Mexico call up list for Training camp and possibly for Costa Rica friendly

Mexico announced the first senior NT call up list of 2020 for next week’s training camp before their match against Costa Rica on September 30th. The list consisted of only players in Liga MX for the Training Camp which will start on September 19th until September 23th with the players joining after finishing their participation in the weekend games. While the list is just for the training camp, it’s probable that the players for the Costa Rica friendly, should be coming from the training camp especially since they were 26 players called up. Mexico will face Costa Rica in Estadio Azteca on September 30th.

The call up list is the following:

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (America), Alfredo Talavera (Pumas), Hugo Gonzalez (Monterrey), Jonathan Orozco (Tijuana)

Defenders: Cesar Montes (Monterrey), Johan Vasquez (Pumas), Miguel Layun (Monterrey), Luis Rodriguez (Tigres), Jorge Sanchez (America), Luis Romo (Cruz Azul), Carlos Salcedo (Tigres), Gilberto Sepulveda (Chivas), Jesus Gallardo (Monterrey)

Midfielders: Carlos Rodriguez (Monterrey), Fernando Beltran (Chivas), Roberto Alvarado (Cruz Azul), Sebastian Cordova (America), Uriel Antuna (Chivas), Orbelin Pineda (Cruz Azul), Luis Chavez (Pachuca), Ivan Rodriguez (Leon), Mauro Lainez (Tijuana)

Forwards: Jose Juan Macias (Chivas), Henry Martin (America), Santiago Gimenez (Cruz Azul), Alexis Vega (Chivas)

This is Coach Gerardo Martino’s first call up list in 2020 as the cancellation of the March friendlies against the Czech Republic and Greece came before his list was announced. Among the big surprises of the list was the return of Miguel Layun to the NT, as well as the call ups of Carlos Salcedo, Roberto Alvarado and Jonathan Orozco. Layun hadn’t played in a year, after getting suspended over a supposed party in New York after the friendly against the United States. Salcedo, Alvarado and Orozco meanwhile haven’t had the best starts with their team and many don’t think their call ups are deserved. More controversial are the lack of call ups to several players, especially Leon’s Luis Montes and Fernando Navarro. Both of them had great starts to their season and were key in Leon’s success, more so than what Leon’s only call up, Ivan Rodriguez, has done in the season.

The training camp will take place in the Centro de Alto Rendimiento (CAR) and will start on Saturday 19th. This means the camp will start in the middle of the match day, especially now that the Tijuana vs FC Juarez game that was supposed to be played on Friday was moved to Monday because of delays in COVID 19 testing. This means the possibility that some players weren’t called up because of the lack of time like Leon’s players although Pumas also plays on Monday in the match against Leon and they had 2 call ups. Mexico will play Costa Rica with both teams having only local players since it’s not a FIFA date. The match is set to be played although they are still doubts because of Costa Rican players needing to quarantine for 2 weeks after returning from Mexico. The Costa Rican FA is asking for a special permission from the Health Ministry to bypass the ordinance but at the time of the article, there was still not news if it will be given.