And the question is: how many more will Diego MARADONA call up before he has to announce the World Cup Squad?
Argentina will play Costa Rica (26 January) and our manager has announced a list containing 18 players from the domestic league.
Is he really giving all these players he's calling up a decent chance to showcase themselves?
Do you want numbers?
MARADONA has called up a total of 92 players in 14 months since he took over as Argentina manager. Ninety-two. N-I-N-E-T-Y-T-W-O. Noventa y dos! 92!
Out of those 18 he already named to face Costa Rica, eight will be making their debut under MARADONA:
Here are their names, teams they play for and a little info:
Nelson IBAÑEZ (Godoy Cruz) - goalkeeper. Haven't seen much of him to be honest. And I don't think he'll be anywhere near our World Cup squad.
Clemente RODRIGUEZ (Estudiantes de La Plata) - left-back. Already played for Argentina in the past and did a great job facing Barcelona in the Club World Cup.
Guillermo BURDISSO (Rosario Central) - commanding centre-back. Younger brother of Nicolás, who plays for Inter. Good in the air. Solid in defence. In my opinion, a little too early for him to be called up for Argentina.
Jonathan CRISTALDO (Velez Sarsfield) - speedy winger. One for the future.
Gastón DIAZ (Velez Sarsfield) - right-back. Nothing too spectacular about him. The most notorious news from him was when he got involved in a car crash after he drank a little too much celebrating Velez's title.
Franco RAZZOTTI (Velez Sarsfield) - midfielder. Hard-tackling commanding central midfielder.
Walter ERVITI (Banfield) - midfielder. All-around midfielder (can create and can contain). Plays on the left hand side of the field. His talent helped Banfield claim their first local league title in 113 years of history in 2009.
Carlos MATHEU (Independiente) - central defender. Not world class. Good enough to play in the local league, but came back from Europe (Cagliari) after only playing in 15 matches.
The rest of the list:
Matías CARUZZO (Argentinos Juniors)
Gabriel HAUCHE (Argentinos Juniors -on his way to Racing Club?-)
Cristian CAMPESTRINI (Arsenal de Sarandí)
Fabián MONZÓN (Boca Juniors)
Federico INSUA (Boca Juniors)
Martín PALERMO (Boca Juniors)
Nicolás GAITÁN (Boca Juniors)
Enzo PEREZ (Estudiantes de La Plata)
Mauro BOSELLI (Estudiantes de La Plata)
Mario BOLATTI (Huracán / now of Fiorentina)
I guess it will be meaningless to watch that friendly against Costa Rica as I doubt even a tiny 10% of that list will get a new call from Diego in the future.
Not that I used to believe Diego was biased, but you see four (4) Boca footballers there (even when Boca are hardly being successful in recent times) and no River Plate players there.
To be honest...I don't think that's too relevant and if it was, it surely takes the back seat if you compare that with the fact that 92 players have been called up in only 14 months.
Will our World Cup squad be selected by running a lottery system? Or is it depending on how Diego wakes up on the day he has to announce it?
Didn't Clemente Rodriguez play the friendly against Brazil in 2007 in London?
ReplyDeleteRoy, habibi shu iltillak ana? ;)
ReplyDeleteAgain, this goes to show how meaningless these friendlies are. Im sure the Jamaica game's player selection will be exactly the same scenario (calling up of useless domestic players). Diego still has not come to the realization that he needs to solidify his squad and adapt a permanent, efficient formation (not that he ever has..). Tomorrow he'll go on as usual, about how "we had little time to prepare and blablabla...". THIS is the time to be preparing, but he still goes on wasting everyone's time with such useless experiments.
On a further note, please read this guys:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2010/01/18/1750735/world-cup-2010-diego-maradona-argentina-are-not-the
Since when do we ever go to a friggin' WC with such low confidence in ourselves? Ok, as fans we might feel this way. But even our coach??? What the hell?!? He should be the last person in the world talking this way. He could at least lie to us and say he's confident in the team! Not that he has any grounds to build confidence on (after our poor performances), but he should at least be aiming to surprise us all, or give us just a bit of hope!
The last time i heard something similar from a coach, his superiors got pissed at him and he got the sack. It was before an el clasico game and Schuster openly declared that he doesnt think Real can beat Barca. For me this is just as horrible to hear as an Argie fan... for us, we should always believe we are favorites to win the WC!
Maradona has announced 14 players already officially for the WC:
ReplyDeleteGK: Romero
DF: Demichelis, Heinze, Schiavi, Otamendi
MF: Mascherano, Bolatti, Veron, Di Maria, Gutierrez
F: Messi, Tevez, Higuain, Lavezzi
Which means 9 more players remaining. I believe these 9 are going to be:
2 goalies, 3 defenders, 3 midfielders, and a forward.
We have no right back, left back, just 2 attacking midfielders there and just a goalie (among 14 players). I believe Maradona is especially looking for some candidates for our 3rd goalie, right back, left back, and a forward in this match. Clemente (who can play both right and left back), Monzon, and whoever the goalie starting must be playing good to impress Maradona.
Maradona also certainly will take a final look at Palermo as he oe/and Aguero will surely take the remaining spot.
So again, let's hope he'll take at least 2-3 players (third goalie and a right/left back) to the WC from this squad.
Just as a reminder: Schiavi, Otamendi, Bolatti, and Veron (4 domestic players among our 14 guaranteed players) are not called up. So this match really is looking for the remaining domestic based players.
