West Ham United midfielder Edson Álvarez completed the full 90 minutes of Mexico’s disappointing 4-0 friendly defeat at the hands of Uruguay in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The 26-year-old captained his country in their penultimate warm-up clash ahead of the Copa América, that begins later this month, as a hat-trick from Liverpool forward Darwin Núñez and a Facundo Pellistri strike settled the scoreline in Denver, Colorado.
Speaking after the full-time whistle, Álvarez said: “Against these kinds of teams you can’t make mistakes, and we made them. This is level we’re going to face at the Copa América, and we need to get up to that level.
“You can grow from these kinds of games though, and we have to learn going forward. We have a process, and we have to trust it.”
The Hammers’ No19 will hope he and his teammates can bounce back in their next match against Brazil on Sunday (9 June, 1.30am BST), when he could line up opposite Club teammate Lucas Paquetá.
Currently one of 31 members of Mexico’s provisional squad for the Copa América, Álvarez will find out if he has made head coach Jaime Lozano’s final list of up to 26 players before the submission deadline on Wednesday 12 June.
At the tournament, that is being held in the United States, El Tri are set to play Jamaica (Sunday 23 June, 2am BST), Venezuela (Thursday 27 June, 2am BST) and Ecuador (Monday 1 July, 1am BST) in Group B.
