Mexican captain Rafael Marquez: That wasn’t a foul; Robben dives a lot
By Josh Sanchez
Following Mexico’s heart-breaking loss to the Netherlands in the Round of 16 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a number of the El Tri players and coaches were speaking out about the controversial foul that Dutch star Arjen Robben drew inside of the box in stoppage time to set up the game-winning penalty kick.
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El Tri manager Miguel “Piojo” Herrera blasted the refs and even went as far as to say that he hopes FIFA sends the ref who made the controversial call at the end of the game home from the World Cup, and now Mexico captain Rafael Marquez shared his thoughts about the penalty that resulted in him being shown a yellow card.
According to ESPN Deportes, Marquez was asked what Robben had to say about the final penalty and the four-time World Cup captain for the Mexican side shared his thoughts.
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“That wasn’t a penalty, but the one before, yes, it was,” Marquez said. “In my consideration, that was not a penalty. No, I don’t believe.”
Rafa Marquez then expanded on the comments, saying that Robben is well-known for diving and allowing himself to go down at the first sign of contact.
“There was a moment when I hit the ground, but I didn’t touch him,” Marquez added. “If you know Robben that well, out of the ten fouls that he drew, five of them he let himself go down.”
It was a rough loss for Mexico to swallow, but they put on a strong performance and were one of the most impressive and exciting teams in the tournament.
As is the case with any loss, they will learn from their mistakes and continue to grow as the Golden Generation of El Tri looks to regroup and come back stronger in 2018.
Unfortunately for Marquez, the poor call and yellow card will likely serve as his farewell to the World Cup stage.
Be sure to stay tuned to FanSided.com throughout the next few weeks for the latest news and results from the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.