Cristian Romero's protestations ended up potentially helping Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou after the Argentina defender was unable to play for his country this week.
While Argentina took on Venezuela at a rain-hit Estadio Monumental de Maturin for their latest qualification match, Romero could only sit on and watch as he was suspended for the game. The 26-year-old Spurs centre-back's temper had got the better of him after the previous match - a 2-1 defeat in Colombia last month - and he had received a yellow card after the final whistle for his protests to the officials at the nature of the defeat.
That booking took Romero to the yellow card limit for the World Cup qualifying stages and he duly missed the match in Venezuela which brought a 1-1 draw and another difficult night for Argentina.
The Tottenham vice-captain missing the match potentially could have benefited Postecoglou in a couple of ways. The first is that any rest for Romero is helpful as he missed out on a proper summer break after winning the Copa America for a second time with Argentina and was quickly back into Spurs action without a real pre-season.
Romero's performances have subsequently been mixed this season with a number of concentration lapses leading to a handful of the goals the north London side have conceded this season. On Sunday he lost Danny Welbeck for Brighton's winning goal in the second half at the Amex Stadium, having played the full 97 minutes in the Europa League match at Ferencvaros just two-and-a-half days before.
Another benefit of missing that game in Venezuela was the state of the rain-sodden pitch which could easily have resulted in an injury for an all-action defender like Romero.
"It was very difficult, it makes for very ugly matches," Lionel Messi said after the game. "We could not complete two passes in a row. In the second half we did it on the right a little more, but it is difficult to play like that. Very little is played."
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni added: "[The pitch] did not meet the minimal conditions for a football game. You couldn't play. We did what we had to do, but the conditions of the playing field were not for a match against two teams of this kind of level."
Romero will be the latest of the players to return to Tottenham ahead of the Premier League game against West Ham next Saturday lunchtime because the time difference means Argentina's game at home against Bolivia will not kick off until 1am UK time in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Postecoglou will be hoping that Romero comes through the game unscathed and in good shape following a lighter week than normal for Argentina.
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