Argentina’s superstars Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero et al risk injury in the next round of international fixtures as the Albiceleste will play on a woeful pitch. Argentina will take on Bolivia for a World Cup qualifier at the Mario Kempes stadium in Cordoba, and the state of the pitch understandably has caused outrage, which will definitely cause Barcelona and Manchester City some concern.
Argentina normally play most of their fixtures in Buenos Aires, but with protests that the national team should play throughout Argentina, the Albiceleste have been scheduled to play a few games at the Mario Kempes stadium in Cordoba. However, the absolutely horrific state of the pitch might result in that idea being nixed entirely in the future.
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The venue hosted a series of concerts as a means to earn revenue, the latest of which was an Iron Maiden concert, but it understandably resulted in the pitch looking like this:
Argentina play on this disaster of the pitch on March 29th, which leaves very little time for any re-turfing to take place. Barcelona and Manchester City are rumoured to be in consultation with Argentina coach Tata Martino, with a view to not risking their players at such a crucial stage of the season.
Domestic football on the same pitch results in injuries
Despite the sorry state of the playing surface, two domestic games have already been played after the concert. The first, between Talleres and Instituto luckily passed by without any serious injury, but occured just two days after the Iron Maiden concert.
The second of those two games however, caused much damage, as Mariano Pavone, Club Atletico Velez Sarzfield’s striker, had to go off with a muscle injury. Velez won their game against Belgrano, but all the attention was on the pitch, as Velez midfilder Hernan Toledo criticized the state of the pitch, saying “The pitch was heavy, it took a lot of effort.”
Given that Argentina lie in a woeful sixth place in their South American qualifying group, having only earned five points from their first four games, it seems quite probable that Tata Martino will risk Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero for such an important fixture.
Barcelona are walking away with the La Liga title, but with a tough Champions League draw awaiting them against Atletico Madrid, the Catalans are likely to be especially displeased if Messi misses out due to an injury suffered on this pitch.
