I personally had a little moment when Carlos Ruiz played his final international match – and I wasn’t alone.
Perhaps we still had to put up with “The Little Fish’s” diving, gamesmanship and general histrionics in league play a little longer, but wasn’t it the best thing this side of free ice cream that we no longer had to put up with it in Gold Cup matches, in regional friendlies and in World Cup qualifiers?
Never forget, this is man capable of being so frustrating that a respected pro and U.S. World Cup veteran like Ricardo Clark once hauled off and went full-fledged MMA on the man.
Ruiz announced his retirement from international play last October; his last match was at Sporting Park outside Kansas City as Guatemala tumbled officially out of semifinal round qualifying for World Cup 2014.
Only, it didn’t take. Apparently.
D.C. United today announced that Guatemala has summoned Ruiz for the national team’s high-profile friendly this Friday against Argentina in Guatemala.