Mexico announces squad for US friendlies as they start preparations for U20 qualifiers

Mexico announced the start of the 2020 campaign for the U20 Concacaf Championship with two friendlies against the United States in Bradenton, Florida. Under coach Raul Chabrand, Mexico will try to get one of the four tickets to the U20 World Cup to be held in 2021 in Indonesia. Mexico is in Group F along with El Salvador, Canada, and Aruba. The tournament still doesn’t have a venue or dates but its expected to take place during the summer.

The call up list is the following.

Goalkeepers: Eduardo Garcia (Chivas), Victor Mendoza (Queretaro)

Defenders: Victor Guzman (Tijuana), Santiago Roman (Puebla), Cristopher Torres (Tijuana), Oscar Villa (Leon), Ramon Juarez (America), Jose Castillo (Pachuca)

Midfielders: Benjamin Galdames (Union Española), Amaury Garcia (Pumas), Alejandro Andrade (Necaxa), Julian Vasquez (Real Salt Lake), Juan de Dios Gamboa (Toluca), Diego Medina (Santos), Santiago Naveda (America), Gerson Vasquez (Queretaro)

Forwards: Ricardo Monreal (Necaxa), Ettson Ayon (Tijuana), Emanuel Montejano (Pumas), Eduardo Banda (Monterrey)

The most notable addition is the first call up with the Mexican NT for Benjamin Galdames. He is the son of ex-Chile international Pablo Galdames and was born in Mexico while Pablo played with Cruz Azul. Galdames is an interesting prospect in Chile with Union Española, and will be making his debut with the NT. The other interesting additions are Eduardo Garcia and Victor Guzman. Both of these players were part of the U17 team that finished in second place in the 2019 U17 World Cup and are the first players of that team to get to the U20, something which more players should follow that path as the year progresses.

Mexico will play the first friendly against the United States on Thursday January 16. The second friendly will be played on Saturday January 18. Both of the games are going to be played in the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which was the site of the last U20 Concacaf Tournament held in 2018. There is no word as of yet if the academy will also host this year’s edition of the U20 tournament.