A look at the country’s demographics, football history and its squad status prior to the Qatar World Cup 2022.
Number of inhabitants: approx. 129 million.
Continent: North America
Confederation: CONCACAF
National Football Association: FMF.
Number of members: around 324,000. (0.25% of total population)
International trophies won: 11x CONCACAF Championship / Gold Cup, 1x Confederations Cup
Best World Cup result: Quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986.
Key Players
In the past: Hugo Sanchez, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Rafael Marquez, Jared Borgetti, Jorge Campos.
Key current players: Lozano, Jimenez, Alvarez, Guardado, Ochoa.
Coach, formation and possible lineup
Coach: Gerardp Martino. (since 2019)
Typical formation: 4-3-3
Possible lineup:
- GK: Guillermo Ochoa (CF America)
- LB: Jesus Angulo (Tigres)
- RB: Kevin Alvarez (Pachuca)
- LCB: Hector Moreno (Monterrey)
- RCB: Cesar Montes (Monterrey)
- DM: Edson Alvarez (Ajax)
- CM: Andres Guardado (Betis Sevilla)
- CM: Carlos Rodriguez (Cruz Azul)
- RW: Hirving Lozano (Napoli)
- LW: Alexis Vega (Dep. Guadalajara)
- ST: Raul Jimenez (Wolverhampton)
Age Report
Players aged 25 or under in the current lineup: 6
Players aged 32 or over in the current lineup: 3
There are 3 players in this lineup will (most likely) be playing their last World Cup this year: Guillermo Ochoa, Andres Guardado and Hector Moreno.
Six players in this lineup can play (at least) two more: Kevin Alvarez, Jesus Angulo, Alexis Vega, Edson Alvarez, Cesar Montes and Carlos Rodriguez.
The remaining 2 players (Jimenez and Lozano) could play in one (or two in Lozano’s case) more World Cup.
Youngest player: Kevin Alvarez, born 15 January 1999 (23)
Oldest player: Guillermo Ochoa, born 13 July 1985 (37)
Average squad age: 28.1
World Cup Qatar – Group C
Fixtures:
Tuesday 22 November Mexico vs Poland
Saturday 26 November Argentina vs Mexico
Wednesday 30 November Saudi Arabia vs Mexico
Our view:
Mexico is a regular on the World Cup stage, Qatar will be their 17th participation. Their last 7 participations, they have always made it past the group stage. If they want to make it 8 straight, they will have to put up their best performances. Good enough for second place at least, because I don’t see anyone in this group stopping Argentina. The battle for the second spot will be a tough one… Will Mexico win it and proceed to the next round? It will all depend on form of the day, but they definitely have the required quality.
