EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY — An emotional Lionel Scaloni praised his Argentina team and asked for time to consider his future after falling 1-0 to Spain at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.

Scaloni was twice given ovations in the media room as he broke down in tears, eventually rushing off stage to gather his emotions.

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“It was a dream to play for everyone and we tried up until the very last minute,” Scaloni said. “The staff, the players and me. I believe it’s only fair that I can take this time for myself to think [things] through. This place is wonderful. It is a dream place. I never in my life would’ve thought — please bear with me — would’ve imagined — including my staff — that we would at this place. So to continue you need a great deal of things: resetting your mind and rebooting [because] creating a group like this again that is very difficult to create it again. And it’s really painful. I’m very sorry.”

That’s how the press conference finished, but Scaloni had plenty to say leading up to that point.

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The Argentina manager said he has not spoken to Lionel Messi about his future and felt the team’s performance was hampered by injuries along his back line and inability to tweak much once Enzo Fernandez was sent off for a second yellow card.

“We had many setbacks with injuries in key positions that we weren’t expecting,” Scaloni said. “We had to substitute three of our four defenders. It’s no excuse but the work was immense for our players [even] trying to get here in the best possible way. When you are facing a team like Spain, if you are not absolutely fit, you can suffer. If there’s a team that could do it all the way with the match, it was us. We had already conceded and we thought that maybe we could score. On the Enzo sending off, the first yellow card could’ve been avoided by the referee but it is what it is. He wasn’t thinking about booking him with a second yellow card.”

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He also issued praise for the teary-eyed Lionel Messi, and said it’s challenging to describe everything the player accomplished at this tournament and prior to it.

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“He’s 39 years old, it’s unbelievable,” Scaloni said, noting that Messi held the keys to his status in the game. “There’s nothing new to discover from my side. It was crystal clear he was going to play until he decided not to. All of our people support him and I hope everyone is proud of what he’s achieved because he’s the best player to ever stand on a pitch.”