Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni: “It was not possible to play”

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Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni stated that it was not possible to play against Venezuela due to the condition of the pitch.

Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina drew 1-1 against Venezuela in Thursday’s South American World Cup qualifier. The match was delayed by 30 minutes due to heavy rain on the pitch. Speaking at a press conference after the match, here is what Scaloni had to say about the pitch and the match:

“It is clear that the conditions were not suitable for the event, it was not possible to play.

“When the match cannot be played, it cannot be played. Today the conditions were not right. We had several clear chances, they tried a lot from outside the area and played long, as the match had to be”.

“We have to consider the conditions, beyond today’s match, of the South American qualifiers. We adapt to all their difficulties. This team always competes”.

“Competitively we are doing well, adding many young players. The fact that they can contribute by being here with us is a joy.”

13 Comments

  1. Pitch condition favoured no one. Infact Venezuela were disadvantaged, they had dangerous counters only for the watery pitch to slow the ball. If Venezuela played like that on a good pitch, it could have been worse. The same team drew away at Brazil, so let’s not underrate their performance giving lame excuse. The main positive about this game was Rulli exceptional performance.

    • AND IF Argentina played in good pitch your Venezuela before even take the ball to counter dangerous they would have receive before 3 goals at least. In fact Venezuela succeed to take a draw and Argentina diasdvantaged. Pitch condition always favored the weaker team. For you venezuela is better team for me is Argentina.

      • For a very long time I managed to miss this game my friend and by reading the comments, well it is hard for me say anything as I have niot seen even highlights yet, but what I understood the weather or pitch conditions were not even close to up to standard and therefore even not seeing anything yet from whole game itself, well I have to agree with my friend Cox4 as the worst conditions are the better it suits the weaker team or at least usually in football it works like that as bornef and grew up playing in a very cold and terrible pitch conditions and playing mostly on sand/ dirt pitches and later on artificial turf, well every team which I faced who were not used to theese extreme conditions of pitch or cold, wind and rain etc…, well they all suffered badly and even now way bigger teams, that I have never faced in my life and teams , which play at least in UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE DO STILL SUFFER, THOUGH NOW EVERY GAME EXPECT FEW IN THE SUMMER ( only 3 months time in my country ) are played on artificial turf and even with no issues with wether as what so ever, well they all will suffer as there aren’t that many artificial turf fields in Europe, though sometimes even in UCL games a game can be played on artificial turf or instead ion a very bad pitch conditions as I remember one of Juventus games some yers a go played in Greece most probably in December it was and straight from beginning they should had postponed as it had been heavy snowing allready some days before kick of, but they decided to try to clear out the snow, but what happened was just after kick off it started to heavy snow again and after first half they could not continue and Juve was loosing and this was a crucial game were they needed at least a draw from Greece to qualify to second round, but UEFA decided to stop the game after first half and, that crucial game for Juve was never played again so the score standed after first half as Juve was 1 goal down and, that 1 goal and that UEFA never founded a chance for a rematch meant, that Juve did not qualify to aecond round of UCL ( if I remember correctly..?) anyhow it created lot confusion and obviously Juve was not happy about it at all etc…

        Theese kind gams nowadays with heavy snow in my quite rare in the country, that I live aa they stop the season allready in end October the latest and after, that only teams , which might have qualified to CONFERENCE OR EUROPA LEAGUE will continue as in old days the rules were very different in former UCL ( EUROPA CUP) because by , then it did not matter which European country every team came from as only the Champion’s from each European team could participate and none else, so every country had only one team so they had teams for vey long ti e from every European country, but only the champs and now remembering those days and re-checking results, well there were many so called “ underdogs “ who managed to pull out big surprises and knock out much bigger and known European teams and, that was mainly due extreme weather conditions and same it was in for former Europa League “ Cup winners Cuo “ were only those European teams participated, which had won their domestical Cup and also in former Conference League, which was back then called UEFA Cup etc..l so many big teams suffered a lot mostly due to weather or bad pitch conditions and really small European team’s could achieve something they could never ever be able to achieve, because they don’t have the money as simple as that etc…

        What cone’s to the game between VEN VS ARG, well I can’t say 100% as I have not seen it yet, but I agree with my friend Cox4 , because when conditions are bad it gives an advantage most of the times to so called ” smaller team” and by saying this i not mean any dissrespect to VEN at all as it is not an team, that i would lightly and same goes for every SA NT team and i’m quite sure they aa VEN for example will get good results against many European team’s forexample as will most of SA NT team’s, but it is clear also, that ARG is above VEN and off ourse any team can have bad day in Office whether there is bad condition or not, but i would say maybe 5/10 ARG will beat VEN whether there are bad conditions or not and 8 or 9/10 ARG will beat VEN if the conditions are proper, but this only my oersonal view and as said I’m not taking VEN lightly in any conditions also etc…

        Hopefully can get to see the game against Bolivia as it feels strange missing ARG’s game, which I had waited since Colombia game as ARG NT game’s are not comparable to any other game’s for me personally!

