Canada’s head coach Jesse Marsch has criticised the North American team’s treatment at the Copa America, claiming that his squad was treated like second-class citizens.
Debutants Canada have got 14 yellow cards throughout the competition, including one for Marsch during their 2-0 loss to Argentina in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
“The yellow card per foul rate is way higher for every CONCACAF team,” Marsch told reporters in North Carolina on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s third-place play-off match against Uruguay.
Several Uruguay players clashed with opposition fans after their 1-0 loss to Colombia in the semis. Uruguay says Colombians had assaulted players’ family members in the stands.
Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa was outraged after South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL, who organised the Copa, opened an investigation into Uruguay and accused it of failing to protect the families.
“Certainly we wouldn’t want any player’s families to be put in harm’s way. But I know if our team responded like this, there would be heavy sanctions,” Marsch said about the incident.
“We’ve had our players head-butted, we’ve had racial slurs thrown at our players live and through social media… We’ve been treated like second-class citizens.”
Marsch complimented his players for maintaining their focus throughout the tournament.
“They’ve never berated referees, never rolled around on the ground like children looking for calls and yellows from referees,” Marsch said.
“We’re going to go out again in another tough match against a really good opponent and know that there’s going to be many things going against us.”
