I'm creating this post to write about the latest news and details of this international friendly between our Argentina and Switzerland at St. Jakob Park, Basel.
There has been a few changes to the Swiss probable lineup. Here's the latest information I have:
BENAGLIO; Philipp DEGEN, MULLER, SENDEROS, MAGNIN; GYGAX, WICKY, CABANAS, BARNETTA, YAKIN and STRELLER.
That makes three changes from the lineup I've published Yesterday: MULLER in for DJOUROU. . ZIEGLER and VONLANTHEN are not starting, leaving their places to GYGAX and WICKY (both key members of the squad in Germany 2006). Both of them will play in midfield making the formation look like a 4-5-1 formation with YAKIN used as a play-maker to try and feed the lone striker Marco STRELLER.
Regarding Argentina, everything is more than confirmed and the team will be composed by: ABBONDANZIERI; ZANETTI, AYALA, Gabriel MILITO, HEINZE; Lucho GONZALEZ, GAGO, CAMBIASSO, MESSI; CRESPO and TEVEZ.
Italian Domenico MESSINA will be the referee and the match will kick-off at 20:30 local time (15:30 Buenos Aires; 19:30 London; 14:30 New York). And I'm gutted because here in Brazil I won't get to watch it live...
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Gabriel HEINZE will be playing with a million eyes on him. Along with the interest that Real Madrid have to sign him for next season, now FC Barcelona have joined the battle for his services. But Manchester United are still keen on keeping him. Is he the most wanted Argie around? He sure has tough competition for that title with Carlos TEVEZ and Javier SAVIOLA still with an uncertain fate for this summer.
In the build-up to Lionel MESSI's first ever game for Argentina in the play-making position, the Barça player gave an interview to FIFA.com and said: "I'm not the best in the World".
It is a good interview, even though FIFA.com's reporter says ZAMBROTTA is MESSI's compatriot!
If you want to check out this interview, click here.
SWITZERLAND v ARGENTINA
MATCH FACTS AND FIGURES
Argentina are 3rd in the FIFA World Ranking while Switzerland sit in the 21st position.
Argentina and Switzerland only played once in a FIFA World Cup. The South American side won 2-0 (ARTIME and ONEGA) at the Hillsborough Stadium of Sheffield in the Group Stage of the England 1966 World Cup.
Switzerland never beat Argentina in 4 matches (3 losses -including that 66 World Cup match- and one draw -a friendly in Berne (1-1) in 1992-).
The complete head to head between Argentina and Switzerland can be seen here.
I'll hopefully be posting comments and updates here during the match with those of you following the action.
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8 comments:
It's a monsoon ! Pato should feel at home. Cambiasso and Crespo are both bald ! What's with that ? I pefer a team of all long hairs.
Goal !!!!!Beautiful cross from Messi and a Tevez header ! AND, just missed another. Cambiasso's shot blocked at point blank range.
It's 1-1 now (BARNETTA equalised for Switzerland).
I tried to watch it online through some dodgy program I've found.
Was able to watch 15 minutes (between the 10th and 25th of the first half) and Argentina looked good with a couple of chances including a header from Gabriel MILITO that hit the post.
Then I couldn't watch no more.
AIMAR, MASCHERANO and Diego MILITO are on now.
I wonder what is the formation now. AIMAR and MESSI are both playing so I don't know who's taking the play-making resposibility.
Forgot to say: Diego MILITO replaced CRESPO.
MASCHERANO in for Lucho GONZALEZ.
And AIMAR took TEVEZ place.
Now we have another substitution. It's SAVIOLA in for MESSI to play the last 2 or 3 minutes.
FT: Switzerland 1 - 1 Argentina.
TEVEZ and STRELLER the scorers (my bad when I said BARNETTA).
My first impression is that I'm gutted because this friendly, which was a great possibility to test our players and to see how well can they play together was marred by the horrible weather which made almost impossible to play properly.
I don't feel like writing much more than that after failing to watch the full match.
Yes,too bad. The first 20 minutes or so was played in a bad rainstorm, and the field was very wet throughout. Alot of slipping and sliding. Not a very exciting match as a result.
First and foremost it wasn't the most idealistic scenario to test the understanding of the team.
But MESSI did gave some good impression that he is ready to take up the playmaker role. As for CARLITOS, his work rate is just simply fantastic. CRESPO didn't look sharp up front.
From my point of view the midfield line up could have been improve if MASCHERANO was given the starting role instead of CAMBIASSO, as I felt for most the time he drifting towards the left side position. There no point in blaming the defence as the equaliser looks to be suspicious as STRELLER was in an offside position before he strike the goal. I will credit to LUCHO for his performance on right side but MAXI (if he was 100% fit) would have done a much better job.
Overall it wasn't a bad performance and but certainly not a good one. COCO still has a lot work to do.
The chance to see Carlos DELFINO to play in his first NBA Championship Finals (he was left out of the play-off roster in 2005) was shattered as the Detroit PISTONS lost to the Cleveland CAVALIERS by 82-98. This means the Cavs have won the series by 4-2 and will play MANU's and OBERTO's San Antonio SPURS in the final.
Once again Flip SAUNDERS showed a lack of faith for CARLITOS as he only played for about 4 minutes and posting just one rebound.
DELFINO has been unlucky for the second year in a row after losing the Eastern Conference Final last year to eventual winner Miami HEAT.
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