Attack mode

Attacking options are limited as Mexico enters the Hexagonal. Here's how Cancha breaks down the top forward options Mexico has at this moment.

Matias Vuoso: Scored one goal in qualifying, against Canada, but has scored just five goals in league play since July.

Carlos Vela: Has had little activity with Arsenal; with the national started to put himself out given what happened in the last round when he scored just once.

Giovani Dos Santos: Just came back with Tottenham a week ago after months of inactivity due to injury; has not scored with El Tri in qualifying.

Carlos Ochoa: Has not scored a goal un the Eriksson era, although he was the most productive forward in InterLiga and has become Chivas' top goal scorer.

Nery Castillo: His inactivity with Manchester City left him out of several national team camps but has returned to Shaktar Donetsk and is having a promising preseason.

Omar Bravo: Has not had much consistency since he migrated to Spain and Deportivo La Coruna and since August has scored just three goals.

Guille Franco: Has been excluded since Eriksson's very first call-ups, reason being his little activity with Villarreal.

And here's an interesting story from El Universal about the lack of a true "Number 9" player. The headline says a lot: "Don't look for him... there is no No. 9."

The writer argues that the long string of capable and productive forwards that Mexico has boasted over the last several decades has been snapped.

Here's a brief (translated) excerpt:

With Jared Borgetti's apparent farewell from the national team, a string of center forwards on the national team with international hierarchy has been snapped. Sven-Goran Eriksson has a giant hole to fill and few options to fill it with.

The list is no small thing: Hugo Sanchez, Luis Garcia, Luis Hernandez and Jared, the team's all-time leading scorer with 46 valuable goals. Who's next? Carlos Vela? He has done nothing yet.

All represented Mexico in at least two World Cups: Hugo Sanchez (1978, 1986 and 1994), Carlos Hermosillo (1986, 1994), Luis Garcia (1994, 1998) and Luis Hernandez (1998, 2002). El Matador is the all-time leading scorer for Mexico in World Cups with four in France.

The author goes through some of the options that have at one point or another been pegged to continue the trend, such as Miguel Sabah and Carlos Ochoa, Omar Bravo, Juan Carlos Cacho and Luis Angel Landin, but none of them have ever lived up to expectations or taken the role and made it their own.

Matias Vuoso, he claims, is the closest thing Eriksson has had to fill the role, but that he wasn't born in Mexico. But he says that Vuoso isn't an internationally capable striker.