When Marcel Ruiz slumped into the grass of San Diego FC’s Snapdragon stadium late in the first half of Toluca’s Concacaf Champions Cup game last Wednesday, he seemed to already know. He covered his mouth with his left hand and clutched his right knee – first the back of it, then the front – with his other hand. He turned his head every which way, perhaps hoping that he might scan something or someone who would tell him that this was not in fact happening. That his World Cup on home soil was not already over three months before it was to even start. That Mexico’s injury crisis had not just deepened further.
Ruiz is only 17 matches into his international career for El Tri, yet the central midfielder has firmly established himself as an important cog in Mexico’s setup with his clean passing and defensive cover. More pertinently, the 25-year-old was part of a young core finally asserting itself on a team that long felt caught between generations and suffered through a lackluster autumn, winning none of their six friendlies against World Cup-bound teams.
