Gerardo Martino releases call up for Chile and Paraguay friendlies

With most Europeans and a heavy presence of players from the two teams in Monterrey, Gerardo “Tata” Martino released his call up for the March friendlies against Chile and Paraguay, which will also be his official debut as manager of the Mexico National Team.

Martino will start his reign as Mexico coach with a good mixture of youth and veteran players, as El Tri look to be ready for this Summer’s Gold Cup. Among the players called is Diego Lainez of Real Betis, who despite receiving the call many are still expecting to play in the U-20 World Cup and not the Gold Cup, something that is still up in the air with the Mexican Federation.

Other young players in the team are Cesar Montes and Carlos Rodriguez of Monterrey, Jorge Sanchez of America and Roberto Alvarado of Cruz Azul.

Also, called up were players in Europe that haven’t been having much success this season like PSV’s Erick Gutierrez and Diego Reyes of Leganes, although the latter has been getting much more playing time after a bad spell in Turkey.

Among the biggest absences, perhaps the biggest is Porto’s Hector Herrera, who asked to be absent from this call up to be in Portugal to finish the process of obtaining his EU passport. Of other European players, once again Antonio Briseño fails to get a call up even after his good performances with Feirense in Portugal. Carlos Vela also didn’t make the list, with reports being that Gerardo Martino is familiar with Vela’s skillset and opted to look at other players instead.

Finally, as for Liga MX players, an increase in playing time wasn’t enough for Henry Martin to earn a call up. Meanwhile, it looks like it’s the end of the road for perennial backup goalkeepers Jose de Jesus Corona and Alfredo Talavera.

The players will start concentrating on Sunday, March 17 before traveling to San Diego to face Chile at SDCCU Stadium on Friday, March 22. They will then travel north to Santa Clara to face Paraguay at Levi’s Stadium on Tuesday, March 26.

The players called were as followed:

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (Standard Liege), Raul Gudiño (Chivas), Jonathan Orozco (Santos Laguna).

Defenders: Nestor Araujo (Celta de Vigo), Miguel Layun (Monterrey), Hector Moreno (Real Sociedad), Edson Alvarez (Club America), Luis Rodriguez (Tigres UANL), Cesar Montes (Monterrey), Carlos Salcedo (Tigres UANL), Jorge Sanchez (Club America), Diego Reyes (Leganes), Jesus Gallardo (Monterrey)

Midfielders: Diego Lainez (Real Betis), Jonathan Dos Santos (LA Galaxy), Erick Gutierrez (PSV Eindhoven), Andres Guardado (Real Betis), Isaac Brizuela (Chivas), Luis Montes (Leon), Jose Juan Vasquez (Santos Laguna), Carlos Rodriguez (Monterrey), Roberto Alvarado (Cruz Azul), Victor Guzman (Pachuca),

Forwards: Javier Hernandez (West Ham United), Raul Jimenez (Wolverhampton), Hirving Lozano (PSV Eindhoven), Alexis Vega (Chivas), Jesus Manuel Corona (FC Porto), Rodolfo Pizarro (Monterrey)