RIQUELME fans, don't panic! The talented Boca Juniors midfielder will not be in the squad for our friendly with France on February 11 at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.
Both Boca stars, RIQUELME and Sebastián BATTAGLIA, won't make the trip with Diego, after the manager decided to left them play for their club on Sunday.
Boca Juniors will play in Jujuy (1654 km from Buenos Aires) on Sunday at 7:30 PM and Diego thought they'd be at risk of not making it on time to arrive in France with enough time to prepare with the rest of the squad.
MARADONA himself will board a plane on Saturday afternoon and, apart from his coaching staff, he'll be joined by a few local players he called up officialy on Monday.
The one with the heaviest luggage when it comes to international experience is Juan Sebastián VERON. On duty with Estudiantes de La Plata for the Copa Libertadores qualifying round on Wednesday at home against Sporting Cristal of Perú, VERON is suspended for the first round of Clausura 2009 matches.
Midfielder Cristian LEDESMA will play for San Lorenzo on Friday (against Tigre) and will also be traveling with MARADONA on Saturday.
A trio of other domestic players will travel on Sunday at 23:40, after they play for their clubs that day.
Left-back Emiliano PAPA (Velez) and midfielder Daniel MONTENEGRO (Independiente) are back in Diego's list, whilst Gastón ANGELERI (Estudiantes de La Plata) receives his first international call up.
He is a tough-tackling long-haired right-back that was always in MARADONA's highest of esteems.
These five players complete the list of 25. The European-based players?
Goalkeepers:
Juan Pablo CARRIZO (Lazio)
Sergio ROMERO (AZ Alkmaar)
Defenders:
Javier ZANETTI (Inter)
Martin DEMICHELIS (Bayern Munich)
Gabriel HEINZE (Real Madrid)
Daniel DIAZ (Getafe)
Nicolas BURDISSO (Inter)
Walter SAMUEL (Inter)
Midfielders:
Javier MASCHERANO (Liverpool)
Fernando GAGO (Real Madrid)
Maximiliano RODRIGUEZ (Atletico Madrid)
Jonas GUTIERREZ (Newcastle United)
Luis GONZALEZ (Porto)
Forwards:
Lionel MESSI (FC Barcelona)
Sergio AGÜERO (Atletico Madrid)
Carlos TEVEZ (Manchester United)
Ezequiel LAVEZZI (Napoli)
Lisandro LOPEZ (Porto)
German DENIS (Napoli)
Angel DI MARIA (Benfica)
Raymond DOMENECH, France's manager, despite all his crazy ways, his zodiac-based decisions such as to leave Robert PIRES out of the World Cup because he was born under the sign of scorpion and inexplicably poor results, is expected to name his squad at a press conference on Thursday.
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5 comments:
Seba, I’m pretty excited to see how does VERON fits into Diego’s plan. I’ve kind of felt that he was out of place during the Copa America.
Since I don’t get that much of football coverage on the domestic scene here in Malaysia, could you elaborate more on Gaston ANGELERI. Is he more of ZANETTI type of player?
Seems like there is too many names in the forward list, of course the obvious names that are likely to start will be MESSI, AGUERO and TEVEZ.
I was wondering how well Veron is playing these days? Is he still an elite level player or has he dropped a gear or two?
I haven't seen him play since he left Europe. Veron was one of my favourite players for a long time, especially during his spell with Lazio. I hadn't heard much about him in recent times, the title caught my eye and brought back wonderful memories.
He has been playing fastically well since his return in Estudiantes.
Well Cristian Ledesma wont travel either...
I would like to know why Diego is calling so many players and more curiously, so many from the local league right now? I mean we have only one friendly game against France, we dont need a 24 squad players.
Anonymous, the term SQUAD means there has to be a group of 24 players.
It all depends how Diego plans to utilize them. Remember there is no limitation in substitution for friendly matches.
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