By Jack Bezants At Mercedes-benz Stadium, Atlanta
05:12 21 Jun 2024, updated 05:13 21 Jun 2024
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said the grass was to blame for his team’s underwhelming performance in the 2-0 Copa America win over Canada on Thursday.
The artificial turf at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of NFL team Atlanta Falcons, was changed to grass two days ago – after Atlanta United had played on the artificial turf – and Scaloni said it was why his team were leaving passes under-hit and struggling to control the ball.
After going in at halftime goalless and Canada impressing, Argentina secured victory with two goals created by Lionel Messi and scored by Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez.
‘Respectfully, thank goodness we won, because otherwise it would have been a cheap excuse to sit here and say this,’ Scaloni fumed after the game.
‘We knew we were going to play here for seven months and they changed the grass two days ago. For the show it’s not good. I’m sorry.
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‘The stadium is beautiful, and with the synthetic grass it should be spectacular, but with today’s grass it was not suitable for these type of players.’
Scaloni said his players struggled to play at the tempo he expected because of the condition of the field, saying: ‘Look at the passing speed of our centre-backs and you realize how the grass was.
‘From above everything looks nice, from below it doesn’t. I hope the other pitches are not like that – I imagine that the others will be fine. And perhaps here something could have been done earlier and not against the clock.’
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez agreed with his coach, saying: ‘The pitch wasn’t great. It was very bumpy.
‘It was hard for us. We normally like the pitch to be quite slippery and quick for our game, our style.’
Canada coach Jesse Marsch, meanwhile, was unhappy with how long Argentina took to come out for the second half and said they were watching video on how to break his team down.
‘Argentina should be fined, you can write that,’ he said. ‘How late were they? 20 minutes?’
But he praised his team for how difficult they made life for the defending Copa America champions, saying: ‘We made it very hard, we could have had the lead. We mostly learned that we can play with these teams.’
Canada should have snatched the lead before halftime, when Cyle Larin’s chipped ball from the byline was met by Stephen Eustaquio, but his header from six yards was beaten away by Martinez.
It was a huge let off for Argentina, and how different things might have been if the Porto man had put it away. But Canada impressed for large parts of the game – just their third under Marsch’s guidance.
Next, Argentina play Chile at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday – the venue where the 2026 World Cup final will be held – while Chile take on Peru.