Storm forces a shake-up: Scaloni’s XI vs Iceland without stars | OneFootball

Argentina national team head coach Lionel Scaloni changed his initial plans due to the rainstorm battering the city of Auburn and the resulting deterioration of the playing surface, deciding to rest his main stars for the friendly against Iceland.

Top priority: protect the squad’s fitness

The heavy rainfall that fell on the Jordan-Hare Stadium pitch in the hours leading up to the 10:00 p.m. kickoff forced the coaching staff to rethink their strategy. Faced with a field that has accumulated a large amount of water and exponentially increases the risk of injuries, Scaloni chose to be extremely cautious. The “zero-risk” approach became even more pronounced after the severe storm, so the coach decided to protect players who had been logging minutes or were carrying significant physical fatigue, including removing key names such as Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández, and Lautaro Martínez from the starting lineup, in addition to the already expected decision to rest Lionel Messi. In this way, the friendly will serve as a real test for the backup players and the young prospects in the setup.

The Albiceleste’s new likely starting XI

With this drastic last-minute change in circumstances, Argentina would take the field with a completely alternative lineup full of changes:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.