Buenos Aires (IANS) Argentinian soccer player Javier Mascherano admitted late Tuesday he felt “beaten up” after the amount of finals his national team has lost but he assured that he “wants to continue” with the team.
The continued appearance of Barcelona’s midfielder and defender in the national side was doubtful after Argentina’s Copa America defeat against hosts Chile in a penalty shootout, Xinhua news agency reported.
“The reality is that I feel rather beaten up but want to continue. There have been many tournaments that I have been close to winning something with the national team but I know that this is also part of the sport. It’s winning and losing and knowing how to accept it,” Mascherano told local daily Clarin.
Mascherano, who will play a friendly match on Tuesday against Mexico in Dallas said that he never thought about taking a break from the team.
“I am one of those players who thinks that you are either always in the team or you are not. At the moment I am still in it,” said Mascherano.
“Playing with the team is not something we can choose whenever we feel like it. We are with our team mates or we are not with them,” added Mascherano, Olympic medalist in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
To conclude, Mascherano said that there are “no rematches” for the defeats in the World Cup final against Germany as well as in the Copa America and he warned that it is important to “start off well” the South American qualifiers because “they are going to be difficult”.
After winning 7-0 against Bolivia on Friday, Argentina will face Mexico in their last friendly before kicking off their campaign to qualify for Russia 2018.