Sanchez admits anti-veteran policy, youngsters on their own for WCQ

October 21st, 2007 | by: Kevin Zelaya | View Comments

It seems Sanchez is betting everything on his U-23 based players, not just his Olympic aspirations but also his World Cup dream as well. A story in Monterrey´s La Cancha released earlier this week revealed Sanchez´s desire to ignore older veteran players. Sanchez´s decision to focus on younger players leading up to next March´s Olympic prequalifiying is understandable, but for him to come out and say he will no longer call up veteran players for World Cup qualitying is crazy!

Veteran players like Omar Bravo, Pavel Pardo, Ricardo Osorio are at the peak of their careers and their inclusion in the national team would provide constructive competition amongst the younger players. As the younger team proved against Guatemala, its still going through some growing pains and isn´t ready to take Hugo to the promised land just yet.

Maybe I misread the story, maybe Sanchez will swallow his pride and start calling up Pardo, Osorio and others after next years Olympics? Maybe Mexico´s ugly record since last years Copa America (loss to Colombia, partial win against Panama, tie against Nigeria, loss to Guatemala) is just a fluke and not a bad omen? Maybe Sanchez actually knows what he´s doing and the youngsters will be ready by next year? I hope I´m wrong. But throwing in a extra friendly in November and a european tour next year couldn´t hurt.