Rumored Argentina XI for Copa America semi final, Cristian Romero, doubts

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Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni reportedly has a few doubts regarding his eleven for the Copa America semi final.

Scaloni was unable to count on Cristian Romero for the quarter final match against Ecuador and it remains to be seen if Romero will be fit for the semi finals. Per reports in the Argentine media, once more, should Romero not be fit to play, it would be German Pezzella alongside Nicolas Otamendi.

In midfield, Leandro Paredes started ahead of Guido Rodriguez vs. Ecuador. It’s not secret that Scaloni relies on Paredes as the player has regularly featured in the starting eleven for the coach since taking over as manager.

However, Guido was impressive when he came on as a substitute in the last match and has been a starter at this Copa America. Per reports, Scaloni will have to pick one of the two to play in that defensive midfielder role.

Up front, Nicolas Gonzalez started the quarter final match but finished very tired. Angel Di Maria, who has had a great Copa America, came on as a substitute and helped win the free kick which Lionel Messi ended up scoring. That is another position on the team that remains unclear. Here is the rumored starting eleven for the semi final match:

Emi Martinez; Acuna, Romero/Pezzella, Otamendi, Molina; De Paul, Guido/Paredes, Lo Celso; Messi, Lautaro, Gonzalez/Di Maria

87 Comments

  1. A 90 minute No MERCY concentration is must to catch COPA trophy.Paredes can play DM role well but he needs to avoid his lazyness in remaining 2.Scalonis rotation policy not happened in Paredes case. He played Args most of the games. Guido sidelined in so many games. Guido not get most of the playing time.If scaloni rotate these 2 Paredess lazyness never happens. He depends more Paredes ..

  2. Now many here wants dimaria in the starting eleven.. If that happens it will be a disaster
    . Dimaria never ever in his career, even in his peak period, has been a player that suits a place in starting eleven.. He always has been a player who makes impact when brought on as substitute against tiring defenders.. . In champions league final also when he was brought on as a substitute he made great impacts for real madrid.. Ole solksaer that manu coach was also a impact substitute throughout his whole career.. Dimaria is also like that
    .. Papu should also be utilized.. Let hope for the best best.. Vamos Argentina

  3. Parades is one of the worst starting defensive midfielders of Argentina. This guy can’t even defend. Whenever he starts, the back line looks worst then it actually is. When Guido came on, Argentina looked confident at the back against the Equator. Scaloni is a piece of shit..

  4. News update:

    Scaloni plays the exact same line up as the one that beats Ecuador in the last training. That means Paredes and Pezzella starting.

    It is not final yet as tomorrow there is a press conference.

  5. This is not about whether Argentina can defeat Colombia, they should, but it’s not a given. And the most recent Copa games meetings between the two teams suggest we’re going to have a tight game on our hands. So Argentina going into the Colombia game tomorrow with the same exact team that recently tied and almost imploded against them during the WCQ makes no sense. In 2015 Argentina and Colombia went to pk shootout and in 2019 Colombia defeated Argentina. Colombia held their own against Brazil recently and would have won the game if not for the referee intervening. Moreover, Colombia knocked Uruguay out via pk , so this is a well motivated organized team.

    Here we go again with the ”headless chicken” narrative. Di Maria is no headless chicken, he is a risk taking player, always has been (same with Neymar). Di Maria is the only Argentinian player currently who can run at 2-3 defenders other than Messi and leave them in the dust. Neymar is a headless character on the pitch, he loses the ball a lot, dribble when not needed, miss easy tapins and failed to make the right decision a lot of times in crucial areas yet you never here commentators calling him a ”headless character.” The fact remains, Messi, Neymar and Di Maria are the three biggest players at this year Copa America. So winning the Copa America title will come down to these three players.

    Argentina is in the semis, Di Maria should not be on the bench period, he excels in these moments. The defense is still shaky with or without Romero, Otamendi experience is what keeps the D line afloat. The goalkeeper is top quality too which is aiding Argentina, this impacts the opposing attackers mentality, this is one of the main reasons Ecuador Valencia missed the two chances he got on goal via his head.

    I’m just here for Messi, Di Maria and Aquero..This is the only reason I have been commenting here recently, not to argue about formations etc..

  6. It is so unfortunate that we can’t get Cuti. The team looks so good, so confident and so strong. The game against Uruguay was the best version of that team so far. Especially with Guido as our 5. Against Colombia I do believe that Gonzalez will be playing in order to help against Cuadrado. The team should be the same, hopefully this time we play better…..

  7. I think Di Maria as a sub is better than starter but yes he should be brought in 60 min.

  8. As per Gaston Edul of TyC, Romero is not going to make it against Colombia. They will test him today but ideal fitness is unlikely.

    So this will make our match more difficult in terms of defence. Guido is a must and hopefully we can dominate the game so that Colombia’s attack frequency is minimum.

    They report a right knee strain in Romero’s case. Usually this type of injury takes 2 weeks to recover. So even if we make it to the final, Romero would remain doubtful I think. Unfortunately for us, Pezzella remains the defender he was in 2019, may be worse.

      • Unlikely. Has Pezzella ever impressed? He was impressive as U-20 captain but he never improved from there. We can hope he can keep it simple and do not do any mistake like forgetting to mark and track obvious movements in the box.

        I think presence of Guido can stabilize the defence and make things easier for Pezzella and Otamendi. Against Paraguay, Pezzella was ok.

      • @el_principe,
        Yes, saw the pic earlier. I was hopeful really. Let’s see. TyC got such news wrong many times. The last training session will begin within one hour, 3:20 PM local time. Team will travel for Brasilia in the evening. At 07:45 PM, there will be a press conference by Scaloni. We will know for sure by that time.

