Mexico: Oribe Peralta, a Better Choice Than Carlos Vela and Nery Castillo?

Coach José Manuel de la Torre announced today the squad list for Mexico’s match against United States of next Wednesday in Philadelphia, which included 20 players, 11 from the local league and nine foreign-based.

Most names are the usual, with three exceptions: winger Javier Aquino and strikers Oribe Peralta and Omar Arellano.

Let’s leave Aquino’s case for another discussion, as he probably won’t even play a single minute.

But either Peralta or Arellano will be Mexico’s starting “9” against its classic rival.

This was the most problematic spot for De la Torre in this list: Chicharito Hernández and Aldo de Nigris are sidelined with injuries, so El Chepo had to go with his third choice.

I’m assuming Peralta will be the starter against USA, as Arellano is still a youngster who got his first calling in two years, while Oribe was part of the horrible Mexican squad that played in the Copa América.

And here we start the debate: Is Peralta the third best striker in Mexico?

I can understand why De la Torre picked Peralta over Mexican-based players: Rafael Márquez was awful in the Copa América, Miguel Sabah is already a veteran with little hopes of playing in Brazil 2014 and there are not many other starting strikers in the local league, full of foreigners in that spot.

But there were two options in Europe: Carlos Vela and Nery Castillo.

Both players are best suited to be left wingers, but they can play as strikers; they are definitely more talented than Peralta.

Of course, there is also the little detail that both of them haven’t had consistent playing time in the past years.

However, Vela seems to have Arsene Wenger’s support and one more opportunity with Arsenal, while Castillo finally freed himself from Shakhtar Donetsk and started playing regularly with Aris Salonika.

Nery is apparently not in good physical shape, so I can understand why he wasn’t considered yet.

But considering Chicharito and De Nigris are out, Carlos’ absence really puzzles me.

It could be that El Chepo wants to pressure Vela to consolidate himself in Arsenal’s rotation before bringing him back to El Tri.

However, if that leaves you with Peralta as starting striker in your fiercest rivalry, I’m not sure I can agree with it.

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