Rumored Argentina U23 XI vs. Denmark in Marbella

By
Roy Nemer
-
29

While the senior Argentina national team prepare for their World Cup qualifier vs. Colombia on Tuesday, the U23 team are gearing up for the Olympics.

Argentina U23 coach Fernando Batista will have the chance to prepare his team for the Olympics using two friendly matches this month. The first vs. Denmark with the second on Friday against Saudi Arabia.

With both matches taking place in Marbella and the team having already trained, there is a rumored eleven. Per a report by TyC Sports, here is the eleven:

Jeremías Ledesma; Andrés Herrera, Nehuen Pérez, Facundo Medina, Claudio Bravo; Tomás Belmonte, Martín Payero; Carlos Valenzuela, Thiago Almada, Agustín Urzi; Ezequiel Ponce.

The match is set to kick off at 10:00am Eastern, 11:00am in Argentina.

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29 Comments

  1. I watched the whole game of the match today, we couldn’t passed the ball more than 5 passes, too much back pass to the centre back nobody come to receive the ball in the middle to carrying forward and give through ball to the front 3, we relied on the long ball from the back which is not so good, all of that due to our second string side, after all of Gaich, De la Vega, Barco and Co came in, we played much better ball control with short passing and through ball, that’s why we got 2 goal at the end, all in all, if we really wanna win gold medal again, all players has to work harder in training, carefully select over age player who can control the rhythm and pull the strings in the middle, Dybala and Buendia comes to mind for me if Scaloni left them both from Copa squad, both players will help this U23 team to win the medal for us again or at least win 1 of 3 medals that available.
    Vamos Los Pibes

  2. Guys, this is a friendly with a 2/3 team. There is nothing to worry about. Almost half the Argentina best players didn’t start the game…..

  3. Wow great comeback. I remember looking at it on the 89th minute and accepting they lost. For those who watched how did they play, keeping in mind the whole game and not just the comeback

    • I felt we moved the ball well in progression & pressed well. The goal was against run of play & we then got lost a bit. Luckily the last subs worked out very well for us & the last minute win will surely soar team’s confidence. Our weakness seemed to be not being clinical in final 3rd, not capitalizing set pieces & no good crosses. We had like 3-4 solid chances inside box & also hit the post twice. Almada clearly was the standout player today. Ponce, urzi, bravo, valenzula i guess shldnt be in starting 11. Rest players did decently well.

      • Cannot just go by the team names and their suffixes. We had just 3 outfield players aging 23+. The rest were all 22 or lesser, even more so with all 7 substitutes apart from Colombatto may be. Denmark’s side was actually a mix of U20, U21 and U23. So if we are going by the average-age, both squads would weigh almost about 21-22, more or less the same(of course, GK Ledesma is an aberration)!

        But this Denmark side is just back from a well-fought UEFA U21 campaign, where they gave Germany, the eventual champions a run for their money in the quarter finals!

        We’re nowhere near our best, but Batista was probably testing the water today and could start all the key-players next game against Saudi Arabia.

    • Was not sure why Batista didnt start Gaich, Vera , De La vega & Barco . last 10mins they fought well . Rest of the game was typical Argentina of good possession & not making it count in final third. Anyway a decent consolation win against a Denmark which defeated France in Euro U21 & lost to eventual champions Germany in penalty shootout in knockout stage.

        • Yes lot of brilliant moments today for almada. But still unsure if he will make it big in europe. He looks more of the classic old style enganche. Can he fit in a modern game style where he needs to contribute in defense & high press. That needs to be seen.
          Urzi ( looks a real headless chicken), valenzula, bravo i feel shld be replaced. Having one overage striker & a left back like angileri can surely give them more success in final third. As RB Herrera kept trying all 90mins+ & finally landed one good cross to vera for winner.

        • Martin Payero played well too. Medina was good, but Nehuen Perez was not so convincing at times.

      • Yep I agree that it looks weaker than it should. At least they called up better players than against Japan. Maybe the line up is for a reason

  5. In this form Argentina is not good, and have no chance to win Olympics, just like in 2016. A team with full power Lisandro Martinez-Senesi- Romero-Montiel—-Macallister-Nico Dominguez-Palacios—Nico Gonzalez-Lautaro-Thiago Almada would make sense, but this is only a dream, we are not in 1996, 2004 or in 2008 when it was possible.

  6. Urzi missed a 1:1 with gk from an almada pass. Ponce & herrera also had clear chances inside box first half. We are moving ball well.. But lethal finishing is missing. Need to see gaich in 2nd half.

  10. Who do you think is better than lautaro Martinez for us? Lautaro is scoring lots of goals for inter. And so far he hasn’t done anything wrong for us. Aguero is prone to injury, so is alario. Dybala is not in the team. Right now we don’t have any better Stryker than lautaro Except messi. Another good thing is that we are no longer dependent on messi for scoring. Messi has played every minute so far for us but managed to score goals only from penalties. I don’t understand why Scaloni is so allergic to Buendia. He is in great form. I think this is the best time for him to start for us. Scaloni should give some time to both Pappu Gomez and Buendia to show their quality.

    • Is there any option to call up Dybala late or for Copa? I just don’t understand his exclusion he is a world class player and despite his season can provide us more options to alleviate these headaches

      • Excluding Dybala is incredibly poor judgement on Scalonis part.

        Of the 6 strikers, 2 are injured and 2 healthy options not even called. We spent a fair amount of time practicing and developing a system with 2 strikes and now Scaloni is throwing that in the toilet to waste more time days before copa. Come to think of it, to make matters worse, since he’s obsessed with the width right now (ie Ocampos, Di Maria, Molina, Montiel), he needs proper 9s in the box. In this role, Aguero, Alario, and Icardi are best for crosses and 2 are absent.

        Toro (close to WC, inconsistent season)- Healthy
        Kun (world class, little playtime last season) – Healthy
        Dybala (world class, limited playtime but still did well)- Healthy not called
        Icardi (perfect impact sub) – Healthy not called
        Alario – Injured
        Nico – Injured

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