Mexico name U23 squad for Pan American Games

Mexico has named the U23 squad that will play in the 2023 Pan American games to be played in Santiago, Chile. Coach Ricardo Cadena has named the 18 member team that will take part from October 20th to November 5th. Mexico is the current bronze medalist.

The squad called up was the following:

Goalkeepers: Fernando Tapia (Queretaro), Eduardo Garcia (Chivas)

Defenders: Antonio Leone (LAFC), Mauricio Isaias (Toluca), Pablo Monroy (UNAM Pumas), Rafael Fernandez (Tijuana), Jesus Garza (Tigres), Emilio Lara (America)

Midfielders: Jordan Carrillo (Sporting de Gijon), Fidel Ambriz (Leon), Erik Lira (Cruz Azul), Raymundo Fulgencio (Tigres), Sebastian Perez Bouquet (FC Juarez) , Ramiro Arciga (Mazatlan)

Forwards: Ettson Ayon (Queretaro), Ali Avila (Monterrey), Bryan Gonzalez (Pachuca), Juan Brigido (Chivas)

With the fact that this is a non-FIFA date tournament, the national team was hampered with needing clubs permission to get the players even with the fact that since Mexico didn’t qualify to the 2024 Olympic Games, this will be the last big tournament for the U23s in this World Cup cycle. While most of the team is the one that played and won the gold medal in the 2023 Central America and Caribbean Games earlier in the summer, some changes were made, which was to be expected because of the change in coaches (Coach Gerardo Espinoza resigned to take the coaching job at Puebla, but because of regulations couldn’t take that job and ended up unemployed).

Mexico will make their debut against host Chile on October 23rd. They will then play against the Dominican Republic on October 26th, and close their group stage against Uruguay on October 29th. Mexico will play their debut against Chile in the Estadio Elias FIguera in Valparaiso, while the other two matches will be played in Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar. Depending on their results, they will play on November 1st either the 5th or 7th place match if they fail to make it out of the group stages or the Semifinals, if they finish in 1st or 2nd place in the group.