Lionel Scaloni at a press conference. / Photo: Fernando Gens, special envoy.
The technical director of the Argentine national team, Lionel Scaloni, showed his anger at the leak of Rodrigo De Paul’s physical discomfort and the state of Ángel Di María in the preview of tomorrow’s match against the Netherlands for the quarterfinals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup: “I don’t know if we play for Argentina or for the Netherlands (sic)”, questioned.
“Yesterday’s training (for Wednesday) was behind closed doors, I’m not interested in this information coming out when there is no press. It’s something we have to learn and improve the entire environment of the Selection,” he said, annoyed, when asked by the television media with rights in a brief press conference after the conference.
#TélamEnQatar ⚽#LaScaloneta Scaloni shows reserve with De Paul and Di María: “I wouldn’t dare to say if they will be there or not”
✍ Special Envoyshttps://t.co/jHqv98W21M pic.twitter.com/bmcVJuGgu4
– Telam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) December 8, 2022
The message was mainly internally directed after it was reported on Wednesday that De Paul had carried out a special task due to muscle pain.about which Scaloni answered evasively in the official media call held this Thursday at the Doha Press Center.
“We’ll see how everyone is; we’ll make the decision based on the last training session and how we want to approach the game. I wouldn’t dare say if (a player) is there or not”he responded awkwardly.
Lionel Scaloni at a press conference. / Photo: Fernando Gens, special envoy.
“In principle, yesterday’s training (on Wednesday) was behind closed doors; it seems strange to me that they ask how Rodrigo is doing. I don’t know where this information comes from,” he was surprised.
“Always after a game there are players who train separately or who do it in the middle of training, always -he remarked-. We will wait for today’s work to make a decision”.
De Paul did not complete practice Wednesday with a sore muscle; while Di María did not play the previous game against Australia due to an overload suffered against Poland on the last date of the group stage.
Both footballers began training this Thursday at the University of Qatar but their presence in the match with the Netherlands is not guaranteed.
Scaloni had minimized Di María’s condition last week, without confirming whether or not he would be available for the round of 16, an instance from which he was finally left out of those summoned.
“What comes out in the press is very difficult to control; what we are clear on our part is that the players who go out on the field have to be in the best conditions for the good of the team,” exposed.
The Argentine DT did not want to theorize about the development of the game with the Netherlands and acknowledged that the squad practiced penalties (“they always kick in training”), although he clarified that he focuses on winning the game in regulation time.
#SelecciónMayor @lioscaloni in conference 🎙️ : “In principle, Rodrigo de Paul is fine. We’ll see in today’s training how we form the team.”
– Argentina National Team 🇦🇷 (@Argentina) December 8, 2022
For that reason, he rejected the query about potential kickers: “It would be mediocre to think about penalties with the possibility of having 120 minutes ahead. We think about winning in regulation time and the decisions, if necessary, are taken at the appropriate time because one can kick but then that situation is like a box of matches.”
Scaloni asked to “wait and see how the game unfolds” with Louis Van Gaal’s team, aware that “rivals always raise something different against Argentina and the National Team, during the dynamics of the game, can also make some tactical modification.”
“I prefer not to get ahead of myself – he acknowledged -. As for the system, you already know what we think, I don’t know if we ever played 4-3-3 because when one end goes up, the other has to see where it stands. The most important thing is to think how to do damage to the rival and counteract that the rival does not hurt us”.
Lionel Scaloni at a press conference. / Photo: Fernando Gens, special envoy.
The coach then relativized an opinion by Van Gaal about the “defensive” evolution of football from 2014, in contrast to the football that his multi-champion Ajax team posed in the 1990s.
“What he says is not very distinctive from what we know. Football was the way for everyone to work for the team, today everyone must attack and defend. I consider the Netherlands as a very balanced team, which is a summary of football from now on as we are too”, he opined.
#SelecciónMayor @lioscaloni in conference 🎙️ : “De Paul and Fideo (Di María) trained yesterday. But there is still a day and a training session to see the team”.
– Argentina National Team 🇦🇷 (@Argentina) December 8, 2022
“I think tomorrow’s game (on Friday) is going to be nice to see, surely, because they are two teams that attack without neglecting each other. I can only tell people that they enjoy the game and that on our part we will always leave everything for the shirt and for the country”, got engaged.
“Afterwards, this is a sport and when the game is over we hope to be happy with the result and if not, that people have felt identified with the team. The message we give the players is calm, knowing that this team He is going to give everything and in the end we will all be able to look each other in the face”, he concluded.
Argentina and the Netherlands will play this Friday from 4:00 p.m. at the Lusail Stadium with the refereeing of the Spanish Mateu Lahoz for a place in the Qatar 2022 semifinals.
