There was a goal from Julián Álvarez and another from Lautaro Martínez. But before Argentina took the lead against Canada, there was another celebration. It wasn’t a goal but it seemed like it. Yes, it was even shouted as such. Not the entire stadium, not even all the players. There was one who did. It was Drawing Martínez. He scored one of those goals from goalkeepers, which do not add to the result but do add to the emotional content of the match. Is one of the highlights, the high points, the pearls of the debut of the national team in the United States Copa América.
It happened 43 minutes into the first half. Argentina had dominated the game, had wasted some opportunities, had controlled the actions and had not suffered in their own field. The first half of the game was dying, when Cyle Marin overflowed from the right and sent a punctured cross to the heart of the area. The marks were scattered. Eustáquio infiltrated and came with a header to connect with an ideal delivery. It was not a cross or fine shot. The Aston Villa goalkeeper became a giant. He covered it with his chest. Cuti Romero completed the clearance and Alphonso Davies finished wasting Canada’s first offensive action. Martínez celebrated the zero in his goal with a goal shout.
The goalkeeper born in Mar del Plata usually surprises with his haircut. He already wore the three stars, he already had the Argentine flag, and his wife published a comment on his social networks about his constant changes of look: he said “he always comes back with something different in his head, the next time he says ‘Mandinha sos top’” . This time, at the start of the Copa América, he innovated again: he did not appeal to any national reference, but instead used his hair to pay tribute to his children. On the back of his neck there was an “S” and an “A” in reference to Santiago, five years old, and Ava, two years old.. The youngest was born when the goalkeeper was playing in the Copa América in Brazil with the Argentine team.
Another highlight of the game was at 58 minutes. He raised almost all of the seventy thousand people who attended the Mercedes-Benz Stadium from Atlanta. The protagonist was Cuti Romero, who after that defensive action began to show himself as one of the figures of the game. He was a trademark cut from the Tottenham centre-back. First he neutralized an attack from Koné and then scratched David. He ended up keeping the ball and earning a standing ovation from the Argentine fans, and from those of his own English team. On Tottenham’s Spanish account they uploaded a photo of him with the comment: “Excuse me, does the street “lose duels”?” “No idea, teacher,” the response and a photo of the center that emerged from Belgrano.
Cuti Romero’s play went viral on social networks as well as a comparison that Julián Álvarez received, after he converted the one to zero three minutes into the complement. In the second half, the Manchester City forward He came out with a bandage on his left wrist due to an annoyance that had been going on since the dawn of the game. When the second half was just beginning and Julián had only been with his hand bandaged for a few minutes, he scored the first goal of the game after Alexis Mac Allister’s pass. In the networks they had fun comparing him with Karim Benzema and Luis Suárez, two forwards who usually play with a bandage on their hand as a cabal. And towards the end, Julián Álvarez appeared at a press conference with a pronounced scratch in the neck area.
Argentina ended up beating Canada by two to zero in the premiere of the Copa América. On Tuesday, June 25, they will play again for the second date of group A against Chile at 10 p.m. and on Saturday, June 29, they will play against Peru at nine at night to complete the first phase of the competition.
