Alejandro Papu Gomez talks about Argentina national team, Lionel Messi, more

By
Roy Nemer
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79

Alejandro Papu Gomez spoke about making the Argentina national team, Lionel Messi and more.

Papu Gomez was selected for the October World Cup qualifiers for Argentina after a three year absence from the team. Speaking in an interview with ClossContinental, here’s what he had to say:

“It had been three years that I hadn’t been back. For me, it’s spectacular being back because it’s not easy at my age. Obviously I would have liked to have had some minutes but that’s how it was. Getting to the Argentina national team with one day of training is not easy. The match against Ecuador was asking for another player but the coach selected someone else.”

In regards to Lionel Messi:

“I saw Messi very happy with this Argentina national team group. If he is happy, we will all be happy. We know what he lived the past few months at Barcelona, surely he’s not comfortable with the way the team is playing.”

Gomez also spoke about the team:

“This group of Argentina national team players has to have about 30-40 games behind them. I believe that Argentina have an obligation of making the quarter finals of a World Cup. You can’t demand to be a World champion now. I don’t pretend for us to be Germany but when you can work three or four years with the same people, things come out better. I hope this happens with Scaloni.”

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79 Comments

  1. It is not only Ocampos, it is the whole team of Sevilla underperforming. Besides Ocampos gave the assist to Nasri for Sevilla’s goal. Ocampos is one of Sevilla’s best players and if you don’t want to accept my opinion just check Sevilla’s fans opinion, Ocampos is one of their favourites. In my humble opinion Ocampos is one of Argentina’s best newcomimg players, i agree that he is far from his best currently indeed, but we should not give up on our players that easily when they are out of form and the same goes for Lautaro as well whose bad form is even worse.

  2. Why do manchester city let go off Benjamin garre so easily?usually they loves to keep the talented players ,make use of them or make a good amount of money from them.
    Isn’t he good enough to be in European teams?

    • Not sure. I don’t think it was a great decision career wise because City have one of the best squads in the world and chances don’t come easily for youngsters. Even Foden who is hailed by England and the fan base had minutes tough to come by. Although maybe the experience in England did serve to help him to an extent, and now he is getting more consistent minutes in Racing with European experience.

  4. What an annoying player Lucas Ocampos is he does all the useless stuffs he can do on the field. If he continues like this he may become a bench warmer in 2nd half of the season.

          • But never seen Ocampos performed like a footballing star. He is just above average, nothing special in him.
            How many times we had seen Di maria carried his team on his own and played like a real star.
            The whole world will never rate Ocampos better than Di Maria, except for some filthy Argentine supporters.

    • I am with Mrinal here. Apart from physicality what he brought last year is scoring. After UEL semi final, his scoring from dropped. If you take out scoring, there is nothing much he can offer. No cross, no through ball, no engaging attacking move. Just watch bolivia match, you will see the instant impact Correa made after subbing him.

  7. Romero starts for Atalanta and Magallan starts for Crotone. Among all of our young defenders, Romero is the best marker. I hope Gasperini develops him into a worldclass one. He can be a better version of Garay.

    Among all of the young defenders, Balerdi is the one who lacks maturity most. I blame boca juniors for this.

  8. Emi Martinez should be first choice, playing with Martinez is like playing with five defenders,he always gives defence an extra edge. Scaloni should include him in the team as soon as possible. Once he gets adapted to Argentina backline thing will look very different. Pezella and Otamendi are good defenders we can see many clean sheets almost 60 %

  9. Our top 3 goalkeeper should be this 3:
    1. Damian Martinez
    2. Conan Ledesma
    3. Augustin Marchesin.

    Martinez needs no intro but I think if Ledesma keeps doing what he is doing now, he will surpass Martinez. Lesesma kept 4 clean sheet with 15 saves in his name. He is also a good coordinator of defence.

    Marchesin has always been a good gk. He has been with nt for a long time. And he is the only gk we have who plays CL football. It is no brainer.

    With due respect, it is Armani and Andrada who adds nothing other than making press happy.

    • It’s Musso in first for me, with Martinez and Andrada as no.2 and 3 respectively. Ledesma has been very impressive but it’s still too early and he’s weak with his distribution, still I’m glad he’s being called up because it seems to be giving him alot of confidence.
      I really like Andrade, he’s good in everything including his handling of the ball and his long shots/distribution, I think he deserves the chance to be fighting for no.1 with the rest.
      Marchesin has been good for Porto but he’s one game away from a shocking error and his games for the NT have not been that impressive.
      Sadly I’ve given up on Scaloni selecting Benitez, but Argentina could throw him a bone and put him in the olympic team.

