Nahuel GUZMAN replaces Sergio ROMERO in Argentina World Cup team

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Nahuel GUZMAN will replace Manchester United goalkeeper Sergio ROMERO in Argentina’s team for the World Cup.

After the breaking news coming earlier today regarding Sergio ROMERO, the official Argentina Twitter account has tweeted out that the Tigres goalkeeper will replace him in the squad.

Between Willy CABALLERO, Nahuel GUZMAN and Franco ARMANI, GUZMAN is the goalkeeper with the most experience under his belt with the Argentina having played a total of six matches.

Nahuel Guzmán: Argentina International Caps – Senior Level

# Opponent Competition Date Result
1 Hong Kong Friendly October 14, 2014 Final 7-0 Argentina
2 Portugal Friendly November 18, 2014 Final 1-0 Portugal
3 El Salvador Friendly March 28, 2015 Final 2-0 Argentina
4 Bolivia Friendly June 6, 2015 Final 5-0 Argentina
5 Mexico Friendly September 8, 2015 Final 2-2 Draw
6 Singapore Friendly June 13, 2017 Final 6-0 Argentina

Willy Caballero: Argentina International Caps – Senior Level

# Opponent Competition Date Result
1 Italy Friendly March 23, 2018 Final 2-0 Argentina
2 Spain Friendly March 27, 2018 Final 6-1 Spain

55 Comments

  1. I can see that some of you got our wishes. I am older than most of you therefore I approach things differently. The question now can we put Armani in the goal during the world cup despite the fact he never plays in the national team before?

  2. Sad to see Romero leave. But I guess it could be blessing in disguise for us. Although he performed greatly in crucial moments for us, he never transmits confidence. I hope Armani can do better.

    I would not mind if we had to replace the following players too due to not being fully fit (and/or not in form).

    Mercado – Pezella/Lema/Mussachio/Garay
    Rojo – Pezella/Lema/Mussachio/Garay
    Bigilia – Pizarro/Battaglia/Ascacibar
    Banega – Paredes/Pastore

    and even:
    DiMaria – Centurion/Perotti/A Gomez/A Correa
    Aguero – L Martinez/Icardi
    Higuain – L Martinez/Icardi

    I hope rest everyone stay healthy. I would be happy even if the above mentioned 7 players are not replaced, but they must be fully fit to last the entire world cup in fine form.

  3. Cant wait for the prospect of Lo Celso and Messi playing together in a team. Lo Celso has grown so much in confidence since the previous friendlies. Skillful on the ball and unpredictable against his opponents. His defensive work has improved so much too. Oh and guess what he loves to do body feints too just like our captain. He must start along with biglia in the middle.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJgRFaKhcjQ

  4. in the friendly against Haiti and with Israel we will see what Sampaoli thinking about goalkeeper. for now i think we should give Armani a chance. we already know that both Caballero and Guzman are not better than Romero. Sampaoli knows better of course.

  5. Some of football critics think that caballero will be our starting goalkeeper and Armani could be 2nd choice.I hope sampaoli thinks differently and choose Armani as a starter.we need a better goalkeeper than caballero for god sake he is 36 error prone not a good option.

    • Suddenly Cabellero 36 error prone !!

      Goalkeeper’s age 🙂
      Cabellero has experience against big clubs Malaga man city Chelsea experience will come good

      • Ask any mancity or Chelsea fan you’ll get your answer.he was superb when he was in Malaga.but now he is totally off form.his confidence dented.one good performance against Italy doesn’t mean he is better.pekerman didn’t believe in current form and gave experience more importance and didn’t play certain Lionel Messi and we all know the result.experience is a big thing but not everything.Armani getting regular game time he is not a bench warmer like caballero.

  6. Thanks anupurno for this video. Now I am more comfortable with goalkeeper situation. But where had Franco armani been for so long? But it remains to be seen whether sampaoli chooses him as no one goal keeper. If armani plays it will be great for our team.

  7. Bad luck for Romero.
    The best thing is that Sampa is not taking any chances. Romero could heal in time, but Sampa chooses a back up immediately and shows he wants to take fit players to the WC. In the next few days he will assess other players that came back from injuries. If he does not like what he sees, he will replace them.
    Biglia – Pizarro, Battaglia or Enzo Perez
    Aguero – Icardi
    Mercado – Pezzella
    Rojo – Pezzella or Garay

  8. i think its pointless taking Caballero, he conceded 6 goals in the last game (from six shots), he is well past his best,he never plays and it adds no value to the national team at any level now or into the future sitting him on the bench.

    Put in Rulli, Walter Benitez, Fernando Monetti, Agustin Rossi……….give someone the world cup experience so that there is some benefit to the team.

      • 2 goals were his fault.one wrong pass lead to a isco goal and one goal he was out of position.do rewatch the match.and the 1st goal was conceded by Romero not caballero

      • Not only Spain match even when he played for Chelsea this season he was making mistakes and struggling . Italy match can be a fluke.

