Mexico Adds Galaxy Flavor to Its Cup Mix
Javier Aguirre, Mexico’s World Cup soccer coach, has sprung a couple of surprises by naming former Galaxy players Jorge Campos and Luis Hernandez to what is tentatively Mexico’s Cup roster.
Aguirre was to have announced the actual roster Monday but instead named a 23-player squad last week for Wednesday’s warmup game against Bulgaria at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Those players, Aguirre said, will make up his World Cup team unless something goes wrong. He said he might add or subtract players before the May 21 roster deadline.
Aguirre selected three goalkeepers, among them Campos, six defenders, nine midfielders and five forwards, one of them Hernandez.
Hernandez had a largely unsuccessful two-season stint with the Galaxy, but has been much happier in an off-the-bench role for Club America in the Mexican league this season.
He will not be a starter at Korea/Japan ‘02, where Mexico plays Croatia, Ecuador and Italy in the first round. The Spain-based duo of Cuahutemoc Blanco (Valladolid) and Francisco Palencia (Espanyol) are the more likely starters.
But with Jesus Arellano (Monterrey) suspended from the first two games because of violent play during qualifying, “El Matador” is a useful substitute to have on the bench alongside Jared Borguetti (Santos Laguna).
Likewise, Campos is unlikely to displace Oscar Perez (Cruz Azul) as the starting goalkeeper, but the veteran of the 1994 and 1998 World Cups has played well for UNAM and adds much to the team chemistry in a backup role along with Oswaldo Sanchez (Guadalajara).
A notable absentee on Aguirrre’s roster is veteran defender Claudio Suarez, who broke a leg in practice the day before Mexico’s 1-0 loss to the United States in Denver on April 3.
Suarez, the world’s most experienced international player with 170 games for Mexico, will accompany the team to the World Cup, but not in a playing capacity.
The six defenders Aguirre selected are Manuel Vidrio (Pachuca), Melvin Brown (Cruz Azul), Francisco Gabriel de Anda (Pachuca), Rafael Marquez (Monaco, France), Alberto Rodriguez (Pachuca) and Salvador Carmona (Toluca).
Aguirre has left the door open for such players as defenders Carlos Morales (Morelia) and Hector Altamirano (Santos Laguna) and possibly even for forward Antonio De Nigris (Monterrey).
His nine midfielders, however, appear set. They are Rafael Garcia (Toluca), German Villa (America), Gerardo Torrado (Sevilla, Spain), Johan Rodriguez (Santos Laguna), Alberto Garcia Aspe (Puebla), Sigifredo Mercado (Atlas), Braulio Luna (Necaxa), Gabriel Caballero (Pachuca) and Ramon Morales (Guadalajara).
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Italy on Monday became the latest World Cup team to lose a player to injury when central midfielder Demetrio Albertini was sidelined for two to three months by an Achilles’ tendon injury.
The 30-year-old AC Milan player, a 79-game veteran for Italy, was injured in Milan’s loss to Juventus on Sunday. Albertini was a starter on the Italian team that reached the quarterfinals of the France ’98 World Cup and the final of the 2000 European Championship.
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Bruce Arena, the U.S. coach, said in Dublin, Ireland, that he would name his 23-man World Cup roster and a list of stand-by players next Monday.
“I think, to a point, it’s pretty clear who is going to be on the roster but it’s not all written in stone,” Arena told Reuters. “There are still a couple of people who are on the fence, but I think we’re 80-90% there.”
The U.S. plays Ireland on Wednesday in its final overseas warmup before the World Cup.
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Organizers of the 2006 World Cup in Germany announced the 12 host cities--Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Hanover, Kaiserslautern, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Munich is expected to stage the opening game, Berlin the final.
The preliminary draw for qualifying groups will be in Frankfurt on Dec. 5, 2003, and the final World Cup draw will be in Leipzig two years later.
Germany will spend $1.5 billion on building stadiums and renovating older ones.
“It’s money well spent,” German Interior Minister Otto Schily said. “There is no better opportunity than this to showcase our country.”
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China’s Coach Bora Milutinovic named a provisional 25-man squad for the team’s first-round World Cup games against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey. The only newcomer is defender Gao Yao from Shandong Luneng.
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Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has scored 33 goals this season for Manchester United after having been acquired from PSV Eindhoven last year for a record $27.3 million, has been chosen player of the year in a vote by English Premier League players.
