Mexico finally announces squad for Chile friendly

Mexico finally announced the squad for their upcoming friendly, which will be played on Wednesday against Chile. While there had been leaks of the players who have been training all week with the national team, the list wasn’t completed until Sunday when the Liga MX semifinals concluded and players from the teams eliminated in the semifinal could be called up.

Coach Gerard Martino called up the following players:

Goalkeepers: Alfredo Talavera (Pumas), Carlos Acevedo (Santos), Luis Malagon (Necaxa)

Defenders: Julain Araujo (LA Galaxy), Salvador Reyes (America), Luis Olivas (Chivas), Omar Campos (Santos), Jordan Silva (America), Israel Reyes (Puebla), Emilio Lara (America)

Midfielders: Marcelo Flores (Arsenal), Sebastian Cordova (America), Alfonso Gonzalez (Monterrey), Efrain Alvarez (LA Galaxy), Erik Lira (Pumas), Fernando Beltran (Chivas), Mauro Lainez (America), Alan Cervantes (Santos), Erik Aguirre (Monterrey)

Forwards: Santiago Gimenez (Cruz Azul), Benjamin Galdames (Union Española), Eduardo Aguirre (Santos), Uriel Antuna (Chivas)

As the match is a non-FIFA date friendly, it is a call up list of mostly young players, the same situation that Chile will have. The most notable call ups are the ones done to Marcelo Flores and Benjamin Galdames. The Arsenal youngster gets the call up after his dazzling performance in the Revelations Cup, while Galdames was originally called up by Chile but decided to go with Mexico instead. Galdames was born in Mexico during the time his father, Pablo Galdames, played with Cruz Azul. Another notable debut will be that of LA Galaxy defender Julian Araujo, who will be playing his first match since making his one time switch from the US National Team to Mexico. Also notable is the first call up for Carlos Acevedo. The Santos goalkeeper is considered to be one of the best, if not the best keepers in Mexico, but was injured at the time of the friendly against Ecuador.

Among the notable omissions are players like Haret Ortega and Alejandro Zendejas, who played in the last non-FIFA friendly against Ecuador but wasn’t called on. Also missing is Real Salt Lake goalkeeper David Ochoa, although that situation could be that he was still with Real Salt Lake, who only ended their participation in the MLS playoffs this weekend. Also being an international club, Salt Lake might not have given permission like Pumas did with their two players.

Mexico will be playing on Wednesday against Chile in their first friendly in Austin, Texas to end their 2021 participation, which has been disappointing for Martino to say the least.