Three Argentine local players used in South American World Cup qualifiers

By
Roy Nemer
-
22

Only three Argentine players based in South America have taken part in the 2022 South American World Cup qualifiers. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has counted on Franco Armani, Eduardo Salvio and Gonzalo Montiel from the local league during the World Cup qualifiers and he may need to count on more for the month of March.

As we reported earlier, there was a meeting held on Friday between CONMEBOL and FIFA to discuss this month’s World Cup qualifiers. While it is still unclear if the matches will be played, Argentina did announce that they would accept to play their two matches vs. Uruguay and Brazil later this month without European based players.

Since the beginning of the South American qualifiers, Argentina have managed three wins and a draw in their first four matches. Wins to start vs. Ecuador and Bolivia while they managed a draw vs. Paraguay and a victory away vs. Peru. Franco Armani was the goalkeeper for all four of those matches while Gonzalo Montiel was a figure in the back line for the four matches as well. Eduardo Salvio, currently out with an ACL injury, only took part in the win vs. Ecuador.

Argentine goalkeeper Esteban Andrada of Boca Juniors was an unused substitute while Gremio defender Walter Kannemann was also on the bench and did not play a minute with the team.

While goalkeeper Franco Armani is healthy, Gonzalo Montiel currently suffers from mononucleosis and his recovery remains unclear.

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22 Comments

  1. Gaich starts today. Goal with a great movement & clinical finish with left foot. Rain drowned match… Remembering palermo & maradona in 2010 peru match.

  2. Although it is dissappointing we cant field our best players, it is still fun to speculate players from local league. The squad from my top of head would be
    ………………….Andrada…………..
    Bustos…..Giannetti…..kanneman…Angileri
    ………………..lucas romero………….
    E.Reynoso…M.payero…G.guilappo…M.suarez
    ……………….Brian romero……….

    Subs:- Armani, Guzman, hector martinez, izquierdoz, bravo, David ayala, tomas pochettino, palavecino, Nacho fernandes, Alan velasco, Julian alvarez, Ramon Abila

  3. Thinking again if Brazil and Uruguay are also gonna field South american based teams. Then we may have a chance here especially against Uruguay. Brazil is still tough.

    The Argentine league teams are capable of beating Brazilian and Uruguay league teams. So logically it can be done.

    Nacho, Enzo,Almada, Angleri, Kanneman, Zaracho, Armani(Well we have to go with him, Cant use Andrada in an entirely new backline) Tevez. We have to use whatever resources we have. There should be a fire inside the South American players to perform for the NT which is a once in a lifetime chance for them. That fire we have to utilize that. It may can help us. Hopefully.

    Looking back, that draw against Paraguay was bad result.We should have won that match. There r no light matches in South American qualifiers.

  4. Thinking of a worst case non European based player NT team based on FIFA-Conembol discussions . Here could be some options

    1-3-2-4 or 1-4-1-1 ( when Zaracho advances )
    Tevez
    Urzi (Velasco)- Almada ( Galoppo) – De La Vega
    Enzo Fernandez ( Defensa) – Zaracho
    Anglieri – Kannemann- Adonis Frias – Montiel
    Armani ( for once he is my first choice!! )

    Subs can be :
    Attack – Julian Alvarez , Matias Suarez , Birian Romero ( Defensa)
    MF – Nacho Fernandez ( Zaracho sub) , Martin Payero, Fausta Vera , Tomas Belmonte
    Defense – F Bustos ( if Montiel doesent recover ) , Carlos Izquierdoz ( Boca) , Nery Dominguez ( Racing), Hector Martinez ( riverP), Franciso Ortega ( LB- Velez )
    GK – Andrada & Lautaro Morales ( Lanus)

    Tevez at 37 is still a fox though he is not a 90min player. But frankly cant see anyone else in local league who can lead the attack & be crucial in tough moments . Maybe his last hurrah.

