La Jornada: We want the best World Cup participation in 2026: Duilio Davino

Erendira Palma Hernández

Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday June 1, 2023, p. a10

With the pressure to correct the course after the disaster suffered in Qatar 2022, the Mexican Soccer Federation will seek that the Tricolor make its best participation in the history of a World Cup when it hosts the United States and Canada in 2026. For this, Rodrigo Ares de Parga, executive director, yesterday presented Duilio Davino as head of the national teams, and Andrés Lillini in the youth representatives, who arrived with people from Pumas.

If you go to a competition you want to win. When I talk about having the best World Cup in history, it’s reaching the sixth or seventh game, once you’re there you want to winDavino pointed out without specifying the stage they intend to reach with the new format of 48 selections.

When asked if it is an obligation to win the Gold Cup and the Nations League, the first tests that the Tricolor will have with this new directive, Davino indicated that we will all be under constant review.

Unlike previous cycles, this time they also seek to create foundations for the 2030 World Cup. However, the idea is to unify the game model from the Under-15 team to the senior team, a system that none of the three managers hit the mark to explain. We will make a prototype of soccer players as we want the national team to playsaid Ares of Parga.

Lillini will have the task of creating this model from the Sub-15. The former technical director of Pumas chose a group of coaches with experience in basic forces to now direct the representative youth tricolores.

Gerardo Espinoza will leave Tapatío, from the Expansion League, to direct the Under-23 squad, while Raúl Chabrand will culminate his process with the Under-17 when the World Cup ends in the category to take the reins of the Under-20 team.

Alex Diego, who was Lillini’s assistant, will be in charge of the Under-18 squad; Likewise, Carlos Cariño, who worked with Andrés in Pumas, will be the U-17 helmsman. Jose Antonio Gringo Castro, who was champion with Cruz Azul U-15, will take the technical direction of the same category, but now of the Tricolor, while they are in negotiations to sign a coach for the U-16 division.

Another of the differences with previous processes will be that now all the technicians must live in Mexico City, go to the High Performance Center daily and carry out the scouting of the players themselves. Lillini indicated that his job is to create consolidated soccer players so that they make the leap to the senior team more easily.

Part of this new project will be the preparation duels of the Tricolor Sub-23 against their peers from Spain and France.

elite teamspresumed Ares de Parga, who revealed that they have already presented the work plan to Juan Carlos The bomb Rodriguez and them tweaked a couple of things, which you’re right about, we’re making good progress with it.

Regarding Mexicans with dual nationality, Davino indicated that they will seek to dialogue with all possible, although we must be congruentwhen pointing out that nobody can condition his place in the selection. that is earned.

The first challenges for this new management come quickly and in the coming weeks the senior team will have to play the Nations League and the Gold Cup, while they will have two friendly matches, against Guatemala, on June 7, and three days later against Cameroon.

The first confirmed casualty for these contests is that of Jesús Thecatite Corona, who is just beginning to be active after suffering a fracture that left him out of Qatar 2022.

About 12 players will be the base to play the two friendly matches that the Tricolor will have, as well as the Gold Cup and the Nations League. This set will be complemented with another 10 elements that will only be in friendly matches, and will later be replaced by another 11 for the two tournaments.

In the 33-player squad, which does not specify who will play in the Nations League and the Gold Cup, the duo of Santiago Giménez and Henry Martín stands out in attack. In the goal the veteran Guillermo Ochoa remains called up while Luis Malagón was also included in the list.

The defense was renewed and will be made up of Kevin Álvarez, Omar Campos, Luis Romo, Julian Araujo, Víctor Guzmán, César Montes, Gilberto Sepúlveda, Gerardo Arteaga, Israel Reyes and Johan Vázquez. The absence of Raúl Jiménez and Hirving Lozano, who suffered a sprained knee, was also confirmed.