Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Local Players Finally Get The Chance To Prove Themselves

After Argentina's workout this afternoon, it was revealed that Alfio Basile's home-based squad will lineup against Chile on April 18th. The match will be played in the city of Mendoza, in west-central Argentina, a short hop from Santiago, Chile.

Today's training session consisted of a scrimmage against a local youth side, with Basile's team winning 4-0. Jose Sosa had a hat trick while Mariano Pavone chipped in to complete the scoring. Argentina played with the following lineup:
Oscar Ustari in goal; Carlos Fondacaro, Daniel Diaz, Jonathan Bottinelli, German Re in defense; Juan Sebastian Veron, Agustin Pelletieri, Cristian Ledesma, Neri Cardozo in midfield; Sosa and Pavone up front.
There were no River Plate or Velez Sarsfield players on hand due to their team's Copa Libertadores commitments.

National side to play Chile on April 18th (in Spanish) [Ole]

-ac

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the squad that Argentina will be naming for the Copa America? Do Argentinean fans mind that no Europe-based players will be involved?

soccermad said...

From what I can gather, I think that the Copa America side will be a blend between local and European-based players. I wouldn't expect all of the big guns in Europe to make the trip to Venezuela, but some of them, like Messi, have already stated that they want to play.

As far as the fans, they just want to win it. That aside, they wouldn't mind a couple of local players sprinkled into the mix. My guess is that they'd love to see the core group that played at the World Cup line up against the U.S. in their first group game.

-ac

David N said...

A more pressing question : who is the ginger model meant to be in your picture?

soccermad said...

That's a good question. I want to say Danny Bonaduce, but I'm not really sure.

In the 90's there was a player that was given a couple of caps named McCallister, not sure on the spelling. Maybe?

-ac