Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni held a press conference on Wednesday where he spoke about the team and players testing positive for COVID.
Lionel Scaloni will not be able to travel with the team to Chile as he continues to test positive for COVID. As we reported, he, along with Alexis Mac Allister will not be with the team for their match against Chile on Thursday.
Scaloni spoke about it all on Wednesday. Here is what he had to say:
“Walter Samuel, Roberto Ayala and Diego Placente will be present as part of the Argentina national team. Alexis Mac Allister tested positive last night. He and Buendia, who was in close contact, will not be able to travel.
“I want to clarify that I feel well. I am cured but the PCR test keeps showing up positive. That is the problem. I am in a condition to be able to be there, what I can’t do is enter Chile.”
In regards to Lionel Messi not being selected:
“It’s obvious that we would love for Messi to be here. I spoke with him and he told me that COVID affected him a lot. It’s important that he gets well and that is why I decided that the best thing was for him to stay at his club.
“We have different options to replace what Leo does.”
He was also asked about the starting eleven:
“I have decided on the team but with everything that has happened, it’s impossible to announce it. They will get to Chile and do another PCR test and tomorrow we will have the results.
“We have to bring different playing alternatives. We believe that it could be a good moment to try other things. It will be a difficult match. Chile is a rival that knows what they wants. They didn’t get some results go their way and now they have to win.
“I hope that tomorrow we will be a well drilled team against a difficult opponent. That the players who are going to go out onto the pitch show that they are up to the task.”
I hear Scaloni’s words ‘I hope the players are ready to show what they can do’ in two ways:
1. Tomorrow’s lineup could look more experimental than we think
2. Every non-starter who gets a chance tomorrow knows this is basically a WC tryout for them so I expect plenty of action and passion from our guys – whoever plays..
It seems like everything that could be gong wrong is going wrong. Playing in the altitude, Brazilian referee (surprise surprise), a stadium of probably mostly or only Chilean public, no Messi, no Scaloni, and less bench options. I feel especially bad for Buendia, seems like he can’t catch a break whenever he gets called up and I was looking forward to the possibility of him getting minutes. The worst part is that Scaloni has already recovered but because of the regulations he can’t go. I have absolutely no idea what type of game we should be expecting but we’d be lucky to win at this point especially considering how desperate Chile are for points
Yeah, I don’t see this game going very well. two coaches including the head coach are out, star player not there, star defender out. Thankfully we don’t need any points.
Sometimes loosing is good. Otherwise complacency will creep in
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