  9. i believe Armani should be our no1 as things is now. for one simple reason. we should give him a chance to prove his worth. Guzman and Caballero have already taken their chances and unfortunately show us that both of them are not better than Romero.

  10. Group A : Russia , Uruguay
    Group B : Spain , Portugal
    Group C : France , Peru
    Group D : Argentina , Iceland

    Group E : Brazil , Costa Rica
    Group F : Germany , Sweden
    Group G : Belgium , England
    Group H : Poland , Columbia

    Round of 16
    Russia × Portugal
    Uruguay × Spain
    France × Iceland
    Peru × Argentina

    Brazil × Sweden
    Costa Rica × Germany
    Belgium × Columbia
    England × Poland

    Round of 8

    Russia x France
    Spain x Argentina
    Brazil x England
    Germany x Belgium

    Semi Final

    France X England
    Argentina X Belgium

    Final

    ARGENTINA vs France (3_1)

    Vamos. 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

    • Iceland is the worst team in our group. i don t think will pass from group stage. as about England team is not as good as you think i believe. my friendly opinion:-):-):-)

      • iceland is propably the strongest team in our group! they won their qualifying group ahead of croatia. they nearly beat france at the euros. they are loaded with confidence. they are red hot smoking and ready to take us down. and we cant handle pressure like this. they are coming for us with everything they have. they want our sclaps. and you will see 10 argentine players shitting their pants with zero confidence and messi. very likely a clear defeat for us. 1-3.

        • my friend are you speaking sure for Iceland? the only can do against us is to pray first and after put the bus in front of goakeeper:-):-):-)
          Iceland is one hard working team but nothing beyond that.

        • Who told u to support Argentina?? U don have knowledge to say anything about football. I m wondering to see so many plastic fans in these blog..and these blog becomes a shit

      • maybe. but i guess ist iceland and croatia. croatia most likely will humilate us with the likes of lovren, car, corluka, modric, rakitic, kovacic, perisic, mandzukic and kramaric. we wont stand a Chance. 1-4. arg 1 – nig 2.

    • Russia is a weak team no way they come first.Uruguay is a strong side.noway Uruguay and Spain 2nd round.if Uruguay play Spain then Uruguay may beat Spain

  11. Back in 1990, I rememberI was extremely disappointed that my Argentina could not beat the 8 men Cameroon (after 3 red cards). I thought it would be a bad World cup for us. Diego looked a bit fat and slow compared to 1986.

    Then the next game it got worse as Pumpido, the WC winning goalie got injured. Here came a new unknown goalie: Sergio Goycochea who was supposed to be the third goalie.

    I remember thinking: who is this guy?

    Standing at 6’0 (183 cm) only, he was not convincing at all. He could not catch the ball, he always parried the shots, even the soft shots.

    That happened to be his “only” weakness as a goalie.

    Then he started to convince me when he played amazing vs Brazil. Brazil dominated us for 90
    minutes. They had maybe 10 golden chances vs. 1 from us, which resulted in Caniggia’s goal from Diego’s pass. Goyco was for me the man of the match.

    The next game against Yugoslavia. PK shootout. OK Maradona missed his soft PK. Goyco needed to stop the one of else we would be screwed. The moment Maradona missed, I thought we would go home.

    This guy Goycochea is the calmest goalie I have ever seen when facing PK. If the great Neuer always jumps up and down before the shooter shoots the PK, if Liverpool’s Dudek acts like a clown to destroy the concentration of the shooter, Goyco was just standing, and watched the shooter like a lioness watches her prey and reacted like a cat.

    Goyco ended up saving 2 PK against Yugoslavia and we won!

    The next game, his weakness of never able to hold the ball was exposed by the Italians. Italy had a shot shot that most goalie could hold, but Goyco parried the ball and Italy scored from the rebound.

    I thought it was over again… because the Bilardista system was so defensive in 1990 that I did not know how we would even score.

    Caniggia did his magic again, and it was leveled 1-1. PK shootout, we were facing a team that conceded (if I am not mistaken) 0 goal, the host and the tournament favorite, Italy with their world class goalie, Walter Zenga vs the new kid on the block, Goyco. The man ended up stopping 2 PK again and we were in the final!

    Did you remember that in 2014, it was exactly the same scenario? Romero stopped 2 PK and sent us to the final.

    “Almost” means nothing in futbol. He only almost stopped Brehme’s PK in the final, but Goyco forever is a legend. He is even more famous than Pumpido.

    Goyco was the last goalie who gave us Copa America 1991 and 1993. Basile made a stupid mistake not to start him in WC 1994 and went for Islas.

    Why am I saying all this?

    In around 2003 I followed closely all Argentina U-23 game of South American qualifying games.