      • just a small change in order for me . But list is same as Mamoun.
        Martinez – Musso- Benitez- Andrada. 1 of Andrada/ Benitez goes to Olympics. Batista plays a high defensive line – So Andrada can be a good bet for his distribution. Ledesma will be great to watch for some more time before a NT comment.

        • I still think Martinez is above Ledesma but given his current form Ledesma should be within our top three, fighting for the number two spot with Musso. I am very proud of him because he was able to come from the super liga into a side that is currently in a champions league spot in the last half of his career.

  10. Rumor: Benjamin garre agent negotiate with some top European team for benjamin transfer and asking them to pay his clause that is 13million dollar

  11. I want to know one thing that why Argentina U20 and U23 teams dont use much players(atleast 50%) from European based clubs . I am not against calling up of local players but atleast 50% of squad should consist of (U20) argentines who play in european clubs atleast in future players like franco vezzoni of inter, Barrachea and matias coule of Juventus, Luka romero of mallorca, nicola belloni of pescara etc. are hopefully given chance in u20 and u23 teams, this would help Argentina U20 teams to play better in U20 WC and Olympics and would also help senior NT in the long run too.

    • There are 2 tournaments here – U23 goes to Olympics . U20 ( if they qualify ) will go to FIFA U20 World Cup
      1) Olympics – Olympics football this time is scheduled between July last week & Aug first week of 2021 . There will be ideally 2 weeks of conditioning camps before that . So effectively Olympics selected players need to be available between July 2nd week till Aug first week . This is slightly better than previous Olympics schedules. Most top leagues start in August 3rd or 4th week & For players who are long term in same club – pre season friendlies is what will get missed .AFA has prime responsibility to convince clubs to release players . If its a new player in club – highly unlikely for release as club wants preseason to settle player.
      Messi10 – if you look at our U23 profile – we have a healthy mix of Europe & local . Gaich, NPerez, Medina, Licha, Balerdi, Colambatto, Bustos, Valenzuela ,Ponce, Maccllister all play in Europe while local league players include Vera, Capaldo, Bravo, Urzi, Alvarez etc. From a competition perspective – Brazil ,France , Germany , Spain may have individually more talented players . But we have a great advantage on team chemistry as Fernando Batista has been with same set of youngsters for some time & Pan American games , PreOlympic tournament & Torneo U23 cup wins are good forward steps . Lot of these players were together in U20 2019 WC also where we lost in penalties to Mali in PQF.
      The only point of worry is AFA inefficiency which screwed 2016 Olympics & if you notice we are the only Olympics qualified team not playing friendlies during this Nov international break. This is a lost opportunity to continue building team chemistry. Batista has already said that he wont go for the 3 overage players & hope he shows flexibility on that point as a good GK can be taken from one of Andrada/ Benitez/ Ledesma etc
      2) U20 World Cup is May20- June 12th 2021 . Considering a 2 week camp prior to start date , this directly clashes with most top leagues last 2-3 weeks & CL /Europa final stages. But this has FIFA scope & hence club player release is possible. Normally previous U17 WC teams graduate to U20. Here local players are always more & rightfully . While Juventus youth team sounds heavy, they actually play in Serie C. Some of our U20 eligible local talent is awesome & are playing in local first division ( like Almada , De La Vega are awesome & Godoy,Palacios,Zeballos, Velasco are v promising ) . Also the team chemistry angle here will be crucial which can be better built with local players. Unless there is some real breakout star in Europe , we will see U20 more local player based .An exception can be maybe a Bruno Amione ( who was already in U17 WC ) or maybe a Santi Mina Ramos or if any of the names you mentioned are really good.

  12. Nico Gonzalez is back in action and scored a penalty in Stuttgart’s 1-1 draw.
    Ledesma continues to impress as he kept another clean sheet as Cadiz won 2-0.

  14. Yesterday I met with Dr Strange. I asked him what are the possibilities of this Argentina Team to win the coming Copa 2021 And WC 2022. There were millions of possible outcomes. Most of of them were either Copa or WC. Only 1 outcome said both. He said, If Scaloni uses more younger players now to gel with the team the outcome is WC, And If Scaloni keeps some old players with form the outcome is Copa but they would retire before WC leaving our team very young and in-experienced. But 1 thing he said for sure, The only outcome where we win both cups, Lionel Messi lifts them with the captains arm band.

