“I will be responsible for everything that happens”

After his team’s winding debut in the Venezuela Pre-Olympic with an agonizing 1-1 against Paraguay thanks to the saving appearance of the scorer Luciano Gondouthe coach of the Argentina Sub 23 Team, Javier Mascheranoexpressed that “it was important not to lose because of how the game went.”

“In the end for us, because of the way the game went, it was important not to lose. Starting off losing in this type of tournament is a big problem, now we have to continue looking for our best level for the next game,” said the 39-year-old coach.

Regarding the pressure that falls on the national team after consecration in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mascherano stated that “it is clear that every time the Argentine National Team competes its objective is to fight for the highest and in this case the objective is classification for the Olympic Games”.

In that sense, Mascherano redoubled the bet: “I will be responsible for everything that happens I. “I like the challenge and I feel supported by the players, which is the most important thing.”

Argentina had the initiative against Paraguay and dominated the game. However, he failed in the final meters and suffered a few defensive setbacks that forced Leandro Brey to show his reflexes. One of them was in the play that led to Diego Gómez’s goal, from a penalty, after a childish infraction by Nicolás Valentini.

“Regarding the match, I think that the analysis, in my view, we were the team that carried the weight of the match and the one that generated the most situations, unfortunately perhaps in that isolated play of the penalty (in favor of Paraguay), which in my opinion It’s doubtful, maybe yes or maybe not, but I don’t like to talk too much about refereeing either,” he said after making a brief analysis of the match.

And he continued: “What I do value, which I told the players, was the search for going through the game until the end. In the first half, the first fifteen or twenty minutes, we generated three or four goal situations that we couldn’t convert. Then it became even and in the second half it was difficult for us at first. But the changes refreshed the team and we began to create situations, but the blow from the penalty hit us squarely. I still keep the positive things, as I told the players “said the former River, Barcelona and Liverpool player, among other clubs.

In that sense, Claudio Echeverri, Federico Redondo, Baltasar Rodríguez and Gondou himself valued the income, who rescued a point with his appearance. “TEveryone is fit to play. We have that peace of mind. We have to find the solutions that we did not find at the beginning of the game with the spare parts. “Today the changes gave us speed in the game,” concluded Mascherano.

The Argentina Sub 23 will perform again on Wednesday in Valencia, just over a hundred kilometers from Caracas. Their rival will be Peru, which leads Group B of the Pre-Olympic after beating Chile 1-0. Uruguay, which will be directed by Marcelo Bielsa, completes the zone.