Scaloni worried hurricane will complicate travel to Venezuela

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni says he is concerned about travel difficulties ahead of their clash with Venezuela on Thursday.

The Albiceleste have trained in Miami ahead of their clash in Maturín and hurricane Milton means the team's departure from Miami to Venezuela for their South American qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup has been complicated.

Scaloni asked to travel by air to Venezuela on Tuesday, but US authorities cancelled that possibility due to the possibility of Milton passing close to Miami, where the national team is training.

Argentina were unable to travel direct to Venezuela due a diplomatic conflict between President Javier Milei's government and Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro.

“We had asked to travel today but we couldn’t. We will try to do so tomorrow [on Wednesday], weather permitting, we have no more information. We’re worried about the climate situation. I hope we can leave tomorrow afternoon,” said Scaloni at a press conference on Tuesday.

The coach considered that “it’s going to be difficult to arrive the next day [Thursday] because we cannot travel directly to Maturín [the match’s venue]."

He added: "We have to do a stopover because they don’t allow us to travel and from American soil directly to Venezuela. It’s not up to us, we’ve had bad luck with that.”

As for Argentina's opponents, who are led by Argentine Fernando Batista, Scaloni pointed out that "Venezuela is a very good rival, both physically and in terms of football. It’s a rival to be reckoned with, respected. We’re going to face the match as it deserves to be faced."

For this double feature, in which Argentina will visit Venezuela and then welcome Bolivia next Tuesday in Buenos Aires, the world champions face seven absences including injured and suspended players, among them Emiliano 'Dibu' Martínez, Marcos Acuña, Paulo Dybala, Alejandro Garnacho and Nicolás González.

“It’s a very difficult match-up fo rus. We’ve had many incidents. Bringing players in from Europe is very difficult now, so we have to make use of players from Argentine football,” said the coach, who at the last minute added Facundo Buonanotte (Leicester, England) and young Julio Soler (Lanús, Argentina) as call ups to his squad.

Another possible loss may be that of midfielder Alexis Mac Allister, and Scaloni said that “he is receiving treatment. He will struggle to get to the first match. We hope we don’t lose any more players,” and thus the midfielder from Liverpool is basically ruled out for the  first match.

However, these matches will see the return Lionel Messi, absent in the last two matches due to injury, and in this respect the coach explained that “he’s all right, he’s played several matches before coming here, and that’s what he needed, to add minutes."

"Before the other match [last time out] we had spoken and the decision was for him not to come because he needed to play," said the coach.

Lastly, Scaloni spoke of the suspension received by goalkeeper Martínez from FIFA, and in this vein, he commented that “he expressed himself in a very respectful and proper manner" following the suspension.

"These are things that cannot happen again, especially because the team cannot afford not to have Dibu or Cuti (Cristian Romero, who has also been sanctioned). They’re important players," he added.

“I myself do not agree with the sanction, because far worse things happen and they aren’t sanctioned. As a coach, I don’t like losing players. We have to lay emphasis on the fact that when a player is sanctioned, warned or expelled, it must be worth it and have to do with the match,” he concluded.

--TIMES/AFP