Mexico announce squad for 2024 U-20 CONCACAF Championship
Mexico announce squad for 2024 U-20 CONCACAF Championship
Mexico have announced the squad that will take part in the 2024 U-20 CONCACAF Championship that they’ll be hosting. The squad led by coach Eduardo Arce consists of 21 players, although they were originally 22.
The call up list was the following:
Goalkeepers: Emmanuel Ochoa (San Jose Earthquakes), Pablo Lara (Pumas), Javier Orantes (Necaxa)
Defenders: Efrain Contreras (Pachuca), Diego Ochoa (Chivas), Ricardo Juarez (FC Juarez), Francisco Mendez (Chivas), Cesar Bustos (Monterrey), Jose Pachuca (Puebla)
Midfielders: Xavier Biscayzacu (Defensor Sporting), Heriberto Jurado (Necaxa), Amaury Morales (Cruz Azul), Elias Montiel (Pachuca), Diego Sanchez (Tigres), Brandon Tellez (Tapatio). Cesar Garza (Monterrey)
Forwards: Stephano Carrillo (Santos), Yael Padilla (Chivas), Alexei Dominguez (Pachuca) Mateo Levy (Cruz Azul), Jonantan Villal (San Luis)
The most notable thing was that the original list had called up Obed Vargas (Seattle Sounders) who just recently had announced he had made the One Time Switch (OTS) from the United States to Mexico. A day later it was announced he will not take part on the tournament and surprisingly no player will take his spot, leaving Mexico with only 21 players. No word yet on why he would not take part in the tournament.
Among the notable omissions a coupe of players that had taken part for most of the tenure, weren’t called up. The most notable is Thiago Gigena, who had been the leading scorer in the Torneo del Sol 2024, who didn’t make the list. Although it might be notable that outside of Emmanuel Ochoa and Xavier Biscayzacu, all the rest of the players are based in Mexico. Players like Gigena, Alejandro Alcala and Andres Heredia all play outside of Mexico and clubs are not obligated to release players for the CONCACAF Championship.
Mexico will play three more friendlies for the final preparations. They will play against the Liga TDP team and Cruz Azul’s U-23 team on July 7th and 10th in the Centro de Alto Rendimiento. They would then travel to Lagos de Moreno to face their last friendly against Liga Expansion side, Atletico Morelia. Mexico will start their participation in the 2024 U-20 Tournament on July 21st against Haiti. They will then play against Guatemala on July 24th and close out their group stage with a match against Panama. All the matches will be played in Irapuato. The top 4 teams in the tournament will qualify to the 2024 U-20 World Cup.