FCBARCELONA.CAT

13.07.2007 17:53

Copa América all over for Márquez

Jesús Carrillo

After losing the semi final against Argentina, the Mexican captain Rafa Márquez’s participation in Copa América Venezuela 2007 has come to an end, and his manager Hugo Sánchez has said he is free to start his holidays.

That means the Barça centre back will not be appearing in the third and fourth place play off against Uruguay on Saturday (23.05 CET), and that may come as welcome news to a player that has played a tiring role in 4 of the 5 games Mexico have played.

Always in the starting line up

Of his four games for the “tricolor”, Marquez has always started. Up to the semi final stage he had helped his country to maintain the best defensive record in the tournament. In the groups, Mexico beat Brazil, 2-0, then Ecuador, 2-1 and played out a tediously dull 0-0 draw with Chile, the only game Marquez missed.

Good and bad in the knockout stage

Having made it comfortably through the groups, Mexico crossed paths with Paraguay in the last eight. The opposition were fancied as outsiders to maybe even win the tournament, but were severely put in their place by a 6-0 hiding from the Central Americans.
Argentina then put an end to Mexico’s dream of winning the trophy for the first time, although the 3-0 scoreline does not reflect how tight a match it really was. Those three goals also put paid to the excellent Mexican defensive record.