Three of the five teams the United States faces in CONCACAF’s Hexagonal will be in action tonight (Feb. 5).
Mexico faces Ecaudor in Mexico City, Costa Rica hosts Slovakia in San Jose and El Salvador meets a Salvadoran First Division XI in San Salvador.
Mexican national team coach Bora Milutinovic is giving most of his first-team regulars a rest for his team’s first game since winning U.S. Cup ’97.
Among the players Milutinvoic called up were striker Jared Borguetti, who helped tiny Santos win the Torneo Invierno, the first half of the Mexican First Division season.
Other uncapped players were goalie Erubey Cabuto, midfielder Cesar Marquez and striker Omar Avilan, all with Atlas and Puebla defender Gilberto Jimenez.
Mexico Roster
Goalkeepers — Adolfo Rios (Veracruz), Erubey Cabuto (Atlas). Defenders — Joel Sanchez (Guadalajara), Carlos Turrubiates (Leon), Gilberto Jimenez (Puebla), David Oteo (UNAM), Raul Rodrigo Lara (Club America), German Villa (Club America). Midfielders — Cesar Marquez (Atlas), Markus Lopez (UAG), Jesus Arellano (Monterrey), Nicolas Ramirez (Santos). Strikers — Damian Alvarez (Leon), Jared Borguetti (Santos), Jose Manuel Abundis (Toluca), Eustacio Rizo (UAG), Omar Avilan (Atlas).
El Salvador will play its only game before heading to Oxnard, calif. for a month.
New coach Milovan Djoric has named 16 of the 21 players he’ll take. Among the three goalies he’s called up is Melvin Barrera, the goalie for First Division leader Aguila who grew up un Washington. D.C.
The all-star team that El Salvador will face is being coached by Alianza coach Juan Masnik, the former Uruguayan World Cup player who played for the New York Cosmos with Pele in 1975.
El Salvador is tentatively scheduled to play two matches during its long stay in the United States: March 8 against MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy in Los Angeles and March 22 against Bolivia in Washington, D.C.
El Salvador Roster
Goalkeepers — Raul Garcia, Misael Alfaro, Melvin Barrera. Defenders — Vladan Vicevic, Eduardo Moncecchi, Leonel Carcamo, Wilfredo Iraheta, Luis Oscar Lazo. Midfielders — Alexander Amaya, Jorge Rodriguez, Guillermo Rivera, Guillermo Garcia, Mauricio Cienfuegos. Strikers —
Raul Diaz Arce, Ronald Cerritos, William Renderos.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica’s new coach, Horacio Cordero, has called up 20 players, all based in the Costa Rican First Division, for the game Feb. 5 against Slovakia.
He’s added defender Harold Wallace, midfielder Joaquin Guillen and strikers Gerald Drummond and Kervin Lacey in the hope of improving team speed.
None of his foreign-based players were brought in.
Hernan Medford (Pachuca), Roy Myers (Pachuca) and Jafet Soto (Morelia) are in Mexico. Rolando Fonseca (Independiente Medellin) plays in Colombia. Ronald Gomez is with Spanish club Sporting Gijon. Paulo Cesar Wanchope and Mauricio Solis are training with English First Division club QPR.
Costa Rica Roster
Goalkeepers — Erick Lonnis, Hermidio Barrantes. Defenders —
Javier Delgado, Harold Wallace, Mauricio Wright, Luis Marin, Ronald Gonzalez, Austin Berry, Alexander Madrigal. Midfielders — Benjamin Mayorga, Joaquin Guillen, Luis Diego Arnaez, Johnny Murillo, Ronald Chaves, Wilmer Lopez, Oscar Ramirez. Strikers — Gerald Drummond, Kervin Lacey, Norman Gomez, Allan Oviedo.