Principee
Seab I'm with you on this one and share your frustration...It's getting really annoying. I don't how realistic it is for Maradona to actually call up some of the European based players, I feel as if these two matches in Jan. and Feb. are just wastes of time and publicity stunts for Maradona to get back into coaching after a 2 month ban. Pretty ridiculous, he should be using these friendlies to solidify defensive positions and still test out some midfielders names such as Garay, Banega, Pastore, Insua, Zabaleta. What a waste.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the only players that have a chance of making the team on this list are Clemente Rodriguez, Mario Bolatti, and maybe Monzon.
And who knows about that report where Maradona stated that 14 players are already on the team. Pretty much it comes down to the NT being in complete confusion at the moment.
Nelson Ibañez:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5rr-YaUGKQ&feature=player_embedded
Otro paquete argentino...
hey guys why are u all upset?? let diego do whatever he likes and moreover we cant do anything. we can jst pray. nom matter its 92 or 192 jst hope ARGENTINA WIN THE WORLD CUP....
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, Rune. Clemente played that day and had an absolute nightmare. Not that I blame him because BASILE got the tactics very very wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnd to Argentinian777, we all want Argentina to win the World Cup. It's just that some of us don't think the best way to prepare for it is keep calling up unproven players when you've only got 6 or 7 months to get to the tournament.
And to Principee...I haven't seen those names you're giving us as already confirmed in our World Cup Squad. I can see there is a solid argument for all of them (considering MARADONA is the manager), but until it becomes official, I'd rather wait.
Ziggy, ma3roufe hiy men 2abel.
ReplyDeleteFrom the interviews in the past few months(from Maradona, Veron and the rest), everyone of them has said that Argentina are not the favorites. It's not just Diego.
Principee, the list of players was something released by goal.com following our victory over Uruguay. They released it the next day saying that those were the list of players. Far from confirmed, however, it's a possibility.
Looking at the list, only Clemente Rodriguez, Palermo and Bolatti have a chance on the team(if it were up to me, only Clemente would get the call and maybe Monzon, though his form has been bad lately).
All I care now is that Heinze is injured, and I hope he remains injured for the rest of the year. Ask the french to forget fair play, please.
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy with Clemente, he's all I wanted (I wanted a new defense and he's a good start, not sure who else I'd put there); nothing to say about the others, I like Gaitán, he's very skillful, though I'm not sure if he's ready for the NT. Reminds me of Rodrigo Palacio; great player, but never completely convinced me on international level.
Palermo deserves to be on South Africa. I know he's been having a bad time on Boca, but Boca is having a bad time overall. Basile has no clue on what to do, it's not Martín's fault. And I opposed him when he was called up during the WCQ, but...
That damn number 92 is so frustrating for us as fans, even if he calls the players we want; it's been the most critizised point of his "job" lately, even more than his lame coaching. It's out of control. And these friendlies are totally useless if he keeps calling up players and never using them again.
And yes, no River players... sadly, Buonanotte, the only player I like from them, had that accident. I doubt we'll see any River player this year.
what a disaster of a coach. if only the AFA would sack him. I can dream at least...
ReplyDeleteMaradona reminds me of some mad sea captain at the wheel of a ship in a storm. The rain in sheets, the wind howling, the ship about ready to run aground, and Diego steering like crazy screaming "chupa, chupa chupa !"
ReplyDeleteFather forgive Diego, for he knows not what he do. Thats what I can say about diego . Messi have to wait 4 more year to show his talent . Only God can save my Argentina. And Diego talks about Ronanaldino . He is the greatest player even if he is not selected and all ...What if Roman Riquelme diego . He also remain best even if he is not selected . The whole world is laughing at diego for his ugly tactics .I dont know what will happen.
ReplyDeleteonly i can say Father, into your hands I commit my spirit . God help us.
Juan Mercier and Jose Sosa have also been called up, while Mario Bolatti has been withdrawn (transfered to Fiorentina)
ReplyDeleteTevez scores 2 more for Man City against his former side United in the Carling Cup. Man City win 2-1. Carlitos must have the biggest smile on his face tonight!
ReplyDeletecomon diego go for the 100 call ups
ReplyDeletesigh... he really has no idea
I think that 14 players list was released less than 3 weeks ago, which was a long time after the match against Uruguay. Maybe goal.com still have it there. Just search for Argentina news there.
ReplyDeleteWhen Maxi moved to Liverpool several days ago, the reporter that interviewed Liverpool trainer also mentioned about the list of 14 where Maxi's name isn't one of them. So I guess that list of 14 players are not rubbish...
I myself am not surprised knowing the list of the players as they all are Maradona's important choices. The 14 players at least have the biggest chance of making it to the 23 rosters. Before I read that news, I thought Maradona's guaranteed players were 16 or 17, but it was just 14 instead. I thought Andujar, Aguero/Palermo, and Aimar were al
ready guaranteed as well.
Principee
diego adds Juan
ReplyDeleteMercier and Jose Sosa to the argntina
squad list
diego adds Juan
ReplyDeleteMercier and Jose Sosa to the argntina
squad list
i just hope that we have a lot of luck in the WC! i know winning it is too unrealistic but still anything can happen in the world cup ;) but not choosing our main players for these friendlies ain't helping us at all!
ReplyDeleteAs many have already said, Mario Bolatti was withdrawn (transfered to Fiorentina)... Diego called José Sosa (Estudiantes), Juan Mercier (Argentinos Jrs) and Franco Jara (Arsenal). The last 2 players received their first call up... which means 94 players, LOL.
ReplyDeleteAs you all said, this friendly games are really useless, but it is useful for AFA to cash some money (that's their main goal in there...).
Diego please eat your pride and bring Juan Román Riquelme to the WC!!!
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