have been cut from this Mexican roster and will no doubt play a part in Mexico’s Gold Cup roster next month.
Lopez and Gutierrez are both young talents and having them be focal points in a Liga MX based roster for the Gold Cup is the type of experience that can help them propel their international careers later down the line. Guiterrez can play the role that Andres Guardado plays for Mexico as the all around center midfielder that the team runs through. Also, at 21 he’s already captained Mexico at multiple youth levels and his club team Pachuca, so having a team with less experienced players can allow him to continue to show his leadership talents.
For Hernandez, he had a fantastic showing against Croatia and was one of the only few bright spots for a lackluster team, but Hernandez has at best only been a fringe player for Mexico and with the likes of Carlos Vela playing some of his best soccer in his career, and younger starlets making a larger impact for Mexico, like Gutierrez and Lopez, being a first option for the Gold Cup roster will benefit both Mexico and the winger.
Osorio buys himself time
The main reason you have to assume that Osorio’s roster cut was so minimal is that he still has till until June 7th which is the FIFA deadline to submit final Confederations Cup rosters. A detailed oriented coach that is Osorio, he will no doubt take the next five days to make sure he has every possible chance to see the remaining players for as much as possible to take the best squad he sees fit.
Also, question marks linger to the health of Jurgen Damm, Nestor Araujo, and captain Rafael Marquez, plus he’s given Jesus Duenas, who’s yet to join the team, until Sunday, June 4th to sort out personal issues that have left him out of the team thus far.
Even though the final roster for the Confederations Cup is due on the 7th, it seems Osorio will keep the 29 players around for both Qualifying matches on the 8th and 11th and make individual 23 man rosters for those specific games based on the health of those players who are battling with health issues in the lead-up to Mexico’s Confederations Cup opener on June 18th.
ROSTER:
Goalkeepers
Rodolfo Cota (Guadalajara)
Guillermo Ochoa (Granada)
Alfredo Talavera (Toluca)
Defenders
Oswaldo Alanís (Guadalajara)
Néstor Araujo (Santos Laguna)
Rafael Márquez (Atlas)
Héctor Moreno (PSV Eindhoven)
Diego Reyes (Espanyol)
Luis Reyes (Atlas)
Carlos Salcedo (Fiorentina)
Midfielders
Jonathan Dos Santos (Villarreal)
Jesús Dueñas (Tigres)
Andrés Guardado (PSV Eindhoven)
Jorge Hernández (Pachuca)
Héctor Herrera (Porto FC)
Miguel Layún (Porto FC)
Jesús Molina (Monterrey)
Orbelín Pineda (Guadalajara)
Forwards
Javier Aquino (Tigres)
Jesús Manuel Corona (Porto FC)
Jurgen Damm (Tigres)
Giovani Dos Santos (LA Galaxy)
Marco Fabián (Eintracht Frankfurt)
Jesús Gallardo (Pumas)
Javier Hernández (Bayer Leverkusen)
Raúl Jiménez (Benfica)
Hirving Lozano (Pachuca)
Oribe Peralta (América)
Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad)