Fresh off scoring his team-leading 13th goal of the season in Saturday night's 2-1 FC Dallas win against the Los Angeles Galaxy, forward Carlos Ruiz will join the Guatemalan national team for a friendly against Honduras on Tuesday night in Atlanta.
This trip will mark the fourth time this year that Ruiz has been called up by his country's national team. Ruiz also played for Guatemala in international friendlies against Panama in Guatemala City on Sept. 6, against Haiti in Miami on Aug. 16, and against the United States at Pizza Hut Park on Feb. 19.
"I talked [last week] with the coach of my national team and he wants me to play against Honduras in Atlanta," Ruiz said. "It's not going to be a problem with my team. We have played two games with our new coach and haven't won yet. We need to win this next one."
Tuesday's match was going to feature Ruiz squaring off against a Honduras team featuring another member of FCD, left-sided midfielder Ramon Nunez. But the Dallas native returned home after not seeing any action for Honduras in last Saturday's opening match between the countries in Miami.
"It was definitely a good experience," Nunez said. "I thought I would at least get some playing time on Saturday. I knew I wouldn't start. I wanted to get back in there and get a full week (of training) in and boost my chances of getting a starting spot back."
Still, Nunez said of his first career call into the Honduras national team: "It was definitely disappointing (to go to Miami and not play). Leaving the team here and not getting to play there was disappointing."
With the Hoops already clinching home field advantage throughout the playoffs and with a meaningless regular season finale on Saturday against the Galaxy at The Home Depot Center, Ruiz is looking forward to playing for his country yet again.
"There are a lot of people from my country who live in California, Texas, Miami and Atlanta," he said. "This is why we are playing there. When we play in New York, we don't have too many people. We are playing against a good national team in Honduras."
FCD head coach Colin Clarke thinks that Ruiz playing in the midweek affair can only help the veteran striker.
"He will be leaving us after the weekend," Clarke said last week. "The game is on Tuesday, which will give him a chance to recover. We'll look at him after he comes back. It's an important time in the season and we have to make sure we have all of our best players fit and available."
However, Clarke is pleased to see his other charge return to the FCD fold.
"It's an important time of the year and we're going to need everybody," he said. "We need Ramon back to where he was last year. He's one of the few players we have got here who can do something special on the ball and change the game in an instant. That's what we're going to need as we go forward in the playoffs."
By not playing for Honduras, Nunez still has the chance to play for the U.S. national team. Nunez, who has lived in the USA for the last 15 years, offered a succinct reaction: "Options are still open," he said. "I still haven't played a game (for Honduras) yet."
Clarke thinks that Nunez will use the disappointment from the experience to become a better professional.
"Not everyone is going to play," he said. "There are going to be those disappointments. It's how you come back from them. So far, he's been disappointed and has every right to be. I think he's going to come out of it the right way. I think he's going to be a better player and person for it. It's going to help him. We're still going to need Ramon Nunez this year, next year and into the future. He's a big part of our squad, our team and what we're doing here."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
