World Cup countdown: 50 days, Argentina moment number 35, Ezequiel LAVEZZI

1. Arg is on the cross roads. Sampaoli need to have a courage and take bold decision to bring a more energetic, fit and in form young players. Meza, Pavon, Centurion, Ascacibar are flowering. Be brave enough to Write off injured and unfit players, Biglia, Masche, Mori, Rojo and Higuain have given much now it is the youngster era to contribute. Please wake up Don Sampa. Bring the glory with the youth not the old guards that have passed their time.

2. • icardi needs to be in the final 23 man squad aguero will be back 2 weeks before the world cup starts from injury.

   • enzo perez and Pablo perez needs to be the 2 central midfield players for Argentina, as biglia will also be fully recovered from injury 2 weeks before the world cup, those 2 guys has the back bone Argentina needs in that area with lanzini as attacking midfielder in a 433 formation.

   • what’s the issue with garay???

   • and ansaldi???

   • zabaleta looks good a much better RB than mercado.

3. Though sampaoli select icardi ansaldi battaglia ascacibar however who is but sampaoli obviously select higuain or aguero biglia mascherano rojo funes mori banega Di Maria on his starting eleven ….sampaoli is nothing just a impression of bauza Martino..he has huge fear to setup a team with young guns like battaglia ascacibar meza lanzini icardi pezella with the experience of ansaldi Messi otamendi ….but we will see maximum unfit and injured player should start from Iceland match because sampaoli is coward and he never face the fear..

4. battaglia and ansaldi likely to be picked among 35 man squad.i hope ansaldi impresses sampaoli and be our starting rb in wc.i heard also pezella can be picked.

5. From what I understand Sampaoli is going to select the list of 35 on May the 14th and the list of 23 on May the 21st because he doesn’t want give false hope according to him.
   FIFA due date for final squads is as I understand June the 4th and the World cup starts on June the 14th.
   Which means we will have the final Squad almost a month before the World cup. What happens with the 12 reserve players? Are they sent home? As I understood yes. What happens if a injury occurs on June the 13th and we have to call one of these players as replacement? Those players mostly will be on vacation and surely not fit as they should on June the 13th.
   Has Sampaoli thought of this? I understand that he wants to be firm and not give false hope but why not use all these players in a camp and maybe those 2 weeks he sees players clicking with each other and give those player a chance to make the squad. Why not call all the 35 and cut them slowly. Why not use those 2 weeks. the players are professionals and should live with rejection.

   • Could it be AFA short of cash? Not long ago, they could not afford spagetti to the sub20 players…

6. Battaglia or Papu
   Ansaldi or Bustos

   tycsports.com/nota/seleccion-argentina/2018/05/10/battaglia-o-papu-gomez-ansaldi-o-bustos-las-dudas-de-sampaoli.html

   • He will go for bustos and papu but i hope ansaldi makes it.

     • I see all the players as usefull for us. I would take both Ansaldi and Bustos instead of Salvio which easily can be replaced by Meza and Pavon (of course not as “RB”) Papu over Perotti as for me. But it seems Centurion may have best chances among all these wingers.

   • If ansaldi selected then our fullbacks worry is solved.bustos is also good but defensively weak plus short.

7. Sampoli will try—-

   ———-Romero ————
   Mascherano-Fazio-Otamendi

   Salvio—-Biglia—Acuna
   ————locelso——-

   Messi-—Heguin——–Maria

   Those guys can change—-
   1/Banega
   2/Marcado /taglifico
   3/Lanzini
   4/Caballero
   5/Agüero
   6/Pavón

8. Latest news: ansaldi n battaglia in 35….

   • Link please!!

     • Tyc

   • Also PEZZELLA can be in 35 as per tyc

     • Also Icardi!! Damn!! thats good!!

9. – 2002 France lost because ZIDANE got injured.

   – Argentina in 2002 lost because Bielsa took players that were injured and were out of form, and his favorites.
   Simeone 2001/02 was almost the whole year injured 13 games in all the competitions yet we waited for him and started. he was something like a assitant coach for Lazio the whole season.
   Caniggia took Saviola’s place.
   Ayala was injured and did not play.
   CRespo was better than Batistuta even Batistuta admitted it just look at the recent interview.
   Players like HUSAIN were selected as Bielsa’s fetish.
   While leaving Riquelme, Saviola, and Solari who played as starter in the champions league finals with the Galaticos.
   Veron was out of form and Aimar who was red hot coming to the world cup was benched.
   When I saw the squad I knew we where f….
   Things we did bad we do now still.
   Mascherano is Simeone.
   Biglia is Ayala.
   Higuain is Batistuta.
   Icardi is Crespo.
   etc…

   – We qualified as first in 2002 and lost. we barely qualified in 2010 and lost. We lost both ways.
   – Can we win the world cup, of course but not because we qualified as first or last but because we have the best player in the world and some great players to support him. we can also lose because we are not going prepared as we should. we can do both.

