Follow all the information and results of the Copa América from here
Surprise in the Argentine team: Lionel Scaloni received a one-match suspension for leaving the field late at halftime of the 1-0 victory over Chile in the Metlife Stadium corresponding to the second date and He will not be able to be on the substitutes’ bench during this Saturday’s match at 9pm (Argentine time) against Peru, which will close the first stage of Group A of the Copa América.
Given this panorama, everything indicates that his replacement will be Pablo Aimarwho should take the reins of the team ahead of the match in the Hard Rock Stadium against the Inca team, which will play its last chance to access the quarterfinals of the continental competition. If it is confirmed that he takes the central role, he will be accompanied by Walter Samuel and Roberto Ayala.
Conmebol, through a statement, explained the decision of the President of the Disciplinary Commission, Eduardo Gross Brown. “Suspend official Lionel Sebastián Scaloni for one (1) match, for the violation of article 145 of the Regulations of the Conmebol Copa América USA 2024, in accordance with article 27 of the Conmebol Disciplinary Code.”
“We expressly warn the Argentine Football Association and the official Lionel Sebastián Scaloni that in the event of any repetition of any infringement of the sporting discipline of the same or similar nature to that which gave rise to this procedure, the provisions of Article 2 of the Disciplinary Code of CONMEBOL will apply, as well as the consequences that may arise from them,” they clarified in the statement that was released.
The aforementioned article 145 of the Copa América regulations mentions this issue: “If the players of a team appear on the field of play later than the time scheduled for its start or resumption, or disregarding the instructions of the referee and/or Delegate of the game, Party, the Responsible AMP may be sanctioned by the Conmebol disciplinary bodies with a warning in the case of a first infraction, and with a fine in the case of a second or subsequent infractions.”.
It is stated there that in the event of a late entry the coach will be directly blamed: “In all cases, the Technical Director of the team in question will be considered responsible”. And they detail that there will be a “one-match suspension warning” for a first offense and a “one-match suspension” for a repeat offense.
As explained to Infobaethe South American Football Confederation made this decision in response to the repetition of the error, since something similar had happened in the debut of the world champion team against Canada. On the other hand, the body in charge of regulating football in the region also applied a financial sanction to the Argentine Football Association for this fact: it is 15 thousand dollars. Ricardo Gareca, coach of the Chilean national team, was also suspended for one match for the same reason as Scaloni.
It must be made clear that Canada’s soccer leader, Jesse Marsch, had already expressed his anger with this situation during the opening match of the competition: “When they were taking a while, 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 and there would be a big problem. How long did it take them? Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? They had time to prepare how they would play against us in the second half.“If we had known we had ten more minutes, we would have prepared better,” he said at the time.
At that time, the official broadcast cameras showed that the first half ended at 9:52 p.m. in Argentina. At 10:09 p.m., seventeen minutes later, television images showed Canada’s players positioned on the field of play. Two minutes later, the Argentine national team soccer players began their tour of the inner rings of the multisport stadium, a long walk that diners in the complex’s restaurants can enjoy thanks to glass walls. At 10:13 p.m., Venezuelan referee Jesús Valenzuela whistled the start of the second half. 21 minutes of halftime had passed.
In this way, the Albiceleste Argentina will not have its “brain” sitting on the bench in the last game of the group stage. It is worth noting that Lionel Scaloni’s idea for this match against Peru is to protect several of his main figures, beyond the alerts that the possible muscle injury of captain Lionel Messi raised. Argentina, as a result of its two victories in as many games, has already secured a ticket to the quarterfinals.
In any case, it is a match that will define the final position of the National Team in Zone A: If they qualify as leaders, they will play the quarterfinals on Thursday, July 4 at the NRG Stadium of Houston against the second in Group B (made up of Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Jamaica). If it comes in second place, will go against the leader of B and their duel will be on Friday the 5th at the AT&T Stadium from Arlington.
“In the next one it is fair and I think that the boys who have not played these two games will play like this, because I also need to see them and they deserve it,” warned the Pujato coach in the last press conference. So far, the eight players who have not played any minutes so far in the tournament are the goalkeepers Gerónimo Rulli and Franco Armani, the defenders Germán Pezzella and Lucas Martínez Quarta, the midfielders Guido Rodríguez, Exequiel Palacios and Valentín Carboni and the forward Alejandro Garnacho.
Walter Samuel, one of his three assistants who replaced him at the pre-match press conference, spoke about the punishment: “It was a blow. Sometimes you can stay talking about one thing, a last detail, but we see it as football, not about trying to take advantage.”
