Mexico announce squad for Iceland friendly and CONCACAF Nations League finals

Coach Gerardo Martino has released the call up list for Mexico’s senior team for their friendly match against Iceland and the two games to be played in the CONCACAF Nations League. Mexico will be playing against Costa Rica in the Semifinals of the Nations League on June 3rd and depending of the result will either be playing the final or the third place match.

The call up list is the following:

Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa (America), Alfredo Talavera (Pumas), Rodolfo Cota (Leon) Jonathan Orozco (Tijuana)

Defenders: Nestor Araujo (Celta de Vigo), Gerardo Arteaga (Genk), Jesus Gallardo (Monterrey), Hector Moreno (Al-Gharafa) Carlos Salcedo (Tigres), Luis Romo (Cruz Azul), Jorge Sanchez (America), Cesar Montes (Monterrey), Luis Rodriguez (Tigres), Osvaldo Rodriguez (Leon)

Midfielders: Jesus Corona (Porto), Hector Herrera (Atletico Madrid), Andres Guardado (Betis), Edson Alvarez (Ajax), Diego Lainez (Betis), Sebastian Cordova (America), Carlos Rodriguez (Monterrey), Orbelin Pineda (Cruz Azul), Uriel Antuna (Chivas), Jonathan Dos Santos (LA Galaxy), Erick Gutierrez (PSV Eindhoven), Roberto Alvarado (Cruz Azul), Rodolfo Pizarro (Inter Miami)

Forwards: Hirving Lozano (Napoli), Raul Jimenez (Wolverhampton), Henry Martin (America) Alan Pulido (Sporting Kansas City)

The most notable thing is how large the list, is with 31 players being called up. After that it’s the return to the National team of Raul Jimenez, who had a serious head injury on November 29th and hasn’t played since. Jimenez trained with the National Team for their Wales friendly, but hasn’t been cleared to play with his club Wolverhampton and will probably have a similar path in just training with the team. Also called up was Erick Gutierrez, who is currently injured and because of that injury, didn’t finish out the season with his club PSV Eindhoven.

Another notable thing is the amount of players who are U24 eligible, and because of this call up will miss their tour of Marbella. The U24 Mexican National team will be playing games against Romania, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Players like Diego Lainez, Roberto Alvarado, Edson Alvarez, Carlos Rodriguez, Cesar Montes, Gerardo Arteaga, and Sebastian Cordova were called up which means that either the tour will be used to test players, or it could mean that the Senior National team is a priority over the Olympic team.

Among the notable omissions, the biggest is probably striker Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, who has scored seven goals in MLS and although he hasn’t played in the NT since 2017, he’s being doing better than other MLS players like Alan Pulido and Rodolfo Pizarro. Puebla’s striker Santiago Ormeño wasn’t called up, which means he might be going to play with the Peruvian national team, as he has Peruvian nationality from his grandfather and there has been interest from the team in calling him up. Also notable is the fact most top European players were called up except Omar Govea, who has only played one game under Martino as is probably not in his plans.

Mexico will be playing a friendly in Arlington, Texas on May 29th against Iceland. They will then play against Costa Rica on June 3rd and then either the final or the third place game on June 6th in the CONCACAF Nations League finals. Both games will be played in Denver, Colorado. Mexico will have matches on June 12th against Honduras and June 30th against Panama in preparation for the Gold Cup, but there should be a new call up list for those matches as this one is just for their next three games.