The coach of the Argentina under-20 team, Javier Mascherano, stated this Wednesday, after the elimination of the Albiceleste in the World Cup of the category, that the Argentine Football Association (AFA) has “the resignation available”.
At the end of the match that his team lost 2-0 against Nigeria in the round of 16 of the U-20 World Cup, “el Jefecito” told the press that he plans to “continue in office until the president of AFA (Claudio Tapia) make available, because he has the resignation available.”
The coach already submitted his resignation when Argentina was eliminated in the South American of the category, played in Colombia last February and that left the Albiceleste out of this World Cup.
However, the subsequent award to Argentina of the organization of the youth ecumenical event by FIFA, which was taken away from Indonesia for ideological reasons, made the six-time U-20 champion participate as host and Mascherano took on the challenge of directing at home.
Regarding the elimination of Argentina in the round of 16 of the World Cup, Mascherano commented in statements to Televisión Pública that “soccer is like that; sometimes it gives you, sometimes it takes away and today it has taken away from us”.
“Nigeria is to be congratulated,” he said.
The Argentine coach said that his players played “a very good game” but that they paid for “the two oversights” they had in defense, which ended in two goals “that penalize us too much,” he said.
“Life goes on, it hurts us, it hurts our soul. I think we did everything to be able to continue in this championship, but I’m leaving with the peace of mind that today it was us”, declared Mascherano.
Argentina lost in the match played tonight in San Juan, after going undefeated to the round of 16, after beating Uzbekistan (2-1), Guatemala (3-0) and New Zealand (0-5).
With this result, the ‘Albiceleste’ will not fulfill their dream of adding the seventh crown and can see how Brazil, one of the favorites of the tournament, matches their mark of six titles.