Mascherano made it after the debut of the Under 23 national team in the Pre-Olympic: “I will take responsibility for everything that happens”

After his team’s tortuous debut in Pre-Olympic Venezuela with a heartbreaking 1-1 against Paraguay thanks to the goalscorer’s saving appearance Luciano Gondothe coach of Argentina Under 23 team, Javier Mascheranohe stated that “it was important not to lose the way the match went”.

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

Regarding the pressure falling on the national team after the consecration at 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 best and in this case the objective is the ranking for the Olympic Games”.

In this sense Mascherano doubled his 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 match. However, he failed in the final meters and suffered some defensive setbacks that forced Leandro Brey to show his reflexes. One of these was in the action that led to Diego Gómez’s goal, from a penalty, after a childish infringement by Nicolás Valentini.

“Regarding the match, I think that from the analysis, in my opinion, we were the team that carried the weight of the match and the one that generated the most situations, unfortunately perhaps in that isolated penalty game (in favor of Paraguay), which in my opinion is doubtful, maybe yes or maybe no, but I don’t even like to talk too much about refereeing,” he said after giving a brief analysis of the match.

And he continues: “What I appreciate, and what I told the players, was the search to carry on until the end. In the first half, the first fifteen or twenty minutes, we generated three or four scoring situations that we could have” converts. Then came the equalizer and in the second half it was difficult for us at the beginning. But the changes refreshed the team and we started to create situations, but 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 this sense, they appreciated the entry of Claudio Echeverri, Federico Redondo, Baltasar Rodríguez and Gondou himself, who saved 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 spare parts. Today the changes gave us speed in the game”, concluded Mascherano.

Argentina’s Under 23s will return to perform on Wednesday in Valencia, just over one hundred kilometers from Caracas. Their rival will be Peru, who lead Group B of the Pre-Olympic after beating Chile 1-0. Uruguay, who will be managed by Marcelo Bielsa, completes the area.