Canada head coach Jesse Marsch alleged Friday that Vancouver Whitecaps players were “poisoned” during their trip to Mexico for the Concacaf Champions Cup final, despite the MLS club saying they believe that players only fell ill following the game.
Last week, the Whitecaps were stunned in a 5-0 thrashing by Cruz Azul in this year’s final of the Champions Cup held in Mexico City. Vancouver released a statement on Thursday saying after “the team’s return from Mexico, a significant number of Whitecaps FC players and staff reported gastrointestinal symptoms.”
It is the second year in a row that an MLS team reported players falling ill while in Mexico for a Champions Cup final, after several Columbus Crew players went into their final loss to Pachuca with multiple members of the squad suffering from gastrointestinal issues.
And Marsch said the two incidents were no coincidence as he voiced frustration that three members of his Canada squad from the Whitecaps were hampered ahead of their Canadian Shield match with Ukraine on Saturday.
“They’re better now,” Marsch told Canadian media of Ali Ahmed, Sam Adekugbe, and Jayden Nelson. “They’re probably not ready for 90-minute performances. But for me, it’s appalling that this is the second year in a row that Concacaf and the powers that be have allowed an MLS team to go down to Mexico for a big final and get poisoned.”
“It’s ridiculous. Something has to be done to protect these environments.”
Concacaf had no comment when approached by ESPN, while Cruz Azul did not respond to an approach for comment.
No formal complaint or request for an investigation into the matter has been filed by Vancouver, a source said.
Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sorensen said Friday that he doesn’t think his team were intentionally sickened.
“I don’t expect us to be deliberately poisoned or anything when we were down there. But I don’t know,” he told reporters.
At the final, clubs are responsible for all logistics, including where they stay and eat. Before the Whitecaps arrived, the team had a dietitian sent to Mexico and an experienced chef also made the trip with the team, according to a source.
Vancouver sporting director Axel Schuster told ESPN Friday that the team’s analysis of what happened is ongoing, but early indications are that whatever happened to the team’s players and staff took place after Sunday’s match while traveling back to Canada.
“We are working on the symptoms and make sure that everyone gets healthy as soon as possible,” he said. “At the same time we’re working through the analysis of what really happened and where the origin was or the different origins have been. And so far our analysis leads to the assumption that it happened after the game, somewhere on the way back.”
Schuster indicated that the team was in “complete control” of the food that the team ate prior to the match. Schuster also noted that around 50% of the traveling party that returned on the team flight fell ill, but of those who didn’t come back on the team flight, only about one in 12 reported symptoms.
“There is obviously something to it, and I was there with the team all the time and I have eaten every food and I have participated in every team lunch, dinner. I have eaten everything,” Schuster said. “I have eaten way too much. The food was very good, and I haven’t eaten anything after the match. And yes, maybe the same for our head scout, the same for Steve Nash who was there, our owner with his son and some other people and all of those had no symptoms.
“So just by the logic of it, it feels like it was more related to something that happened after the game.”
Schuster added that what befell his side this year is very different to what occurred last year in last year’s Champions Cup final involving the Columbus Crew.
“The one thing I can say is the difference between Columbus last year and us this year is that Columbus was going into the game and they had already massive issues with it, and they felt already, ‘OK, something is happening to our team,'” Schuster said. “That wasn’t the case for us.”
Marsch acknowledged that he didn’t have any evidence that Whitecaps players were poisoned.
“Look I don’t have any proof here that this [happened] but it’s not random,” he added. “It’s not random that two years in a row this has happened. If I were the Vancouver Whitecaps, if I were the Columbus Crew, if I were MLS, I would be absolutely angry that this has been allowed to happen.”
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