Young Albicelestes ready to debut in U-20 tourney

Last time we saw Sergio BATISTA sitting on the bench to manage an Argentine side, Angel DI MARIA chipped the Nigerian keeper to give the Albicelestes their second successive Olympic Gold medal.

Tomorrow it'll be a different story, but Checho will be looking for similar results when the U20 national team start their campaign at the South American tournament to be played in Venezuela.

Argentina's first opponent will be the home team and the match will be played very late on Monday (11 PM Buenos Aires - 8 PM New York - Tuesday 1 AM London).

Now BATISTA has had some problems with a few players that were denied to him by their clubs. The cases of Franco DI SANTO (Chelsea) and Pablo PIATTI (Almería) are the most notable and surely their talent will be missed, but so will the creative midfielder Javier PASTORE of Huracán in Argentina. He became one of last Torneo Apertura's best young players and put an absolute show in their last match against Vélez Sarsfield (3-0 win for Huracán with one goal and one assist by PASTORE).

BATISTA was clearly furious about this matter and he made himself clear when he said: "I'm really upset for not being able to count on this players. We need to do something because these days there are Argentine players leaving for Europe at a very young age and that's a problem".

On contrast, the superb Emiliano INSUA (Liverpool) will captain a promising squad that will be looking to win the title, but most importantly, qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, to be played in Egypt between 22 September and 16 October, 2009.

Apart from INSUA, there are high hopes on Franco ZUCULINI (Racing Club), one midfielder in the mould of Javier MASCHERANO that has already been attracting the likes of Juventus and Udinese but he is a doubt for the debut match due to muscular fatigue.

Players like the mercurial Eduardo SALVIO (Lanús) and Jonathan CRISTALDO (Vélez Sársfield) should keep the opposing defenses busy.

Stay tunned and check the following link for possible live streams to be available near kick-off time:

http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=29021&part=sports