Lionel Scaloni will not be patrolling the sideline in Argentina's match against Peru on Saturday.
CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation, has given Scaloni a one-game suspension because his players were late to re-enter the pitch after halftime in Argentina's match against Chile. Walter Samuel, an assistant coach and former defender for the national team, explained how Scaloni reacted upon hearing the news.
"Lionel is upset about this," the 46-year-old told reporters, according to The Athletic . "We consider ourselves to be staff with a lot of professionalism.
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"We found out today. It was a blow. Sometimes you're talking about a small detail. We weren't trying to find an advantage. Now we have to focus on the next match and move forward." Argentina, sitting with six points, will need either a win or a draw to win Group A with Canada in second place with three points.
Along with the one-game suspension, the Argentina Football Association was fined $15,000 as a result. This is not the first time Scaloni and the rest of the Argentinian team have taken their time to return to the pitch.
Against Canada on July 20, Argentina did not return to the pitch in a timely manner after halftime, and as such, were given a warning for delaying the game. Because Argentina committed the same offense twice, they were fined and Scaloni suspended.
Canada's head coach Jesse Marsch did not hold back in the post-game press conference after his team's 2-0 loss to Lionel Messi and Argentina. Marsch claims that Argentina used the extra time to develop a more robust game plan against the Canadians, whom they were level with going into half-time.
"They had that time to prepare how they wanted to play against us in the second half, which if we would have known ahead of time that we could have an extra 10 minutes then we could have prepared some things more. Argentina should be fined. They should be fined for coming out 20 minutes late for the second half," Marsch told reporters after the game.
Ricardo Gareca of Chile was also suspended one game for the same reason and will miss the team's matchup against Canada. While Scaloni's presence on the sideline will be missed, perhaps the biggest absence in Argentina's final matchup against Peru will be Messi.
Messi missed training Thursday just days after he was spotted receiving treatment for his thigh during Argentina's 1-0 win over Chile on Tuesday . It was reported that the 37-year-old star stayed at the team hotel to get additional treatment on his right adductor, per The Athletic.
The soccer legend explained that the injury occurred early on in the Chile match and has continued to linger throughout. "I felt some discomfort in my right hamstring at the beginning of the game. It was tight," he shared. "It wasn't as loose as it should've been. But I was able to finish the game. We'll see how it goes."
Should Messi be unfit to play against Peru, he will snap his impressive record , having played every minute in every major international tournament he's partaken in since June 2019. Argentina will take on Peru at 8 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
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