As Mexico manager Javier Aguirre continues shaping his roster for the 2026 World Cup, a handful of players already look like the backbone of El Tri: Luis \u00c1ngel Malag\u00f3n, Johan V\u00e1squez, Edson \u00c1lvarez, and Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez. Others are still fighting to prove they belong in the final 23. The results, draws against Japan and South Korea, \u00a0may not have met fans\u2019 expectations, but Aguirre made clear that Mexico\u2019s foundation is set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say whether we\u2019re close or far from where we want to be for the World Cup, but after a year, we\u2019ve established a base, we\u2019re on the right track,\u201d Aguirre said. \u201cGood, bad, or average football – that\u2019s for you to judge. My job is to train, to find players for the World Cup, and to give them a clear football identity. We\u2019ve used around 35 players so far, and we\u2019re still searching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against Japan, Mexico lost \u00c1lvarez to injury, but his replacement, Erik Lira, impressed. Many observers even argued that El Tri looked sharper with the Cruz Azul midfielder pulling the strings than with the Fenerbah\u00e7e veteran in charge.<\/p>\n
In Nashville, Jim\u00e9nez ended his scoring drought with goal No. 43 for Mexico, moving into third on the country\u2019s all-time scoring list and reminding everyone of his quality as a veteran striker. Fellow forward Santiago Gim\u00e9nez also eased the pressure on himself with a stunning stoppage-time strike to seal a 2-2 draw against South Korea.<\/p>\n
Not everyone left camp on a high. San Diego FC\u2019s Hirving Lozano, in his first call-up in more than a year, failed to make an impact in either match. Goalkeeper Ra\u00fal Rangel also had little to show as South Korea\u2019s attackers exposed him on both goals.<\/p>\n
With FIFA windows still to come in October, November and March – just before World Cup call-ups begin – Mexico\u2019s roster should soon look far more defined. By then, fans and observers will have a much clearer sense of what \u201cVasco\u201d plans to field in the June 11 opener. Some players moved closer to securing their spots with these performances. Others will be left wondering if they did enough. So, who stood out? Whose stock rose, and whose fell? GOAL takes a look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Mexico manager Javier Aguirre continues shaping his roster for the 2026 World Cup, a handful of players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11475,11476,11474,85,46,11472,1326,11477,11473,11471,105,6866],"class_list":["post-10540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-e-lira","tag-friendlies","tag-h-lozano","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-j-aguirre","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-vs-south-korea","tag-s-gimenez","tag-south-korea","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}