Earthquakes’ Marcos Lopez on Peru roster for 2021 Copa América

Marcos Lopez is coming off playing in Peru’s recent World Cup qualifiers, but the San Jose Earthquakes defender’s stint with his national team does not look to be done yet.

Lopez was also on the final roster of Peru’s 2021 Copa América roster, and so the left back will spend some more time away from his club team.

Peru are scheduled to face new Copa América hosts Brazil on Thursday, then Colombia on June 20, Ecuador on June 23 and Venezuela on June 27 in the group stage. If they progress, the tournament is scheduled to last until July 10.

There are a few changes to the Copa América this time around. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are no guest teams this time, so there’s just the 10 members of CONMEBOL, and they’re doing two groups of five teams each.

In addition, there remains some uncertainty if the tournament will actually get off the ground. This Copa América was originally supposed to be hosted by both Colombia and Argentina, but CONMEBOL pulled out of Colombia because protests were shutting the country down, and in Argentina, the tournament was moved out because the pandemic continues to disrupt everyday life. However, the choice to take it to Brazil, which has civil unrest and pandemic issues arguably as bad as the other two countries, has been controversial to say the least. The Brazilian national team threatened to boycott the tournament, although they appear to have walked that back, and government officials have threatened to block games from being played in their jurisdictions. Again, it seems like it’s going to happen, but don’t be shocked if the initial games are put off. Or they just decide to scrap it after all!

So if the schedule goes off as planned, Lopez would be in line to miss three Earthquakes games due to the group stage. And if Peru make it to the knockouts, he would miss a fourth game. Considering Paul Marie has been getting plenty of run this season and Shea Salinas and Luciano Abecasis could also feature at left back, there are options in the Peruvian’s absence. Best of luck to Marcos at the Copa (if it does take place)!

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