TORONTO, ON — There’s no such thing as a friendly match. It’s not just a cliché.
The fans were barely in their seats at BMO Field on Thursday night before the Canadian men’s national team were reduced to 10-men in their friendly against world No. 23 Ecuador. Canada held Ecuador to a scoreless draw in the end, but the match could have been very different with 22 players on the pitch all night.
In a desperate attempt to get a boot on the ball before Ecuador right-back Alan Franco, the Vancouver Whitecaps star had a high boot brush the chest of the Ecuadorean, who naturally fell to the pitch like Xabi Alonso after being kung-fu kicked to the chest by Nigel de Jong in the 2010 World Cup final.
Ahmed made a fraction of that contact, but enough for Mexican referee Fernando Hernandez to reach immediately for the red card in his pocket in the sixth minute of play.
“I do not think it’s a red card, especially given all the circumstances,” CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch said in his post-match press conference. “Put that on the record.”
International red cards carry an automatic two match suspension when received in competitive matches — meaning that Cristiano Ronaldo’s wild elbow in Portugal’s loss to Ireland on Thursday will see the superstar miss Portugal’s opening World Cup match. But thankfully, being a friendly, Ahmed will be slapped with a mere one-game suspension, making him ineligible to play against Venezuela on Tuesday night.
Related Read: Ali Ahmed ‘one of the most likeable and humble’ CanMNT players, says Jesse Marsch
“I said to the team that maybe it’s not our best [result], but it might be our most important,” Marsch said. “Because the intelligence and the maturity, savviness and understanding of how to handle a good opponent, how to stay concentrated in the match for over 90 minutes of being a man down when you can after the fifth minute, just throw the whole match plan out and have to adjust everything. We didn’t.”
Canada will fly south to face Venezuela in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday.
