🇲🇽 The real cuts are the ones Tata Martino makes along the way
Mexico makes a roster announcement heavy on marketing sizzle & light on news
Mexico announced today it was dropping its World Cup roster Wednesday, but the event ended up being relatively bland. Tata Martino named 31 players who are headed to Spain for preparations, meaning he’ll trim five prior to the roster deadline for Qatar.
The only players in contention for the tournament who didn’t make the list was Santos Laguna goalkeeper Carlos Acevedo. Chivas midfielder Fernando Beltrán was the only player named for September’s friendly matches in California who isn’t headed into the pre-World Cup camp.
What we ‘learned’, we already knew: Tata Martino wants to take three old goalkeepers to Qatar and he desperately needs his best attacking players to get fit.
Both Jesus “Tecatito” Corona and Raul Jimenez are on the list, even as they race to get back to full fitness. Martino has said he’ll wait on Jimenez’s fitness until the very last minute, such is the importance of Mexico’s best center forward option.
Jimenez’s fitness will determine one of the five cuts the Argentine manager makes, with Henry Martín or Santi Giménez on the chopping block if the Wolves forward is able to contribute in Qatar.
Corona may be another cut. Mexico is hoping to have him, but it feels like hope is certainly the operative word. I’m not a doctor nor have I seen Corona recently. Sevilla’s August news release stating he broke his left fibula and ruptured ligaments in his ankle didn’t feel like the type of news release that signaled a player would be good to go in three months.
If one or both players can’t go, an already punchless Mexico attack may as well declare itself pacifist. While Alexis Vega can do a passable Tecatito impersonation, it’s a different story at No. 9. With neither Giménez or Martín having shown any sort of consistency at the international level and Funes Mori’s only Mexico goals coming against Nigeria, Guatemala and Honduras, it’s obvious why Martino is praying to whatever deity he feels is most likely to get Raul fully fit and scoring goals.
But Mexico’s top attacking trio almost certainly will be rusty heading into the tournament, and even at full fitness, the tridente couldn’t deliver on promises to strike fear in Concacaf defenses’ hearts.
If we learned anything else, it’s that there still was the option for any player not named Javier Hernandez to play his way onto Martino’s roster. They may not make the final cut, but Pachuca midfielders Luis Chávez and Érick Sánchez pushed into the picture fully with back-to-back quality campaigns in Liga MX.
Some of the younger players who got looks in the late August friendly in Paraguay on a non-FIFA date were named to the sparring team that will help the senior squad. Other Liga MX-based players didn’t do enough to turn Tata Martino’s head, though the manager was conspicuous in his presence at Liga MX games down the stretch after fielding criticisms he wasn’t paying enough attention to domestic matches.
The other element of the event Wednesday was the Mexican federation launching its hashtag, #MéxicoDeMiVida. Lifetime devotion is the only thing pushing most fans to watch the team in Qatar, as optimism is at an all-time low. Understandably so after its recent showings.
While Juan Carlos Osorio was hardly loved (he got booed out of the Azteca in a send-off game…which Mexico won) fans at least knew he was going into the tournament with a plan - even if they thought the plan was bad. After the struggles in World Cup qualification and failure to lift a trophy in 2021, few are expecting anything out of this team.
“We know there aren’t high expectations for Mexico right now, but you have to believe and we have to hope in ourselves, like all Mexicans,” fullback Jesus Gallardo said upon arriving to Mexico City. “Those of us fighting to be on the list are dreaming of making history in Qatar and we hope the fans join with us and dream as well.”
It’s not clear if the 26 players who eventually make the list, however, can do enough to give fans any real reason to dream of anything beyond what they’ve know their whole life: A Mexico team unable to go beyond the marketing hype and deliver results on the field.
On the radar…
The Concacaf League final’s first leg is underway as I write this. Tomorrow, we’ve got the first leg of Toluca against Pachuca.
Sunday sees the second leg of the Liga MX final and the first leg of the Grand Final in Costa Rica.
Nice piece, Jon.