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LAS VEGAS -- Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio is grateful to still be able to rely on Atlas defender Rafa Marquez, 20 years after the former Barcelona player first played for El Tri. Marquez made his debut as a 17-year-old on Feb. 5 1997 and the Mexican federation celebrated the anniversary with a video. "It's a source of pride [to work with Marquez] because life has rewarded me by having players at club level at the end of their careers, but I've not seen anyone at the level of Rafael at national team level," said Osorio, who mentioned having coached the likes of Paulo Wanchope, Peter Schmeichel, Steve McManaman, Claudio Reyna and Juan Pablo Angel in his career. Currently in Las Vegas for Mexico's first international friendly of 2017 against Iceland on Wednesday, Marquez will win his 138th cap if he features in the game. And there is a strong chance Marquez will start, with Osorio hinting that Mexico will play with a back line of three against Iceland, partly due to upcoming World Cup qualifying opponents Honduras and Costa Rica employing a similar system. Osorio again stressed the difficulties of picking Mexico squads with the current 10/8 rule in Liga MX -- "44 percent" of Mexico's top division is made up of foreigners, he said -- pointing out that since he took over the national team in October 2015 he has called up a total of 68 players, with some of them brought in to hand them opportunities to get minutes or try them out in different positions. The Mexico manager dismissed recent suggestions by Chivas left-back Edwin "Aris" Hernandez that he was including players based on size as if he was putting together a basketball team, pointing out that regulars like Andres Guardado and Giovani dos Santos aren't very tall. "Before I give a statement about that, I can conclude that I've never spoken about height when it comes to players being in the national team," he said. "I've spoken about aerial play and the capacity that a back four should have [in that regard]." Osorio did go on to state that Mexico would be taking on an Iceland side that is athletic, direct and good in the air and that it would be a test for El Tri's players.
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