Santiago, June 22 (IANS) Argentina’s lacklustre performance so far in the 2015 Copa America championship is due to fatigue, according to national team coach Gerardo Martino.
Answering reporters questions following Argentina’s low-scoring 1-0 win against Jamaica Saturday, Martino said his line-up has already played a total of 708 games between them in the 2014-15 season, prior to the Copa.
“We’re lacking effectiveness,” said Martino. “It’s something that has dogged us since (our first) match against Paraguay” on June 13, which ended in a 2-2 tie.
But Argentina’s disappointing performance “was difficult to predict given our football players’ goal-scoring capacity”, Xinhua quoted Martino as saying.
The Argentine footballer who has played the most matches this season is Gonzalo Higuain, who took part in 58 games with his team Napoli.
He’s trailed by Lionel Messi, with 57 games, Roberto Pereyra (52), Ever Banega (49), Carlos Tevez (48), Mascherano (47), Javier Pastore and Erik Lamela (46), Pablo Zabaleta (44), Ezequiel Garay and Sergio Aguero (42), Martin Demichelis (40), Nicolas Otamendi (38) and Angel Di Maria (32).