The 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup is serious business for both Mexico and Canada, and that passion was on full display on Wednesday, including the sideline.
The television broadcast in Denver picked up Mexico manager Gerardo "Tata" Martino and Canada head coach John Herdman briefly yelling at each other in the 31st minute in the teams' Group A game, which Mexico won 3-1.
After the game, both coaches were asked about the spat and somewhat surprisingly, they each offered a lighthearted response and an explanation of a language barrier at play.
"He's a great coach and I don't speak Spanish, I think he was asking us how my new role was going," Herdman, a native of England, quipped during his postgame press conference. "So I said 'Yeah, it's going well.' And I asked him if he's enjoying his job and that was it. We got on with the game. He won and I lost."
Martino was more circumspect, but had a similar response.
"He made a joke. I just answered the joke," the Argentine said in his postgame press conference in Spanish. When asked what the joke was, Martino responded, "I didn't understand it well because it was in English."