    Argentina had 2 good young goalies at the time: Lux and Caballero. The former was the starter in the Olympic. The later is a late bloomer.

    Caballero started in a lot of the qualifying matches. There I got to watch him a lot. One time his Argentina conceded a PK and I was surprised to see how similar he was to Goycochea when facing PK. Caballero is only one inch taller than Goyco. And they both are PK specialists.

    According to this:

    https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/willy-caballero/elfmeterstatistik/spieler/19948

    He stopped an incredible rate (among the best in the world) 11 of 27 PK in his career. Of course it is a lot more than that considering some of the PK stats in PK shootouts is not recorded.

    He saved 3 PK in one PK shootout match one time:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/12177040/Willy-Caballero-saved-three-penalties-to-win-the-League-Cup-for-Manchester-City-but-who-is-heLeague-Cup-Na.html

    He saved’s CR 7’s, Hazard’s, Neymar’s, and Falcao’s PK.

    For me it is Caballero’s turn to start in the World Cup.

    He had a bad game against Spain, but I would feel safe when facing PK shootout with him as a goalie.

    The process is a bit similar to Pumpido’s injury, then we got to see Goyco. Now, Caballero has always been underestimated in his whole career. Let’s see if Romero’s injury is a blessing in disguise or not.

    Basile’a decision to start the wrong goalie in 1994 costed us the second round exit.

    I respect Armani, but it is Caballero’s time.

  12. Feeling sorry for romeo, but after hearing about armani from the rest of the mundo members armani is more efficient than romeo. Only time will tell that. But I am scared of our defensive midfield players. At some point the absence of capable defensive midfielders (battaglia, pizzaro, ascacibar) will be felt.

  13. I hope Armani will start. Not that i watched all his games or i am a big fan. But just for a single reason that the other original pick of sampoli is pathetic, too slow. Caballero has lost it completely. And coming to Guzman, he is very good with ball, caballero is also ok with ball. But both of them are unreliable.

    I hope Armani will make a mark. He is fath, tall. Reflex is also good. I want him to start & make a difference, this can be very well his Keyler Navas moment. Though he is 31.

  14. Lets look at the positive side, may be it is the right time for a new GK to step in. Romero no doubt is a solid GK for Albiceleste although his playing time and chances in club level are very limited. Armanni become the top candidate to replace him as his record in club level are excellent. Prefer Armanni than Willy

    • Anyway, he’s going to be the third choice. So it could have been Rulli to get some WC experience as hes probably going to be our GK in next WC..!

  15. I have been standing up for Romero ever since his outstanding performance in the 2014 World Cup and I for one will feel awkward not seeing him between the sticks. I hope his replacement, whoever he might be measures up to his last WC performance.

    To all his haters: beware what you wish for!

    • people like it or not Romero is the best Argentinian goalkeeper this years. his miss is big blow for our team. this is the reallity. i hope Armani will prove us that he is better. i will be very happy if happaned that.

  16. This Nahuel Guzman does not know ABC of goalkeeping why we selected him.He is a complete waste.Even against Nigeria he conceded four goals and later he said no goalkeeper in the world could have saved those goals.I wish Armani stays got for whole tournament he is our only hope now.He is good shot stopper.Let’ s see how he responds with Argentina.Caballero is slow we can not trust him.Goalkeeper is most important position in football.

  17. Well I feel very sorry for Romero but sometimes things happen for right reason. This could turn out to be blessing in disguise for us. I personally don’t want Willy to be our No1. I wanted him in 2014 but now he has clearly passed it. The few games he played for Chelsea most of the goals he conceded was because of his error in judgment. That is why Conte dropped him in the final of FA cup. However not many of us have seen Armani play. Regular followers of Argentine local league could give us some insight on Armani’s game. Local media rates this guy highly.

    Romero being dropped a day after team announcement raises serious questions on Sampaoli and his staff’s team selection method . Now i have serious doubt on Biglia, Aguero, Mercado and Rojo’ fitness. Lets pray its not going to be 2014 all over again and Sampaoli knows what he is doing!!

      • Yeah if Mercado can’t make it then Pezzella has to be selected. It will strengthen our weak defense . However Pezzella had a very poor last game against Milan and subbed around 75mins.

      • Mercado is a burden as of now. Hope he will get replaced. Not rojo. Rojo’s experience will be valuable especially with age n.power in his side.

  18. Would have taken rulli instead of guzman
    Also Guzmán Played poorly in mexican playoffs
    Also i Would change
    Pezella for rojo
    And ascacibar for masche or Biglia banega should be sub

    • The image, which is accompanied by an ironic text about dreams, reflects Sampaoli with a mask on his face. But it was not there, but Guzmán father added some tattoos to the arms of the DT with the name of different means, noting that Sampa felt journalistic pressure. A clear message to the call of Franco Armani.

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