   – 2014 in the group phase we scored more goals and conceded more goals, we also played lesser teams and we looked disorganized and not as team at all.
   Belgium up to the final we played like a team, and were a monster defensively but we lost creativity and offense.
   both were unbalanced, either defensively or offensively and our goal shall be to find a middle ground and balance.

   • Spot on ghost:
     The game v england when aimar came on as substitute the english commentator said this is the best argentinian player & the one erickson(england coach at the time) feared the most.benching your best player How crazy is that.
     I was chatting a friend of mine who is yellow team fan about saviola exclusion at that time & he said argentina starters never lose their spot untill they retire. Now when i look back what happened all these years it seems he was spot on.

   • “Can we win the world cup, of course but not because we qualified as first or last but because we have the best player in the world and some great players to support him. we can also lose because we are not going prepared as we should. we can do both”

     Absolutely not. We can’t win this WC. That’s only logical possibility, but in practice, with ‘team’ which non exist, people may only say “we can” to keep their full pleasure of this upcoming fest, of being on WC and having all the unknown road ahead of us. To expect of miracle is not the way World Cup Champion is preparing.

     • Most optimistic part of me allows somehow to imagine us in semis (with the miracle being realized) but that’s unlikely. The realistic part of me say: 1/8 or quarterfinal with possible group stage problems.

       • Our chances are lower than even teams like greece, portugal who defied the odds because those teams relied good defense and we don,t have that now but we are still hopeful that sampaoli will figure something out and if meant to be we will win it.

         • haha. we relied on defense in 2014 and did not win. So i dont get your logic. Trying same things and expecting different results is insanity.

         • Relying on defense almost paid off. We were better than germany and should have won that game. The only reason we didn’t win is due to luck simple as that.

     • Stranger things have happened. I know we are not doing our best, but we have players that can decide games. I would not be surprised if we won and if we lost. Knock out games are unpredictable. If Barca would play against Roma again they would beat them 9 out of 10 times. Knock out games doesn’t mean the best team wins. Best teams usually win leagues.

       • Kuddos my man. Kuddos!!!

         But having agreed to you, I want to add that some players are better suited to play knockout games. As individual brilliance comes handy in knockout games, impact players who can smell blood usually impacts in these situations. Dybala, or Pavon could be that.

         Prototypes of impact players –

         -Fast, dribbles and shoot. Or,
         -Tackles, runs and defend for their lives.

10. Nothing that happen preworld cup will matter when the tournament finally kicks off. Qualifiers and friendly games won’t have any impact on the proceeding at the 2018 world cup. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. Nobody foresaw Costa Rica from lowly CONCACAF topping a group that consist of teams like Uruguay, Italy and England. Better yet, nobody before the 2014 world cup would predicted Costa Rica making the quarterfinal. Portugal and Spain out in group stage back in 2014 while both teams were hyped going into the tournament. At the 2014 world cup, Lowly Algeria took Germany to the brink all the way into overtime while the mighty Brazil got cold feet and handed Germany a world cup final spot on a silver platter. Uruguay had to qualify for the 2010 world cup via playoffs and was one of the semifinalist team at the 2010 world cup making it further than Brazil (who top the South American qualifiers during the 2010 campaign). We all know what happen to Argentina going into the 2002 world cup, dominated their qualification zone, was all hype by the media and fans only to crashed out in the group stage. Same for France heading into the 2002 world cup, defending world cup champs, the current 2000 European champions, all hyped only to get booted from the 2002 world cup during the group stage. This has been a constant trend at the world cup, it happen with Brazil also during the 2006 world cup; favorites to win in 2006 after winning the wc in 2002 and the Confed Cup in 2005 yet it never pend out that way.

    This whole pre tournament favoritism nonsense is misguided, the media is just trying to pick and choose who they think will be winners and losers. The media at the end of the day will not win Argentina a world cup, it will all come down to the roster and Sampaoli. I have my differences with Sampaoli on certain issues, but in noway I doubt his tournament credentials going into the 2018 world cup. Sampaoli with this current Argentina squad can take Argentina through the world cup rounds all the way to the finals brick by brick. Sampaoli is an experience coach managing a talented and experience Argentina national team roster. I have no doubt about Argentina making the 2018 finals, the team will just need mental strength to get over the finish line. This is all too familiar man, I have seen this movie before, now it’s with Messi and Argentina where majority (even some fans) are saying the team doesn’t have a chance at the 2018 world cup, not even a ounce of a chance!

    Someone once said to me that the 2018 world cup final will be between Argentina vs England, I kind of role my eyes when the person said England given their track record at tournaments, but I kind of come around this notion in the moment. This world cup is going to be a strange world cup and a good one for Argentina.

    These guys are going to have have a huge world cup.

    Otamendi, Rojo and Fazio
    Dybala (off the bench, he will be for Argentina what Del Piero and Totti was for Italy)
    Biglia ( yes, hate him all you want, even myself had some differences with Biglia, but he will have a great world cup, watch him prove all the naysayers wrong)
    Banega (as starter and bench player)
    Lo Celso
    Salvio
    Di Maria
    Aguero, Higuian and Pavon
    And lastly, our Humble Argentina captain Lionel MESSI..

