“You couldn’t give two passes in a row”

The Argentine National Team had to change plans in Maturín. Everything worked during the week was put on the back burner the state of a playing field flooded by a short storm but with a large flow of water that occurred a couple of hours before the match against Venezuela, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

The field was so bad that Lionel Messi and the coaching staff complained effusively in the preview with the referee. Far from thinking about a suspension, the organizers delayed the start by half an hour and the Combinedused to taking advantage with the ball on the ground, had to recalculate. He did what he could, although he ran into the limitations of a waterlogged lawn.

“The truth is that you couldn’t play. It was an ugly and tight match. You couldn’t give two passes in a row. We tied because the field didn’t help us do what we wanted to do.”said a Messi who did not hide his discomfort before and after the match. And he added: “TWe had to play another game, that of fighting, that of the second ball, that of winning the duels. In the second half on the right he was a little better. But we made a couple of backward passes and the ball stopped and it became difficult for us. “We played the game we had to play on the field”.

Another who expressed himself along the same lines was Rodrigo DePaul: “Awful. It was impossible to play. Unfortunately we had to adapt to this, it is not good but it is what it has to do. Each game is different and in this case it really couldn’t be played, it became a much more disputed game. We follow orders and do what we are told. The best conditions for us are that there is a good field and good weather for the ball to run. “We don’t ask for much.”

Nicolas Otamendithe Argentine scorer in the Venezuelan afternoon, also spoke of a “difficult field, totally flooded.” Lionel Scaloni, on his own, did not mince words and stated that the Argentine position was not to play: “I don’t want to talk too much, but the field did not meet the conditions for it to be played, at least today (yesterday). It was not a show at the level of two teams like these”he shot at a press conference.

“You can’t play like that”they repeated from the Albiceleste delegation minutes before the start of the match. It was less than half an hour of storm. But the large amount of water that fell in that short period was enough to generate enormous mirrors of water on the grass of the Maturín Monumental Stadium. Problems seem to haunt the Argentine National Team. He had managed to escape from Miami in time before the impact of Hurricane Milton, but heavy rain in the state of Monagas delayed the start. and attacked his game.

Messi complained to the Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera before going into the locker room after warming up. Afterwards, part of the coaching staff did tests with the ball and found that in a large part of the field it did not roll and remained stuck due to accumulated water. In this way, it was decided to delay the start of the meeting by half an hour, which was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (Argentine time).

The organization sent personnel with large roller-shaped dryers to speed up drainage. Since the rollers were not enough, they began to puncture with forks to try to make the earth absorb faster. Nothing was enough. The first half was more like a water polo match than a football match. Scaloni’s signals from the bench to his defenders indicated that they should throw the ball long so as not to go through a flooded midfield.

Messi touched it little or not at all in that first half in which Argentina managed to hit the ball first thanks to a free kick in which Otamendi capitalized on a short rebound from the goalkeeper. The second half allowed, at least in the right sector of the visitor’s attack, a succession of touches. In any case, the National Team failed to finish him off and suffered a draw with Salomón Rondón’s lethal header.

It is clear, the Scaloneta suffered from the condition of the field in a trip that was poorly planned from the start. Now we will have to come back on Tuesday against Bolivia, at home.