  15. I’m hearing that it’s official…
    That the traitor Icardi is going to play for a Milan. I don’t think he will get a chance to play for national team till 2026. Hopefully never

  16. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the biggest LEGEND of Argentina.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIEGO !!!

    one short story i will never forget about Diego and i always smile when i remember.

    some years before Pele make one interview. the reporter speaking to him that he was the best and bla bla bla. in one momment Pele said “God of football send me to earth for people see me playing this sport”.

    the next day one other reporter told to Diego what Pele said in his interview and i write up.
    then Diego reply ” I didn t send anybody “.

    ha ha ha ha ha
    i will never forget that 🙂 🙂 🙂

  17. Seeing the diverse list of everyone’s top 5 or 10 favorite players reminds me that we are very lucky to have such wonderful players. Whether you named Maradona, Messi, Batigol, Masch, Riquelme, etc, there are very few countries that have the luxury of so many players to pick from!

  19. Argentinos Juniors —》Fausto Vera(20)
    Indepentiente —》Alan Velasco(18)
    Racing —》Benjamin Garre(20)
    Defensa y Justicia —》Hector Martinez(22)
    Godoy Cruz —》 Tomas Badaloni(20)
    Colon —》 Alex Vigo(21)
    Gimnasia La plata —》Jose Paradela(21)
    Union Santa Fe —》 Franco Calderon(21)
    Aldosivi —》Malcom Braida(23)
    Atletico Tucuman —》 Jonas Romero(20)

  20. Argentine Primera Division is back…
    Here are 20 young players from 20 clubs to follow (if you are interested)
    River plate —》Julien Alvarez(20)
    Boca Juniors —》 Exequiel Zeballos(18)
    Rosario Central —》Pupi Ferreyra(18)
    Velez Sarsfield —》of course Thiago Almada
    Talleres —》 Favio Cabral(19)
    Lanus —》Pedro de la Vega (19)
    Banfield —》Claudio Bravo(23)
    San Lorenzo —》 Federico Gattoni(21)
    Estudiantes —》Dario Sarmiento(17)
    Newells Old Boys —》Nicolas Castro(19)

    Credits to Sudanalytics twitter… check them for more details

    • lol what the heck?? Imagine he does really well…watch all the OLDIE haters shit their pants in fear Scaloniu would bench a youngin for him. He aint coming but the thought makes me chuckle.

  22. Mourinho after Antwerp match: “I would have liked to have made 11 [half-time changes],” he admitted. “I didn’t make five because I was afraid of a long 45 minutes without any changes to make. “There is only one to blame which is me. I made the team. I have chosen the players to start and at half-time I tried to improve the situation but it was not enough. The dynamic of the first half was there, the mentality of the first half was there and it was difficult to change. “You know our best team. But I always like to think the players deserve an opportunity. We have a big squad with lots of good players. “It’s my responsibility to give them opportunities to play and catch the chance with both hands and be in conditions to ask for more. And tonight my future choices are going to be very easy”………………………………………………………………………………………..imo Lo celso will be a bench warmer this season behind Winks/Sissoko, Hojberg-Ndombele.

    • It is good for Lo celso as he did not get enough rest after the last season.Mourinho tactics is attack with attacking players and defence with defensive player he is not using playmakers like Lo celso soon opponents going to adapt to this tactics and Mourinho will go for Lo celso again.

      • Mourinho tactics are shit these days . All PL managers are not dumb if mourinho plan to attack with just Son and Kane combo then it will be easy for the opponents to defend and wont last long it will end soon.

    • Lo Celos just returned from injury was obviously not match fit. Mou said countless times that he does not risk unfit players.

      There is NOTHING to indicate that Lo Celso is not prefered. Where are you getting this from?

    • Absolutely baffling how you reach this conclusion based on a match you probably didn’t even watch, and a Mourinho quote that isn’t even directed at Lo Celso, but at the team as a whole… What about the other Mourinho quotes such as “I wouldn’t swap him for Bruno Fernandes or any player” or “I will build the squad around Lo Celso this season”?

