Mexico Names Their World Cup Roster

Mexico coach Miguel Herrera has named his 23-man roster for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

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Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, Giovani dos Santos, and Andres Guardado headline the 23-man roster Mexico will be bringing to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Manager Miguel Herreramade the announcement today, saying that “I am looking for a team that has ball possession and is physically powerful. These 23 players know what it means to be champions.”

Mexico barely even made it to the tournament, needing a playoff win over New Zealand to earn their slot in Brazil after a disappointing qualifying campaign in which they went 2-3-5 in the CONCACAF hexagonal round and finished behind the United States, Costa Rica, and Honduras.

They fired manager José Manuel de la Torre in September, replacing him with Víctor Manuel Vucetich, whom they then fired in October before finally settling on Herrera, who guided the team through the two-leg playoff with New Zealand and now will lead them at the World Cup.

Despite their struggles in qualifying, Mexico have a talented team and traditionally perform quite well at the tournament. They have advanced to the knockout stage in each of the last five World Cups, but did not advance past the Round of 16 in any of them. They’ve been drawn into Group A with Brazil, Croatia, and Cameroon, and will likely see their fate decided with their third and final group stage match when they face off with Croatia.

Here’s the full slate of players (with their club teams in parenthesis) who will be making the trip:

Goalkeepers: Jesus Corona (Cruz Azul), Guillermo Ochoa (Ajaccio), Alfredo Talavera (Toluca)

Defenders: Paul Aguilar (America), Andres Guardado (Bayer Leverkusen), Miguel Layun (America), Rafa Marquez (Leon), Hector Moreno (Espanyol), Diego Reyes (Porto), Maza Rodriguez (America), Carlos Salcido (Tigres)

Midfielders: Juan Carlos Medina (America), Gallito Vazquez (Leon), Hector Herrera (Porto), Carlos Peña (Leon), Isaac Brizuela (Toluca), Marco Fabian (Cruz Azul), Luis Montes (Leon)

Forwards: Oribe Peralta (Santos), Javier Hernandez (Manchester United), Raul Jimenez (America), Alan Pulido (Tigres), Giovani Dos Santos (Villarreal)

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