Mckenzie missed a pass in the opening moments of the USMNT’s eventual 3-2 win, giving Mexico the lead in just the second minute.
McKenzie has been subjected to a racial abuse
U.S. men’s national squad defender Mark Mckenzie has reported that he has been subjected to racial abuse since CONCACAF Nations League final. Mckenzie missed a pass in the opening moments of the USMNT’s eventual 3-2 win, giving Mexico the lead in just the second minute. And, in the wake of that mistake, he became the target of racial abuse on social media, despite the USMNT’s trophy-winning triumph. “The number of racial abuse and personal attacks on my family and me from ‘fans’ and ‘non-supporters’ just ain’t it,” McKenzie wrote on his Instagram post. However, USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter was quick to condemn the “disgusting” abuse sent to the defender, adding that the whole team is united in the fight against racism, as they always have been.
According to Berhalter things like that is disgusting and it has no place in sport
“It’s disgusting, things like that, and it has no place in sport,” said Berhalter. “In our business, professional sports, you take a lot of criticism about performance and about guys having an off game and saying you’re not a good player or something like that, and bringing something like a race into it is disgusting and out of bounds and has no place. I’ve been following the players in England, and now it hits closer to home, and we support Mark 100 per cent, and we do not stand for any of that stuff. We’ve seen zero tolerance for such things. I wish there were a way to make these people more accountable. To me, people get on Twitter and get on Instagram, and they get bold.”
“They do things that they usually wouldn’t do in life, and I wish there were a way to hold them more accountable because there is no place for that.” Nevertheless, Berhalter maintained Mckenzie’s performance on the pitch, crediting the defender’s ability to bounce back from an early mistake. “I was also a defender, and I know when you make a mistake that leads to a goal, there is a feeling, and sometimes you want to hide, and you have to keep walking. He did that, and it was not always beautiful, but, in the meantime, he made some huge plays in that game, stepped in front of the guys, was isolated one-v-one against top tier strikers and held his own.”