SOCCER
Argentina team news: Why isn’t Emiliano Martínez playing against Bolivia?
The World Cup holders are looking to book their place at the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Argentina continue their World Cup qualifying journey on Tuesday, hosting Bolivia at the iconic Estadio Monumental.
The hosts are hoping to make it to their first ever World Cup at the 2026 tournament, while Argentina are already on the brink of booking their place. Lionel Scaloni’s team won six of their opening eight games of this qualification cycle but struggled to a 1-1 draw at Venezuela last week.
Scaloni has suffered a few key absences for the October international break. The most notable of which is Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez, who was hit with a two-game ban for his behaviour after last month’s loss to Colombia. The FIFA disciplinary committee found him guilty of “violating principles of fair play.”
Argentina come into the game as the favourites but they have not had it easy in preparations for this game. They began the training camp in Miami but saw the journey disrupted by Hurricane Milton, which is battering the Florida coastline at the moment. Scaloni’s side also had to deal with the political tensions between the United States and Venezuela, further complicating their travel plans.
“We can’t land directly in Maturín; we’ll have to make a stopover since flights from U.S. soil aren’t allowed to land directly in Venezuela,” the Argentina boss explained. “These are things beyond our control, just bad luck. The most important thing is the safety of everyone here and the well-being of the people affected by the hurricane.”
The Venezuela game was then hampered by heavy rainfall which forced kickoff to be delayed by 30 minutes in a bid to allow the field to drain. Conditions improved slightly but there was still standing water when the game did finally begin and the heavy turf ensured that a scrappy, disjointed game ended 1-1.