        Take care my friend Cox4 and stay as well u can and all the best for you and your close one’s!

        Saludos
        Ricky

      • You’re forgetting Argentina missed key players Romero, McAlister, Nico Gonzalez and Dibu who are starters. We will never know how the game would have ended if the pitch was perfect.

        • Yes, that is very true indeed as several key players were missing! What come’s to ” We will never know how the game would have ended if the pitch was perfect.”

          Well, it is obviously impossible and also not really relevant in my oppinion as we could say the same from everything what happened in the past so i will rather focus with myself more for the present and aim for the future with 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷

          It is clear the transition has started for 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 and also it will TaKe some time to figure all this out and as the conditions were really bad where the talent was hard to see flourishing, then i think it is kind of understandable maybe even acceptable to certain point, that there were hardly any use for certain players who are more technical gifted than others in the team , though were there enough options on the bench, well obviously because of injuries there were less, but hard to say if enough options as many have hardly featured yet for ARG and i understand Scaloni in this way as it was not the easiest game in many ways and specially about conditions, but also about subs too for such difficult game as with this i’m reffering to tactics of 🇦🇷 Arg and also VEN too ( i quess as not seeing the game ), but in the end VEN is a good team, that can create problems to any team basicly and 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 in other hand maybe not on their best with extreme conditions or poor pitches , though it is not an exuse as it is more of sort of fact in my oppinion in terms of creating and with several key players missing etc…, well all i can think of is, that the conditions created problem for 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 in terms creating or finishing ( perhaps ) , but surely it must had effected it VEN too, so i agree with @shOwar, that because of conditions it became 50/50 sort of game, but surely there is allways things to improve and this offcourse should be the priority for 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷, but sometime’s things just don’t work, whether due to several key players missing or bad conditions or none of this etc..

          Well, one thing is granted, that there are no easy game’s in SA football and deffenetly not in CONMEBOL WCQ’s and then you add the level of rivalry to all that and in the end the math’s are not so compilicated etc…, though adding extreme conditions to this will just make it worst etc.

          Anyhow whatever situation allways looking for to 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 next game which will be Bolivia at home and they are coming with very good run so even it will be played in 🇦🇷, things can allways get complicated, but offcourse the team 🇦🇷fielded on the pitch will have to do the difference and hopefully they will be able and i have a feeling, that they will, though we will see in 1-2 days who is fit to play and who may not( besides the blody injuries, which seems just keep on hitting 🇦🇷 at the moment, though it is nothing new as kind of remember this time of the year for some reason or another been allways difficult for 🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 etc.)

  2. I don t like to answer to people generally here because i have to respect everybody s opinion but really sometimes i can t read nonsense.
    The conditions are same for both teams but always it is in advantage of the weaker team.
    the conditions take the advantage of quality from the better team and give it to the team that want to steal the match. Or you will tell me that venezuela is better team or have better quality than our team. ha ha ha ha that will be a joke.
    please people if you want to find one reason to make critics to the team find something else.

    • Totally agree with you. People will always find excuses to stress about the team. Even If we win another Title there will be negetivity. I think Under the circumstances draw was good. Our talent with the ball was neutralised by the pitch. It was a 50/50 game. Which definitely helps the less talented team.

  3. That is an excuse to me.

    Top professionals deliver in difficult conditions, not on perfect conditions. Same condition for both.

    I have not watched the game, just highlights, seemed Ven had more chances than us. We have chugged along some times, under Scaloni. The fighting spirit is there and to hang in and not lose is there. That is a critical attribute of champions. We must play to win in the next game.

  4. That is a terrible excuse, not worthy of world champions.

    Conditions affected both teams. It should not have negated the massive difference in quality that should set apart world rank 1 and rank 40 teams.

    Problem was lack of creativity and attacking instinct. Venezuela had twice the number of attempts on goal than us. That is unacceptable. Playing 6 defenders against Venezuela was unacceptable.

    I mean it has been quite clear for the last several years that Scaloni’s team is near unstoppable when they are on the offence, and awful when he puts on too many defenders trying to hold on to a lead. Scaloni did not switch to defence against Italy and Croatia, and we won those games comfortably. That should be the way to go.

    • Venezuela did not adapt well to the game either. The condition neutralised all the talents with the ball. The game become a 50/50 game. Now you can do the math. The less talented team would take those conditions against a more talented team.

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