PASADENA, Calif. – Don’t discount Rafa Marquez in Saturday’s CONCACAF Cup clash at the Rose Bowl (9:30 pm ET; FS1, Univision, UDN). Sidelined in September with a groin injury, the former Red Bulls defender seemed, at one point, unlikely to return to the Mexican national team in time for this crucial match.
But addressing the media after El Tri’s training session Friday morning – in a brutal 100-degree heat – Marquez looked as confident in his prospective performance as ever. In fact, despite the unrelenting heat, he didn’t even seem to sweat.
“No player I know likes to be injured and miss out on such an important game,” he said. “But tomorrow I have the huge opportunity to play in this game, and I hope to enjoy one of the best games ever.”
But how will Marquez – and other El Tri stars on the roster, like Chicharito and Carlos Vela – fit into interim head coach Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti’s game plans? Despite social media rumors, everyone will have to wait until game time to find out.
One reporter asked if Ferretti would reveal his starting lineup or formation.
“The answer to [that question] is no,” the coach said.
“I knew you would say that!” the reporter responded.
“So if you knew that,” the famously wry Ferretti retorted, laughing, “why did you ask me?”
Wherever Marquez fits onto Ferretti’s field, though, if he has any say in the matter, this won’t cap his national team career. Along with the USMNT’s DaMarcus Beasley, Marquez is one of only two men among both country’s squads who also figured in the infamous 2002 World Cup match between the historic rivals (Check out MLSsoccer.com’s full oral history of that game here).
That was 13 years ago – and he’s racked up three caps in the Gold Cup, three in the Copa America, and three in the World Cup in the interim – yet he said he still looks forward to a possible future with the team.
“I live in the present, he said. “During the World Cup in South Africa I said I would retire! I’m conscious that after a while my quality of play will lessen, and that’s life. But while I can, I need to enjoy that I can [still play].”
Unlike Marquez, Ferretti expressed little such interest in sticking around the program.
“They already asked me to stay before,” he said, of an offer to remain past his interim coaching gig. “Me, I’m going back to Tigres!”
To read all of MLSsoccer.com’s coverage of the CONCACAF Cup, visitour CONCACAF Cup page.