      Sure, Gio had an off game against Antwerp, but so did Bale, Son, Kane and Dele. At least he created. And yet, Lo Celso rated highest Spurs player on Sofascore and second highest on Whoscored but nah he’s definitely a bench warmer far down the picking line now

    • I agree with most of the replies here. I didn’t watch the match, but I did read the Mourinho feedback last night. The most affected is Dele Ali, if I understand. I wouldn’t worry too much. Nothing reassuring and be proud of, but wont worry either, in context of Lo Celso.

      BTW, the important part is, there are very few chances to shine. Very few chances the world gives you. You need to grab it, for yourself. I am not a big fan of the sentiment that our players are not given chances or our players need more time. Sometimes unfair things happen, but generally, if you kick ass, its tough to keep you out.

    • I watched the match and to be honest i’ve never seen lo celso this much lazy and toothless. However, he wasn’t helped by the other players who were playing with him, they also were as awful as lo celso.
      Just one bad game and you’re saying he will sit on the bench. Lo celso is a fighter and too talented to be on the bench. I’m pretty sure lo celso was just little bit rusty, nothing else.

    • Seriously balala? You’re doing this again? And here I thought Trump telling his supporters (who were standing there and cheering neck to neck without masks) to socially distance was shameless!!

      You did it when he left PSG to Betis and then when he left Betis to Spurs and here you are again doing the same asinine crap you do every year like clock work. Face it, Celso is pure class and he proved you trolls wrong again and again and again.
      Dude it’s time to start barking up another tree, I don’t know, maybe pick on DePaul for not playing for one of those “big teams” you love so much.

  23. Realistic lineup?
    4231
    ……….Toro

    Papu-Messi-Ocampos

    Licha/Paredes-Celso

    Taglia – Montiel
    Senesi-Lmq

    Martinez

    • 4321 – i would try a midfielder like De Paul instead of Ocampos. With those 5 in midifield, i can see the opponent really struggling to even touch the ball. Arg 90% possession incoming! Gomez owns left and Messi the right with De Paul and Lo Celso supporting. Montiel and Tagliafico needed more than ever.

      Toro/Dybala

      Gomez – Messi

      Lo Celso – Paredes – De Paul

  25. Best line up for November 1st friendlies
    Emi Martinez
    Foyth. Pezella. Otamendi. Tagliafico
    De Paul. Paredes. Lo celso
    Messi. Dybla. J.Correa

    Gomez for Lo celso 60 minute
    Lamela for De Paul 60 minute
    N.Perez for Pezella 80 minute
    Medina for Otamendi 80 minute
    Alario for Dybla 80 minute

  26. Papu deserves to be played for some minutes atleast in the upcoming matches. Let’s see what Papu-Messi combo can bring to the table.

    • ❤ Grande Diego

      Brasil, decime que se siente
      Tener en casa a tu papá
      Te juro que aunque pasen los años
      Nunca nos vamos a olvidar
      Que el Diego los gambeteó
      Que el Cani los vacunó
      Que están llorando
      De Italia hasta hoy
      A Messi lo vas a ver
      La Copa nos va a traer
      Maradona es más grande que Pelé

      i hope we start seeing a healthier Diego. He’s still fairly young, no reason why we cant enjoy this bigger than life personality for many more years to come!

  29. Papu is on fire, he is one of the star at Serie A nowadays. Scaloni have to find a way to optimized and utilized him properly; unfortunately Scaloni need to have a courage to drop one of his favourite player to give Papu a minute to shown up. We all have experience since Passarela reign how the coach stuck and tight with their own imagination.

    Sadly but naked truth – The write off and never give a chance to ‘on fire’ player is a part of Argentina football. Look how we missed Redondo, Riquelme, Veron, Zanetti, Milito during their prime time just because of like dislike and certain “sponsor” interest.

    • > unfortunately Scaloni need to have a courage to drop one of his favourite player to give Papu a minute to shown up.

      I’d bet its Ocampos. With Gomez + Messi and 3 mids, the opponent will barely touch the ball!

      For the 9, i’m not sure who compliments Gomessi best. Is it our most techinical 9 Dybala, or wrecking ball Martinez, or a guy like Alario for his aerial ability.

    • If Araujo is injured Pique is there , if Pique is suspended Araujo is there , if both are unavailable Koeman prefers De jong to play as a CB so i don’t think ramos mingo is getting any chance soon may be some game time in cup matches.
      Tbh lo celso was below average last night.

      • Lo celso just came back from injury and he had produced some scoring chances for tottenham…. All the players for tottenham yesterday was below average even bale…. Be optimistic bro copa fel rey is coming ramos mingo will surely get A chance

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