MEXICO.- Guillermo Ochoa look at World Cup 2026 with the same enthusiasm with which he first wore the Mexico in the top soccer tournament at just 20 years old.
Today he is a 40-year-old veteran goalkeeper with 153 appearances for the national team. 2026 will be his sixth World Cup, a record that he will share with the stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mexico debuts on Thursday against South Africa in it Aztec Stadium. This is the third time it has organized a World Cup, this time with USA and Canada.
“Excited like the first time,” Ochoa told the press. “Working to be on the court on the 11th, if the coach decides.”
Ochoa is the captain of Tri and received the flag from the Mexican president on Monday, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Although it is not clear if he will be the titular guardian of the Mexican goal. The selector Javier Aguirre He employed his three archers –Raul Rangel, Carlos Acevedo and Ochoa- in the last three preparation games.
Ochoa says he is ready for any scenario.
“If at some point I have to be there for 90 minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, one minute, whatever, and if not, too,” he indicated. “The important thing here is that Mexico does well.”
“Age diminishes”
“If I were coach of the national team, I wouldn’t take the risk and put Memo in,” the former goalkeeper told AFP. Adrian ChavezOchoa’s trainer before his debut in the first division in 2004. “I was playing it safe with a goalkeeper who has proven to be one of the best in the world.”
In contrast, Ricardo La Volpethe coach who made Ochoa debut in the Mexican team in 2005 and took him to his first World Cup in Germany 2006assured “without any doubt” that the starting goalkeeper against South Africa will be Rangel.
He stressed that Ochoa is a “striker and a flyer,” but considered that he fails in managing the area, in bailing out and in going out to cut off the centers.
“Age diminishes,” he estimated, even for a disciplined goalkeeper like Ochoa. “I doubt he has the power, speed, reflexes and reaction to continue reaching the angle.”
Ochoa did not see action in Germany 2006 or South Africa 2010. He remained on the substitute bench.
His debut came in Brazil 2014key in a historic 0-0 against the host in the first round in which he defended the goal like a warrior.
“In the header of Neymar “He has an incredible reaction and takes the ball over the line,” he said. Bruno Montañowho was 3 years old when that match was played. He is part of a goalkeeping school in Mexico City led by Chávez and in which Ochoa is revered.
“His attacks are brutal,” he said. Daniel Santiago12 years old. Leonardo Lopez18, repeats videos of flights at Ochoa’s angle to try to “make them the same.”
Successor
In Qatar 2022“Memo” began to receive criticism for supposedly monopolizing the Tri goal to the detriment of the young Mexican goalkeepers.
But Chávez jumps to his defense.
“In Mexico the position has stopped being worked on,” he said. “You can count on the fingers of one hand” the goalkeepers who can make it to the Mexican team.
“In my time – the 80s and 90s – there were 10 Mexican goalkeepers who could make it to the national team,” said the World Cup winner in United States 1994.
In the last Mexican Clausura tournament in 2026, for example, a third of the 18 clubs started a foreign goalkeeper.
Chávez hopes to find a worthy successor to Ochoa at the school. “Hopefully we can see them in the first division. It’s what we want.”
