GOLD CUP
Guillermo Ochoa is on the way to becoming a Mexican record holder in the Gold Cup
On Sunday he will play his 25th game for Mexico in the Gold Cup, breaking the appearance record.
Guillermo Ochoa is one step away from making history with the Mexican National Team in the Gold Cup, as he is just a single game away from breaking the tournament appearance record with his team in the tournament. Mexico advanceed to the final of the Gold Cup with an easy 3-0 win over Jamaica in the semi-final stage.
Were he to play in the final on Sunday, he would have racked up 25 games with El Tri, beating the record of 24 Gold Cup games held by Andrés Guardado.
Without a doubt, after 16 years at the top level, Ochoa’s first game in the Gold Cup lives on in the memory of the fans. Under Hugo Sánchez in 2007, Memo featured in the starting XI of the side in a 2-1 win over Cuba, but it turned out to be his only game of the tournament.
What is Guillermo Ochoa’s Gold Cup record?
After that, in 2009, Ochoa played 6 games under Javier Aguirre, winning 5 and drawing one. Two years later he played under José Manuel de la Torre and only played one game, against El Salvador. The 2013 Gold Cup was when he missed out, but the Mexican was back between the sticks by 2015, where he added another 6 games to his tally under Miguel Herrera, winning four and drawing two.
Somewhat strangely, he didn’t play in the 2017 tournament but did make a comeback for 2019, where, under Gerardo Martino, he played five games. In 2021, as he was taking part in the Olympics, Ochoa did not receive a call up for the Gold Cup, but this year he has shone, featuring in five games so far, against Haiti, Honduras, Qatar, Costa Rica and soon Panama, in the final. With these games, he currently stands on 24 games, with 19 wins, 4 draws and just one defeat.
How many games has Ochoa played for Mexico?
Also, should his side win against Panama, Ochoa would end up with the most titles in Gold Cup history, with 5. His side have won in 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2019, meaning that an extra one would put him top of the pile of all-time winners of the Concacaf trophy.
A final appearance in the Gold Cup would, as well as all the aforementioned accolades, see Ochoa have the chance to reach 62 clean sheets, after having achieved number 61 in the 3-0 win over Jamaica. He is currently the 7th goalkeeper in FIFA history to reach such a number and is the 6th highest Mexican in terms of appearances, with 142, just two behind Gerardo Torrado, four away from Pavel Pardo and six from Rafael Márquez.
