The Argentine triumph in the opening match of the Copa América He left something to cut, but not strictly in terms of football. On the winning side, although there were complaints about the state of the playing field, their sights are already set on the next match. While on the losing side, The coach of Canada surprised with a request for a fine against the world champions.
But first, Argentina. The team trained this Friday in Atlanta and then left for New Jersey, where they will face Chile on Tuesday from 10 p.m.. The practice consisted, as usually happens after games, of regenerative work for those who had action while the rest divided their time between the gym and ball work.
The preview of the second date will add a logistical issue after what happened in Atlanta. The thing is The terrible state of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium playing field gave rise to talk among the protagonists. “Thank goodness we won but if we had lost, I would say the same thing: seven months ago we knew we were going to play here and two days ago they changed the grass,” Lionel Scaloni attacked in the post-match conference.
“The stadium is beautiful, but the grass is not up to par for this type of player. We beat the rival and the field,” the coach noted. Dibu Martínez, who said that “the field was a disaster” and “looked like a trampoline”, and Julián Álvarez, for whom the field “was not in the best conditions”, spoke along the same lines.
So things are, We will have to see how the MetLife Stadium grass is, the scene of the match with Chile (the trans-Andean cast was playing with Peru at the close of this edition). This stadium, with capacity for 82 thousand spectators, is used throughout the year for football -the New York Jets and the New York Giants play there- and diverse shows.
Meanwhile, It was surprising that from the Canadian side coach Jesse Marsch demanded a fine for the winning team. The argument is that Scaloni and his team took a long time to return to the field after halftime because they were analyzing the Canadian strategy. Self-praise disguised as a complaint? Maybe.
“When they were late, I knew they were watching the video and analyzing how they wanted to play against us. I wish the referees could manage that. If we arrived five minutes late, we would have a fine. There would be a big problem,” Marsch stuck out his chest after going to the locker room 0-0.
“How long did they take? 20 minutes? 30? They had time to prepare how they would play against us in the second half. Beyond that, I made sure my players knew that they were going to come up with a new plan. Argentina should be fined. OK? Did they write it? “Fined,” the American kicked. which leads to Canada.
Finally, the coach who replaced Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United – he was later relegated – referred to one of the controversies of the match: Lisandro Martínez’s foul on a Canadian almost inside the area, which referee Jesús Valenzuela did not even sanction. “It must be said that it was a foul. Later we can define if it was inside or outside the area, but it was 100% a foul. “The reason why the referee didn’t charge it was because he was afraid it would be a penalty.”.
