Ayala: There's been more hostility towards Argentina in this World Cup, sometimes even crossing the line.

Argentina's assistant coach, Ayala, was interviewed by Argentina's MP910 program. Speaking about Scaloni after the World Cup final defeat, Ayala said that the team barely rested on the return journey, and Scaloni was constantly thinking about how to improve and move forward. He added that Scaloni needs to spend time with his family first before returning to work.

Whether as a national team or as a nation, we have always faced considerable opposition to Argentina. Have you noticed that, because Argentina has been winning consistently, the sentiment against them seems even stronger at this World Cup?

Yes, there were definitely more. What made me uncomfortable was probably the way they expressed those emotions. There was definitely some hostility, even giving the impression of launching an operation against Argentina, hoping we would perform poorly… However, from a certain perspective, I can understand their desire to beat a team that has consistently performed well. But sometimes, they did cross the line.

Talking about the conflict at the end of the match

That's wrong, absolutely wrong. Especially given our position, we absolutely cannot do that. Whether facing physical or verbal attacks, we cannot respond in that way.

I went onto the field to prevent this from happening. To be honest, my goal was to prevent the team from letting a single loss in the final overshadow all their previous excellent performances and victories. What happened is certainly very painful for us; we're really upset. It will take time for all of this to pass. However, everyone will return to their daily lives, start working again, and rethink their goals.

Talking about player rehabilitation

At that time, we were actually in a good position. I even felt that they were getting stronger with each game they played. That's why I said that in this team heading towards 2026, we saw something else: when the team couldn't perform at its best in football, they could still offer something else. When we were lacking in technical and tactical performance, they could still demonstrate other abilities, and they had the conditions to bring those abilities to fruition.

From the moment we finalized the roster, we had some tough nights. We were constantly thinking about whether they could make it to the games, whether they could recover physically, and whether they could make a timely recovery. During that period, players could only recover from their injuries but couldn't train or immediately return to match fitness. So, there were definitely problems in that regard, and several key players encountered this situation.

Even during the match, some players requested to be substituted. I saw and heard people questioning why we substituted one full-back for another. The reason was that the full-back couldn't continue; he simply couldn't play anymore. He requested to be substituted, which is why we made that substitution decision.

Talk about Scaloni

Scaloni sometimes does that; he needs time to process things. Then he'll reflect. We talked a lot because we barely slept on the way back. We were constantly exchanging ideas, and he was always looking for ways to improve and move forward. We also briefly reviewed what we'd done along the way and the various situations we'd handled. So I think it's time for him to enjoy time with his family, draw strength from them, and then go back to work. He'll do that, just like he always has.