Concacaf Champions League

The Hex kicks off on November 11 in Columbus, Ohio with the big one: the United States versus Mexico. El Tri manager Juan Carlos Osorio has announced his squad for that match and their trip to Central America to play Panama four days later.

While Osorio had the luxury of naming largely experimental squads for September’s final fourth round World Cup qualifiers against El Salvador and Honduras, as well as their October friendlies against New Zealand and Panama, the Colombian has named his strongest possible side in an attempt to end the Dos a Cero spell.

Mexico has previously stated its desire to host the 2026 World Cup, a tournament that will almost certainly be given to the CONCACAF region, but now it's getting serious.

Following CAF in 2010 (South Africa), CONMEBOL in 2014 (Brazil), UEFA in 2018 (Russia) and AFC in 2022 (Qatar), FIFA has all but promised the tournament to North America.

Throughout the tenure of Jurgen Klinsmann as the head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, American soccer fans have watched the team take steps forward, as they did by advancing out of the group of death at the 2014 World Cup, only to also watch them take steps back, as they did by losing in the semifinals of the 2015 Gold Cup. 

Mexico have selected Guillermo Ochoa, Jesus Corona and Alfredo Talavera as their goalkeepers for the 2016 Copa America, a reliable group that has amassed 135 international appearances between them. Such is the strength of the position for Mexico that the highly underrated Jonathan Orozco was unable to make the squad.

However, the most promising and talented goalkeeper for El Tri might be the one lining up across from Orozco in the Liga MX Clausura semi-finals, Hugo Gonzalez.

The 23 players who will represent the Mexico National Team at the Copa America Centenario have been announced, and there were more than a few controversies. Here's the final roster (barring injury):

Mexico National Team 23-Man Copa America Roster

Goalkeepers:

—Memo Ochoa (Malaga)

—Jose Corona (Cruz Azul)

—Alfredo Talavera (Toluca)

Defenders

—Rafa Marquez (Atlas)

—Diego Reyes (Real Sociedad)

—Hector Moreno (PSV Eindhoven)

—Paul Aguilar (Club America)

—Miguel Layun (Porto)

It's been a good stretch for Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez recently, award-wise. He was named the Bundesliga Player of the Month for November, then named the Bundesliga Player of the Week for the first week of December.

And now he has been named CONCACAF's Best Male Player for 2015, beating out Costa Rica's Bryan Ruiz and fellow Mexican Andres Guardado.

Chicharito's biggest performance in a Mexico jersey came in Mexico's 3-2 win over the United States in the Confederations Cup playoff in October, in which he scored Mexico's first goal.

Since May, the U.S. federal prosecutors have disclosed several invesigations of corruption by officials and partners related to FIFA, leading to the arrest of very important names from the confederations of CONCACAF, CAF, and CONMEBOL.

Alan Gordon has a reputation for goals falling into his lap, but this is ridiculous. 

Miskick + nutmeg = goalkeeper nightmare. LA Galaxy up 2-0 on Comunicaciones on FS2. #SCCL #MLS http://t.co/WrTz2w4iwW

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) August 19, 2015

Seriously, is the Gold Cup fixed? Miguel Herrera earlier claimed various forces were against Mexico in the tournament, but now it looks like various forces (and by "forces, we mean "referees") want Mexico to win win the Gold Cup more than they want anything in the world.

First, there was this penalty, which we'll call "dubious." 

I can see it both ways. But the Costa Rican team, and various Costa Rican politicians, were pissed.