The players of the Argentine National Team and coach Lionel Scaloni they criticized the state of the playing field at the Mercedes Benz Stadium after the 2-0 victory over Canada in the opening match of the Copa América.
“Thank goodness we won, if we had lost I would say the same thing: “We know for seven months that we are going to play here and two days ago they changed the grass.”, Scaloni attacked at the beginning of his press conference after the game. “The stadium is beautiful, but with today’s grass it is not up to par for this type of player. Today we beat the rival and the field,” he remarked.
Goalkeeper Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez had spoken along the same lines. “The first game is always very difficult, but the field was a disaster. It seemed like a springboard. You realize that they put things in our way, but this team pulls it off,” he said.
Another fundamental player was forward Julián Álvarez, who had not scored since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: “It was important to win even if it was the first game,” and he also complained about the state of the playing field: “It wasn’t in the best condition.”
Finally, central defender Cristian “Cuti” Romero lamented because “It’s unfortunate to have to play on such an ugly field.”“, although he highlighted: “We played a good game and I am very happy to start on the right foot. Nowadays the difficulty is going to be double, we have to keep in mind that all the games are going to be like this, but the team knows how to suffer.”
