Journalism of Courage
‘The psychologist took pressure off me’: Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez says how he and Argentina effected turnaround against Mexico
“I left the first game with the feeling that I should have done something more to avoid defeat, that there were 45 million Argentines behind me and I didn't give enough,” says the Argentina goalkeeper.
The Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Dibu Martinez, who plays for Aston Villa, has talked about a psychologist helped him to turn around after the brutal loss to Saudi Arabia.
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“I left the first game with the feeling that I should have done something more to avoid defeat, that there were 45 million Argentines behind me and I didn’t give enough,” Dibu Martinez told reporters after the win against Mexico.
He would reveal he was in touch with psychologist to bounce back.
“I talked about it a lot with my psychologist this week because it was hard for me to swallow and luckily today we took off that weight,” he said.
Martinez would see the ball plummet past him twice into the net against Saudi Arabia but didn’t let Mexico score a goal.
“Today we took a load off our shoulders and I also a personal one, because in the first game they kicked me twice on goal and they scored two goals ,” Martinez said.
He also admitted that pressure is playing a part in Argentina’s performances thus far. ”because of the pressure, because of what it is like to be in a Cup and because of the expectations.”
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He also reckoned the team had relaxed after scoring Messi’s first goal against Saudi Arabia.
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“Also with Arabia we relaxed after scoring a goal so quickly, we could never really get into the game and on top of that they slapped us twice in five minutes ,” he said.