    Guys like Lanzini, Tagliafico, Acuna, Mercado, Romero and Willy Cabellero will have their moments during the tournament.

    • I second that. I hope you will be proven right.

      • Yes bro, I’m with you…Dietmar Hamann said something interesting about Argentina 2018 world cup chance;

        ”And then the way that Argentina qualified, because they needed to beat Ecuador in the last game of South American qualifiers to get in. They went 1-0 down after two minutes and Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and won that game.

        “Sometimes, when you have a close shave and qualify like that, and with it also possibly being Messi’s last World Cup, I wouldn’t rule Argentina out either.”

    • To me, Acuna, Pavon, Lo Celso and Salvio will have very important role. Pavon will bring his insouciance and pace to the attack, along with experienced Messi and Di Maria or Dybala. Acuna and Salvio are both similar to Lavezzi: agile, energetic and high work-rate. They can both play as fullbacks. Having them on each side can guarantee providing more options when the team has the ball. Lo Celso will play the central role. He will link the defense to attack. My 11 will be:

      Romero

      Mercado, Fazio, Otamendi, Acuna

      Salvio, Biglia or Enzo, Lo Celso

      Di Maria, Messi, Pavon

    • I like this kind of attitude even for the sake of dreaming. People like Gonalzo should go and support Germany and Brazil as according to him they are favorite and always criticize Argentina Football team.

11. We need sabella badly..why he resign as coach of argentina.he made wonder team and that’s effect till Copa centenario..if sabella was our coach then we definitely won that two Copa…

    • He almost died, he was very ill. Looking better now.

12. One love forever♥lavezzi♥

13. One of the few players who gives his all when playing for argentina.
    He isn’t good at scoring but is great as winger. He is older now but i would still take him over di maria.

14. This time we will be eliminated in the group stage. How can we leave mauro Icardi at home. He should be our lethal weapon in this world cup. He has already proved his worth at inter. What more should he do to earn a spot for Argentina. I know that we have the best attacking lineup. But our best attacker is getting ignored for no valid reason. I don’t know whether friends club exist or not. But I would like to ask one question. Couple of days ago in an interview Messi told higuain is our best striker, Messi also told that players like higuain, biglia, banega, masche, romero, aguero get selected for their own merit. He has nothing got to do with selection process. But why he does not name any junior player who should be selected for the betterment of Argentina. Why he does not say that Icardi should be selected. Everyone knows that if Messi says something team management can’t ignore that.

    • Arindam Chandra: we will make it to the elimination rounds but after that “all bets are off” as they say BUT I agree why leave Icardi out as he is a goal machine and we need his kind grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

15. Prime example of why you should go for fitter player instead of unfit big name… 2014 wc final as soon as unfit aguero came off the bench for Lavezzi we lost our control of the game… And gago for enzo perez… These two mistakes cost us the WC… Sabella’s only two mistakes i suppose!!

    • All of our big chances came from the second half (only Kroos surprise in the first…yeahh with Lavezzi and Enzo we scored 3 goals, ohh wait…the reality Aguero, Gago and Di maria’s injuries were fatal, 6 goals in the group stage then with Lavezzi and Enzo not even clear chances, the creativity was gone with them

      • so true brother and it suked a lot, apparently the team at half time said we got to go for it as we wont make extra time-exhausted from the Dutch match and extra time before.

      • That’s an incorrect assessment of the game in my mind. If you watch the game and not count of stats only, you will see we lost control of the game in the second half. Lavezzi was killing it from the right. Germans were struggling to control that. We took the foot off the pedal. We should have continued till at least 60-65 mins.

        • It was fatigue. Argentina had one day less of rest and had gruelling extra time games prior to that final, while Germany walked in fresh. We where better until tired legs made us park the bus and we paid for it. But yes.. injuries killed us.

          • And again, if we reach the semi Argentina will play one day later with Germany?, maybe the hardest route ever, a strong group, than (Denmark/Peru or a nightmare France scenario), Spain, Germany and Brazil or France in the final with 1 day less rest, i start to think the 2. place in the group would be much better.

      • Csabalala

        “the reality Aguero, Gago and Di maria’s injuries were fatal, 6 goals in the group stage then with Lavezzi and Enzo not even clear chances, the creativity was gone with them”

        Did you even watched the World Cup? You really try to convict us that Aguero, Gago and Di Maria were behind the 6 goals we scored in early stages? Really? Where they were? Only Di Maria against Switzerland scored. But, that’s not exagerration, match against Switzerland was probably his worst in NT ever. He lost the ball 100 times… and just because he scored that winning goal We should think he was good? No, he was mere shit. I remember that game too well to be manipulated.

        Only Messi made difference in early stages.

        With Lavezzi and Enzo the team were playing far better. And started to look as team indeed. You should watch once again semi-final and final because your approach is dangerous mix of pure, clinical and abstract stats (without contact with real football) with dose of superstitions (when you said:”the reality Aguero, Gago and Di maria’s injuries were fatal”).

        Now I’ts not surprise for me you tend to be the closest of KidultHood in opinions.

    • sulaV: amigo I agree totally, why why and why

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