Mexico

Mexico may be the weakest of the top seeds but they have appeared at the competition an impressive twelve times and are wily opponents. However, outside Central America, the team has often failed to impress having never made it to the quarter-finals of the world's biggest sporting event but coach Ricardo Lavolpe is hoping that it will be thirteenth time lucky in Germany.

As usual qualification was no problem. Ten goals from Jose Fonseca helped and Bolton's Jared Borghetti wasn't shy in front of goal. 'The Desert Fox' scored fourteen times on the road to Germany, more than any other player in the world and during Mexico's impressive Confederations Cup showing, demonstrated that he will pose a threat to any defence next summer.

Coach: Ricardo Lavolpe (ARG)
FIFA Ranking: 7

Mexico Matches

Match #	Date & Time	Group	Teams		Result	Venue
7	Sun 11th Jun 18:00	D	MEX	IRN	3 - 1	Nuremberg
23	Fri 16th Jun 21:00	D	MEX	ANG	0 - 0	Hanover
39	Wed 21st Jun 16:00	D	POR	MEX	2 - 1	Gelsenkirchen
50	Sat 24th Jun 21:00	R2	ARG	MEX	2 - 1 aet	Leipzig

Match times shown are local times for Germany (CEST/GMT+0200). Click on match date/time to view match statistics.

Past World Cup performance

First Round: 1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1978
Second Round: 1994, 1998, 2002
Quarter Finals: 1970, 1986

Key Players

Rafael Marquez
Oswaldo Sanchez
Carlos Salcido
Francisco Fonseca

World Cup 2006 Qualification

Finished second, behind arch-rivals USA, in the CONCACAF Stage 3 Qualifying Group.

Squad

						Total		World Cup 2006
#	Posn	Name	DOB	Club		Caps	Goals	Pld	Goals	OG	YC	RC
1	GK	Sanchez Oswaldo	21-09-1973	Guadalajara	MEX	75	0	4	0	0	0	0
2	DF	Suarez Claudio	17-12-1968	Chivas	USA	178	6	0	0	0	0	0
3	DF	Salcido Carlos	02-04-1980	Guadalajara	MEX	37	2	4	0	0	1	0
4	DF	Marquez Rafael	13-02-1979	Barcelona	ESP	70	8	4	1	0	2	0
5	DF	Osorio Ricardo	30-03-1980	Cruz Azul	MEX	44	1	4	0	0	0	0
6	MF	Torrado Gerardo	30-04-1979	Cruz Azul	MEX	60	2	3	0	0	2	0
7	MF	Zinha Antonio Naelson	23-05-1976	Toluca	MEX	37	6	4	1	0	1	0
8	MF	Pardo Pavel	26-07-1976	America	MEX	130	5	4	0	0	0	0
9	FW	Borgetti Jared	14-08-1973	Bolton Wanderers	ENG	78	38	2	0	0	0	0
10	FW	Franco Guillermo	03-11-1976	Villarreal	ESP	11	2	3	0	0	0	0
11	FW	Morales Ramon	10-10-1975	Guadalajara	MEX	48	5	2	0	0	0	0
12	GK	Corona Jose	26-01-1981	Tecos UAG	MEX	6	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	GK	Ochoa Guillermo	13-07-1985	America	MEX	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	DF	Pineda Gonzalo	19-10-1982	Guadalajara	MEX	35	1	4	0	0	1	0
15	DF	Castro Jose Antonio	11-08-1980	America	MEX	14	0	2	0	0	1	0
16	DF	Mendez Mario	01-06-1979	Monterrey	MEX	37	0	4	0	0	0	0
17	FW	Fonseca Jose	02-10-1979	Cruz Azul	MEX	34	20	4	1	0	1	0
18	DF	Guardado Andres	28-09-1986	Atlas	MEX	8	0	1	0	0	0	0
19	FW	Bravo Omar	04-03-1980	Guadalajara	MEX	37	11	3	2	0	0	0
20	MF	Garcia Rafael	14-08-1974	Atlas	MEX	52	3	0	0	0	0	0
21	FW	Arellano Jesus	08-05-1973	Monterrey	MEX	70	7	1	0	0	0	0
22	DF	Rodriguez Francisco	20-10-1981	Guadalajara	MEX	33	1	1	0	0	1	0
23	MF	Perez Luis	12-01-1981	Monterrey	MEX	55	8	2	0	0	1	1