I didn't have time to post this before the Copa Sudamericana match started, but most of the CONCACAF players involved in the Champions League saw action in tonight's matches.
Barcelona traveled to Germany to face Stuttgart in a match that had three Mexican players on the field at the same time (Pável Pardo and Ricardo Osorio for Stuttgart, and Rafa Márquez for Barcelona), which has to be the highest number of Mexican representation in a single Champions League match. Once again Lionel Messi was the key player for Barca, but the big news was the injury that Márquez suffered early on that forced his substitution in the 7th minute. It's not good at all - a torn calf muscle that will keep the Mexican defender out of action for up to two months. Giovani dos Santos was on the substitutes bench for Barca, but was left unused by Frank Rijkaard.
Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven also featured a meeting between two CONCACAF standouts -- Honduras' David Suazo (Inter) and Mexico's Carlos Salcido (PSV). Inter rode two Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals to win 2-0 despite playing the final 25 minutes with 10 men. Salcido started and played the entire match. Suazo entered the match for Hernán Crespo on the hour mark and proved a handful for the PSV defense. Unfortunately for Inter he was not able to keep his cool after the final whistle and got involved in a scrap with Salcido, for which he received a red card.
The best performance by a CONCACAF player on the night belonged to DaMarcus Beasley, who played the entire 90 minutes for Glasgow Rangers in their 3-0 away victory over Lyon. The USA winger was at the center of all that was good about Rangers' effort tonight, supplying the corner kick that Lee MacCulloch headed home and scoring the third goal early in the second half. He was UEFA.com's selection for man of the match.
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