Hear
SHORT HILLS, New Jersey (Special Envoy).- The Uruguayan Andrés Matonte was appointed as the main referee for Argentina’s second match in the Copa América 2024against Chile, which will be this Tuesday at 10 p.m. in our country, at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
Matonte, 36 years old and who will make his debut in this tournament, will lead the quintet of Uruguayans that he will control from the field of play, also made up of Nicolás Tarán (1st assistant), Carlos Barreiro (2nd assistant), Gustavo Tejera (fourth referee) and Pablo Llarena (fifth referee). While for controversial actions, The VAR will be supervised by Ecuadorians Carlos Orbe and Christian Lescano.
A native of Montevideo, Matonte will direct an official match for the Argentine national team for the first time. The closest precedent for him is in 2018, when refereed a friendly match between the U20 teams of Uruguay and Argentina, with the curiosity that that national team was directed by Lionel Scaloni.
Argentina trained with local soccer players: Manuel Roffo; Martín Ortega, Nehuén Pérez, Gastón Ávila and Facundo Medina; Aníbal Moreno, Andrés Ayala and Thiago Almada; Álvaro Barreal, Tomás Chancalay and Maximiliano Lovera. The national team won 1-0 with a goal from Chancalay, in a match played on August 29, 2018, when Scaloni had not yet been made official as coach of the senior team.
Matonte is also remembered for several matches in which he led Argentine teams in the cups. For example, he was the one who expelled Marcos Rojo, from Boca, in the Libertadores 2023 semifinal against Palmeiras in São Paulo. And Estudiantes fans have bad memories of him. In August 2022, he annulled a goal that cost Pincha elimination in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, at the hands of Atlético Paranaense. It was in the return match, played in La Plata, when at the request of the VAR it did not validate a goal by Lollo due to an alleged offside position. The match ended 1-0 for the Brazilians and Estudiantes were left out.
Argentina’s first match in this cup, which ended with a 2-0 victory against Canada, was refereed by Venezuelan Jesús Valenzuela, who had a correct performance. The only action that aroused some controversy was an infraction claimed by the Canadians by Lisandro Martínez against Jacob Shaffelburg, which Valenzuela ignored. The VAR reviewed the action, and since it occurred outside the area, it did not intervene in the referee’s decision.
Meanwhile, Argentina continues its preparation for the match against Chile. With its bunker installed at the Hilton hotel in Short Hills, the team will train this Sunday from 6 p.m. local time (7 p.m. in our country), at the New York Red Bull training center. It will be behind closed doors. The activity will continue on Monday, when in the afternoon Lionel Scaloni and a player to be named will face the press conference prior to the clash.
