Mexico announces roster for North Korea match
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Standout goalkeeper ‘Memo’ Ochoa will make his first appearance of the year with Mexico’s national team in Wednesday’s friendly match against North Korea in Torreón, the Mexican soccer federation announced Thursday.
Ochoa, who is virtually guaranteed a spot on Mexico’s World Cup team this summer, was not on the roster for El Tri’s first two exhibitions. But with Mexico playing at home for the first time this year, Coach Javier Aguirre summoned the World Cup veteran from his club team, America. And he’s not the only addition.Thirteen of the 18 players Aguirre named to the team for the North Korea match were not on Mexico’s roster for its 2-0 win over New Zealand at the Rose Bowl last week.
Among the new faces are defenders Oscar Rojas, Jose Antonio Castro and Juan Carlos Valenzuela, midfielders Jesus Molina, Patricio Araujo, Daniel Arreola and Luis Noriega and forwards Alberto Medina and Vicente Vuoso.
Vuoso, a naturalized Mexican, hasn’t played for the national team since Aguirre replaced Sven-Göran Eriksson as coach last spring. But with the match being played in Torreón, where Vuoso stars for Santos Laguna in Mexico’s Primera División, Aguirre called the veteran striker up. And because Wednesday is not an international fixture date, 19-year-old midfielder Jonthan Dos Santos is the only European-based player Aguirre has summoned. Dos Santos plays in Spain for Barcelona.
It’s a slightly older squad than the one Aguirre used in the Rose Bowl, especially with the inclusion of 35-year-old midfielder Braulio Luna and 37-year-old striker Cuauhtémoc Blanco.
Luna has played well in his two previous matches -- Mexico beat Bolivia 5-0 in its opener last month -- but Blanco has looked his age in both games. He’ll be joined again up front by 21-year-old Chivas standout Javier Hernandez, who not only leads the Primera División with eight goals goals but also has scored in both of Mexico’s friendlies.
In addition to being unbeaten in its World Cup run-ups, Mexico also is unscored upon. But the competition it has faced hasn’t exactly been stout -- Bolivia didn’t qualify for this summer’s World Cup and New Zealand is expected to go out in the first round. North Korea isn’t much better. Ranked 102nd in the world by FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, North Korea already has lost to Iran and Venezuela this year and played Turkmenistan to ties twice in regulation, winning the second match on penalty kicks.
The roster:
GK -- Guillermo Ochoa (America)
GK -- Luis Ernesto Michel (Chivas)
D -- Oscar Rojas (America)
D -- Jose Antonio Castro (Tigres)
D -- Jonny Magallon (Chivas)
D -- Juan Carlos Valenzuela (America)
D -- Jorge Torres Nilo (Atlas)
MF -- Jesus Molina (Tigres)
MF -- Patricio Araujo (Chivas)
MF -- Daniel Arreola (Atlante)
MF -- Luis Miguel Noriega (Puebla)
MF -- Braulio Luna (San Luis)
MF -- Jonathan Dos Santos (Barcelona)
F -- Alberto Medina (Chivas)
F -- Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Veracruz)
F -- Angel Eduardo Reyna (America)
F -- Javier Hernandez (Chivas)
F -- Vicente Matías Vuoso (Santos)
-- Kevin Baxter