Mexico Team for 2010 World Cup

One of the strongest teams in the Americas, Mexico has qualified for 13 World Cups, and been a regular at every World Cup finals tournament since 1994. Javier Aguirre the former Athletico Madrid Coach has finally bought some calming influence to the Mexican team, steadying them by putting together a team with promising young talents and experienced players to bring back the confidence into El Tri.

 

In the first two games, Mexico beat Belize without straining too hard, only to be drawn into a group with some really tough opposition. Mexico was clubbed along with Jamaica, Canada and Honduras. Coached by Sven Goran Eriksson the Mexican’s barely scraped through ahead of Jamaica on goal-difference. They began the six-team round-robin group with a 2-0 defeat to the USA. They proceeded to beat Costa Rica before being beaten by Honduras 3-1. Eriksson was immediately replaced by Aguirre, who worked his magic just as he had done on the road to the World Cup 2002.

 

El Vasco’s damage control brought the Mexican’s back on track beating USA 2-1 at the next outing. Mexico then proceeded to beat the rest of the teams in the 5-team strong group, earning their ticket to South Africa with one game left. A draw with Trinidad and Tobago put the El Tri on the second position in the group right under long-time rivals- the USA.

 

Veteran player Cuauhtemoc Blanco was called out of retirement by Aguirre to help the under-performing Mexican team. His presence seemed uplifting to the younger breed of players such as Guillermo Ochoa, Efrain Juarez, Andres Guardado and Giovani dos Santos. With help from Captain Rafael Marquez who holds the defensive line for Mexico, this team looks all geared up to take the World Cup by storm.

 

Javier Aguirre is the most popular as well as successful Mexican coach in recent times. It was almost as if everything he touched turned to gold, taking Pachuca to the league championship after which he was asked to revive the National team at the qualifiers for the World Cup 2002, taking them to the top spot in a group with eventual champions Italy, Croatia and Ecuador. He had a stint with Osasuna, taking them to the UEFA Champions League in 2005/06 before being handed the reins to Athletico Madrid, who he helped into the fourth place in 2007/08. He came back to help out a crisis-stricken national team through the qualifiers and is hoping to take them through to the final in the World Cup 2010.

 

Mexico has qualified for the FIFA World Cup 14 times and South Africa is their fifth consecutive appearance where they will be looking forward to clear the round of 16 in which they have been eliminated the last four times.

The Pre-World Cup list of players for Mexico is given below.