    • Great team, I especially like your inclusions of Fernandez and Zaracho. I do think Suarez should start because he is in great form, but either way seeing Tevez would be interesting because it would be his last games for Argentina

      • Thanks Olive. Yes agree Suarez is a Scaloni fav & will definitely get match time. Tevez in short bursts can be effective for all his experience. He is recovering from his personal loss of his father’s demise. But with 3 weeks , i guess he is back. Enzo fernandez is growing very well – can be a sub for Parades in near future if he continues this growth

  5. Best Premiere League goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez
    Best Serie A defender C. Romero.
    Why these two players are not in playing eleven what weed is Scaloni smoking.
    If Sarvia comes Foyth and C. Romero should be the pair at CB or C. Romero and Pezella,Angelleri as left back, Saravia/Foyth as right back.

  6. Crazy situation . But i am sure Argentine FA agreeing for all local players is subject to that being the rule for all the countries. Also need to watch out & see if this rule will apply for all European countries or only England. Argentina, Brazil , Uruguay all will be equally impacted if none of European based players are allowed & from that perspective i think we should be fine

  7. Mundo Amigos,

    Check this out..I ordered a signed jersey by El Jefecito and I couldn’t be happier! Of course there is always risk of being fake but this company seems trustworthy. They also have photos of the signing event.

    Aguero, Di Maria, Messi, and Maradona up next although the last 2 titans will take more time because they’re freaking expensive 🙂

    postimg.cc/sBN4VtTM

      • The china virus is so damn annoying that it infected the whole world. And still china do not admit that the virus came from their country, what a joke.
        I was anticipating an exciting match between Argentina and Brazil, now they tell me that it could be played with only SA players or even postpone the matches.
        So disappointing, I thought the china virus is getting better now around the world. Since we can still play the matches few months back, why cant we play now?

        • It really doesn’t matter where COVID-19 came from. The real joke is how countries and the international community responded to it, …..exposing massive issues around healthcare systems, “the profit motive”, financial safety nets, the fragility of the economy, etc. Especially USA under Orange turd and his boy in Brasil who has absolutely wrecked the country.

          • I just wished China had said something about it sooner so other countries could respond, but oh well this is the world we live in now and there’s little we can do about it

  8. Honestly I don’t see why they can’t have some of those WCQ in Europe, especially teams like Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay where most of their teams consist of european based players. For example for the next round of WCQ it will be:

    Argentina-Uruguay———>play in europe
    Brazil-Colombia————->play in europe
    Chile-Paraguay————–>play in SA
    Ecuador-Venezuela———->play in SA
    Peru-Bolivia——————>play in SA

    The Argentina and Brazil matches are an easy decision because most of those 4 teams’ players are in europe so play in europe. The bottom 2 matches are an easy decision also because most of their players are SA based so play ’em in SA. The only tricky one is Chile-Paraguay because Chile has several of their main players in europe (Bravo, Vidal, Aranguez) but the majority of both teams’ players are SA/mexico based.
    Things get tricky if for example Argentina plays Venezuela or Brazil plays Peru so maybe switching around the games to allow all the teams with majority european based players to play each other and the SA based teams to do the same, it’s not easy but it is doable.

    • Since we are playing WCQ and not friendlies and Argentina’s both oppositions have most of their major players already playing in Europe .. AFA should try to arrange both matches there!! Brazil and Uruguay shouldn’t have any problem with it!

      • Issue is uruguay has one game against bolivia in this feature. Bolivia will never allow. So effectively that spoils the europe option bcos in 4-5 days inter -continent travel will be quite a hassle. Brazil has argentina & colombia. So they & argentina will like this idea. But uruguay- bolivia is the bottleneck.

  10. Rock in Rio scheduled for September 2021 was cancelled. Could this spell the cancellation of Copa America 2021 too?

    • Maybe not because copa is going to be in Argentina and Colombia (I’m sure that it being a joint held competition won’t do us any favors in terms of Covid)

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