MIAMI GARDENS, Florida (AP) — Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has been suspended for one match and will miss his team's last Copa America group match against Peru on Saturday.
Scaloni was suspended because Argentina was late returning for the second half in its two Copa matches, a 2-0 win against Canada and a 1-0 triumph over Chile, the disciplinary commission of CONMEBOL said on Friday.
Scaloni also can't attend the post-match news conference.
Later, Chile coach Ricardo Gareca was also suspended for one match for the same reason. Chile plays Canada on Saturday in Orlando.
Defending Copa America champion Argentina has already secured a berth in the knockout stages.
Argentina assistant Walter Samuel said during Friday’s press conference that Scaloni “was a little bitter about the situation.”
“We consider ourselves a correct coaching staff,” Samuel said. ”In these six years (on the job) we have almost never had this type of sanction. (It is) a little abnormal. He wanted to be with the team tomorrow.”
Copa America regulations say players must be on the pitch at the right time after the break and will be warned after a first violation. The sanction came after the second violation.
Canada's players publicly complained about Argentina's late return for the second half of their match on June 20.
Argentina needs a draw against Peru to secure first place in Group A.
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Argentina's coach Lionel Scaloni gestures during a Copa America Group A soccer match agains Chile in East Rutherford, N.J., Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched at least one short-range ballistic missile off its east coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from North Korea's southeastern town of Jangyon at 5:05 a.m. It said an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch trajectory was detected 10 minutes later, a suggestion that North Korea might have performed two missile launches.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and is closely exchanging related information with the United States and Japan.
The launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
The “Freedom Edge” drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a U.S. aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.
On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling it an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a U.S. intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.
The statement said North Korea will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”
Monday’s launch was the North’s first weapons firing in five days. On Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.
In recent weeks, North Korea has also floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by briefly resuming its anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts for the first time in years.
In mid-June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked. Observers say the pact could embolden Kim to launch more provocations at South Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe Pyongyang has been supplying conventional weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.
Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting Friday to determine what it called “important, immediate issues” related to works to further enhance Korean-style socialism. On the meeting’s second day, North Korea's leader spoke about “some deviations obstructing” efforts to improve the country's economic status and unspecified important tasks for resolving immediate policy issues, North Korea’s state media reported Sunday.
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet takes off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet prepares to take off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)
FILE - The Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is anchored in Busan, South Korea, on June 22, 2024. The newly-inaugurated Freedom Edge exercise is wrapping up in the East China Sea, having brought together Japanese, South Korean and American naval assets for multi-domain maneuvers for the first time.(Song Kyung-Seok/Pool Photo via AP, File)
