VELA STAYS AT HOME

Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio named his squad last week with two players being notably absent. The leaving out of Carlos Vela and Dos Santos received large scale condemnation but the coach insists that their absence will not hurt the team deep at the continental championship being held in United States this summer.

Fans of El Tri and the demanding media that speaks for them are largely placated by the 23 players called for this summer's tournament in the United States. Part of the reason there's not much anger is the current depth of the player pool.

The European crew of Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, Miguel Layun, Hector Herrera and Jesus "Tecatito" Corona are on the list. Hector Moreno, Andres Guardado and Raul Jimenez enter the summer after winning championships with their European sides. Young players like Hirving Lozano and Jurgen Damm are in the squad. All in all it leaves Mexico with a great chance to progress far in the Cup, so it's no wonder that the latest StanJames betting odds make Mexico one of the favourites.

The most notable absences are LA Galaxy attacker Giovani dos Santos, his brother, Villarreal midfielder Jonathan dos Santos, and Real Sociedad forward Carlos Vela.

Osorio in a Tuesday's news conference announced that the Galaxy's Dos Santos wasn't in the list of players because of his own choice. "Giovani himself declined the invitation," Osorio said. "Ethically, what was spoken about with him stays between us."

Osorio also discussed with Carlos Vela, another omission from the squad, before the fall's World Cup qualifiers and ended up convincing the Real Sociedad forward to play. It's unclear whether it was Osorio's decision not to bring Vela in or one that would be justifiable after a poor campaign in Spain. There are also questions if the player once again decided he won't wear his nation's colors.

Osorio added "At the end, the decision on Carlos was discussed and orderly. We agreed with him that he's not in his best form."