Mexico announces call up list to U23 training camp in preparation for Olympic qualifiers

Mexico announced the call up list for the first training camp for the U23 Team that will play in the Concacaf Olympic qualifying championship to be held in Guadalajara from March 18 to March 31st. The training camp will be held in the Centro de Alto Rendimiento in Mexico City from February 14th to the 17th. The list called up by U23 Coach Jaime Lozano didn’t have any players from Pachuca, Atlas, Santos, Cruz Azul, or Tigres besides goalkeeper Sebastian Jurado. Atlas and Pachuca will play a Liga MX game on Monday February 15th, while Cruz Azul and Tigres will play on Wednesday 17th after Tigres returns from Qatar, where they played in the FIFA Club World Cup.

The call up list is the following:

Goalkeepers: Sebastian Jurado (Cruz Azul), Luis Malagon (Necaxa), Carlos Moreno (Pachuca)

Defenders: Johan Vasquez (Pumas), Victor Guzman (Tijuana), Alejandro Mayorga (Chivas), Ramon Juarez (America), Salvador Reyes (Puebla), Vladimir Loroña (Tijuana), Adrian Mora (Monterrey), Emilio Lara (America), Gilberto Sepulveda (America)

Midfielders: Carlos Rodriguez (Monterrey), Uriel Antuna (Chivas), Sebastian Cordova (America), Erik Lira (Pumas), Jesus Ricardo Angulo (Chivas), Kevin Castañeda (Toluca), Alejandro Zendejas (Necaxa), Fernando Beltran (Chivas), Jose Esquivel (FC Juarez)

Forwards: Jose Juan Macias (Chivas), Marcel Ruiz (Tijuana), Cesar Huerta (Chivas), Jesus Godinez (Leon)

The surprises in the list are the omissions of Alexis Vega from Chivas and Alan Mozo of Pumas. Vega, who got injured in the last training camp in November, had said that he preferred to remain in Chivas instead of going with the national team (probably because of the injury that severely hampered him for the Liguilla) and Coach Lozano had said he might not be called up because of it. Alan Mozo meanwhile got suspended by Pumas for violating COVID-19 protocol. He got a team suspension and returned last Saturday, only for him to get red carded. Among the surprises it’s the first call up for Toluca’s Kevin Castañeda as well as Necaxa’s Alejandro Zendejas and America’s Emilio Lara and Ramon Juarez. Mexico will make their debut in the 2021 Concacaf U23 Championship on March 18th against the Dominican Republic in Estadio Jalisco. Mexico is in Group A along with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and the United States.