Mexico Defender AZ Alkmaar’s Mateo Chávez’s Red Card Explained: El Tri Lost in Its Own Build-Up

Mateo Chávez spent part of the night after the final whistle re-enacting his own red card for Jorge Campos, the former Mexico goalkeeper turned TV Azteca commentator: both hands up again, the double slap on Sebastian Berhalter replayed in mime, as Récord reported. It is the image that will travel. It is also the least useful thing to know about why Mexico lost to the United States in Glendale.

The red card is the easy explanation, and the scoreline at the moment it was shown contradicts it. When the AZ Alkmaar defender walked off, Mexico were already chasing a deficit the expulsion did not create. Read the match as a system and the decisive pattern is not a lost temper. It is a build-up that kept handing the ball over in the one area of the pitch where a turnover is a shot.

Why Mateo Chávez was sent off

The sequence itself is not in dispute. Chávez, 22, who had come on in the second half, committed a hard foul. Berhalter came over to protest and, according to Fox Sports México, pushed him. Chávez answered with both hands to the American midfielder’s face. The referee showed a straight red for violent conduct in the 67th minute, and Berhalter was booked for his part. None of the outlets that covered the match questioned the decision or reported a VAR debate; the only thing controversial about it is the word in the headlines. TUDN noted it was the first red card of Rafa Márquez’s tenure.

Where the goals actually came from

By then the United States led 2-0. Julian Hall opened the scoring in the 28th minute after Gio Reyna’s cross was blocked and José Rangel, trying to control the loose ball, left it in his own box. The second, in the 62nd minute, is the one that explains the night: Rangel tried to start the build-up with a short pass, Cavan Sullivan read it, intercepted it and beat him from around 30 yards. At 17 years and five days, Sullivan became the youngest scorer in USMNT history, per U.S. Soccer.

The third goal arrived with Mexico down to ten, but not because of the extra space a missing man creates. In the 84th minute Malik Tillman intercepted a Mexican pass out of defence and finished into the top corner; El Futbolero traced the turnover to a miscommunication between Álvaro Fidalgo and Diego Campillo. Two of the three goals, then, began with a Mexican pass inside Mexico’s own half. The other began with a goalkeeper failing to secure a ball in his area. Mexico made chances of their own, and La-Lista points to misses by Santiago Giménez and Roberto Alvarado. But the United States, set up by Mauricio Pochettino in a 4-2-3-1 against Mexico’s 4-3-3, barely needed to break a block to score.

What Rafa Márquez said, and what it implies

Márquez’s own diagnosis points in the same direction, even if he framed it as individual error. “Son errores muy groseros, que casi casi le regalas el resultado al rival,” he said: very gross errors that almost gift the result to the opponent. He spread the responsibility across the team rather than loading it onto Rangel, and that is the more accurate reading. A goalkeeper who misplaces a short pass is a mistake. A side that keeps asking its first line to play out under pressure, and keeps losing the ball there, is a design question.

The red card does belong in the account, just lower down. It removed any realistic route back for the final twenty-plus minutes and turned a chase into damage control. It did not produce the deficit, and it did not produce the pattern.

The context, and what comes next

The friendly at State Farm Stadium drew 64,932, a crowd Proceso describes as mostly Mexican. Márquez, 47, took over in September and is now winless in three, after draws with Peru and Colombia. The United States have won six, lost two and drawn two against Mexico since 2021. Mexico face Chile on Tuesday.

Chávez can explain his red card to anyone with one gesture, and he already has. The harder demonstration belongs to Márquez against Chile: where Mexico’s first pass goes when the opponent steps up to meet it. In Glendale, it went to the opponent.

Tags: Mateo Chávez, Mexico national team, Rafael Márquez, red cards, USMNT