CONCACAF Update: Honduras and Mexico

Since the USMNT's FIFA ranking will benefit in the long run by CONCACAF success at this summer's World Cup, I figured I should give some updates on what Honduras and Mexico are doing as their final preparations get under way.

Unlike Bob Bradley, Honduras head coach Reinaldo Ruega simply named his 23-man World Cup roster last week rather than bring the full 30-man preliminary roster in to battle it out for spots on the plane to South Africa.  The group he selected, which includes 14 players from the domestic league, is as follows:


Goalkeepers: Ricardo Canales, Noel Valladares, Donis Escober

Defenders: Victor Bernardez, Maynor Figueroa, Boniek Garcia, Sergio Mendoza, Johnny Palacios, Emilio Izaguirre, Osman Chavez, Mauricio Sabillon

Midfielders: Edgar Alvarez, Roger Espinoza, Julio Cesar de Leon, Amado Guevara, Ramon Nunez, Hendry Thomas, Wilson Palacios, Danilo Turcios

Forwards: David Suazo, Georgie Welcome, Carlos Pavon, Walter Martinez


One notable absence from this list is Carlo Costly, whose five goals in the Hex were the second highest total amongst all players, trailing only teammate Carlos Pavon's seven tallies.  Costly fractured his foot at the tail end of the Romanian Liga season, which ultimately cost him his spot on the final roster.

With that roster, Los Catrachos will play three tune-up friendlies before heading down to South Africa.  The matches, all of which will take place in Austria, will be against Belarus (5/27), Azerbaijan (6/2), and Romania (6/5).  They will then have 10 more days of preparation until their Group H opener against Chile.

Mexico's situation, meanwhile, is somewhere between the two extremes that Bob Bradley and Reinaldo Ruega have employed.  Head coach Javier Aguirre named a provisional roster of 26 players, which he then proceeded to trim down to 24 after El Tri's May 13 friendly against Angola by cutting Adrian Aldrete and Juan Carlos Valenzuela.  The remaining 24 are as follows:


Goalkeepers: Guillermo Ochoa, Luis Ernesto Michel, Oscar Perez

Defenders: Paul Aguilar, Efrain Juarez, Jonny Magallon, Rafael Marquez, Hector Moreno, Ricardo Osorio, Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Salcido, Jorge Torres Nilo

Midfielders: Israel Castro, Jonathan dos Santos, Andres Guardado, Gerardo Torrado

Forwards: Pablo Barrera, Adolfo Bautista, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Giovani dos Santos, Guillermo Franco, Javier Hernandez, Alberto Medina, Carlos Vela


Some notable names not included are Miguel Sabah and Nery Castillo.  Sabah, who scored the late winner against the USMNT at Estadio Azteca last August, is dealing with an injury, while Castillo has had a rough go of it at the club level in Ukraine and England over the past couple of seasons. 

Much like the USMNT, Mexico have several players capable of playing multiple positions, so their roster isn't as unbalanced as it might look at first glance.  Javier Aguirre and company will complete their preparations with four more matches in what has already been a long, long line of friendlies this year.  They will travel to Wembley to take on England on May 24 before heading to Germany to take on the Netherlands (5/26) and the Gambia (5/30).  They will then face off against Italy in Belgium on June 3 before finally heading down to South Africa, where they will kick off the tournament against the hosts on June 11. 

----

While the focus around these parts will, of course, be on the USMNT in the coming weeks, I'll be sure to also provide updates on our fellow CONCACAF qualifiers as they finish up their final preparations and play their tune-up friendlies.

Stay tuned.