        • I think Cuti will play because against Ecuador he insisted that he wanted to play, now its already almost 48 hours after, he should be healthier unless he experiences a setback.

          • This is true, tyc posts things just to get clicks alot of times. Im hoping Romero is a go because scaloni likes to start paredes no matter what. There is only two bad teams in south America in my opinion and Columbia are reinvigorated after that penalty shoot out. We are Argentina but we cant underestimate anyone in south America except for Bolivia and Venezuela, with all due respect.

      • i would love papu to start over gonzales. he brings in another dynamic that gonzales doesnt have. and he can touch the ball with lo celso and messi

  9. Tired of all this appreciation of Columbia. Yes they are a good team. They have their strengths. We repeatedly forget that they too have to play US. ARGENTINA for heavens sake. We now have multiple players in the team not named Messi who have scored a goal and should be way more optimistic than this. Sure, its sport and anything can happen but we have the better players and we should be winning this. It will be an upset if we don’t.

      • I can see several posters who to me are putting way too much “respect” for the opponents. Reading some of them I almost feel we are not even up to the mark.

        • We don’t fear Columbia or anyone. But we respect their teams and we worry about our own backline. This has been our story for 20 years almost.
          The only thing I fear about our team is that this is the first generation in a long time that we are not producing excellent youth. Yes we have some good players coming up the ranks, but not excellent. It’s been almost 4 years since Europe has received a flood of new Argentine players

    • You need to respect your opponent, else you will end up like France vs Swizterland. Everyone here knows we are much better, but Colombia’s strengths go against our weaknesses (Paredes, Otamendi, Pezzella) and that is why people are concerned about Romero’s fitness and Scaloni’s selection. Anyone can win a football match. You do not win matches before they start. It is not that we fear Colombia but respect is necessary for every game and I don’t understand what is wrong with that

    • Som,

      “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

      Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  10. Now for some insight, I like di maria starting for Nico, and I also like angel as a super sub. Either way he will be subbed in or out. If Locelso is starting then di maria should be a super sub in second half. Whoever takes that position has to be disciplined in the first half and track back with the defensive transitions.
    I don’t mind taglafico starting in place of acuna if he is burnt out for the match. Tagla just needs to understand that he has to hustle and stay focused for that side of the field which most likely Cuadrado will be occupying most of the match.

  11. Peru is too offensive minded. They lost 0-4, 2-4, and 1-3, 1-0 (win), and 0-5 in their last 5 matchups. Based on the score, you can easily tell that Peru is not a good defensive team.

    Let’s hope this time they would somehow win.

  12. Belgium also won against Brazil in 2018 wc. Brazil has more grit than Argentina and they r more clinical in front of goal if they get a single chance they will score where as Argentina misses lots of chances and Brazil defence is more solid than Argentina and we don’t have a casemiro and their fullbacks r good. Molina can attack bt still not polished in attack while very shaky in defense acuna improved bt still he is no marcelo or alba his crosses r dissapointing. If we can find a decent fullback pair and a great cb who can partner Romero thn we can win 2022 wc. For me our biggest weaknesses are
    1.right back and a left back who can both attack and defend simultaneously
    2.a good defensive midfielder who can defend properly and also can control the tempo of the game
    3.our midfield need more control they need to hold the possession longer our midfield play is too much chaotic no tranquility whatsoever. If u want to understand my point see spain’s midfield play or see man city, barca, bayern etc in club level
    4.we need a world class cb pair we already has a world class cb in Romero his partner will decide how strong our defence will be in 2022 wc. According to me lisandro martinez can be that partner bt for that before wc Romero and lisandro should play at least 6-7 games together including friendlies. I don’t know how medina or senesi is. Never seen them play

    • no team is perfect. current brazil fullbacks are not that attack-minded and they do not have depth in the center back position. their midfield sucks. in attack Neymar cannot convert even tap-ins. you made an average team into an illusionary world-class team. brazil’s grit is based on referee and var. referee turns away their eyes on the blatant way brazil makes fouls. you term this kind of team as world-class

    • When you say Varsil has more grit did you mean luck AND favourism!? Against Ecuador they were struggling. Against Colombia Referee made them winner,Against chile they were barely win and hadn’t that Chile team sucks they would have eliminated. It’s ok to praise whatever team but don’t go all critical about a team when they winning. We fan here specially completely ignore that a opposition play against us every time to defeat us anyhow. So obviously they will create opportunities. You need Luck,Performance and skill to win a game. So far our boys showed them

  13. I think Scaloni should go ahead with the same starting 11 as the last game. We need a 100% fit players for an important match like a semi final.

  14. Emi,Romero, otamendi, acuna,Molina,guido, paredes, de paul, messi, papu, lautaro

    This should be the line up for both semi and final

  15. I think playing de paul and lo celso together is very risky. Because both can not defend well.
    Against small team it is still ok but in semi final it is risky. I think in big matches paredes and guido should play together along with de paul.
    Another point is Pezzella is not a good option as a substitute of Romero. He is ok in seria A but not a NT material. So both lo celso and Pezzella are not a good option against bigger team.

    • Do you even watch the full games of Argentina??

      De Paul and Lo Celso were both defensive very good against Ecuador… Go see the stats if you don’t believe me… They had the most tackles interceptions and ground duels won…

      So please watch the game again

        • I don’t need to read again. You wrote they cannot defend. And that is not true.. We play the same midfield all the time now… And I can’t count anymore how many matches we didn’t lose… I think with Paredes Guido and De Paul that would be a too big burden for De Paul. He would have to do all the link up with the attackers…

          We need Lo Celso, although he’s not really fit for 90’
          But he’s good for the team

          • And you wrote they defended well against Ecuador. Read your comment. Lo celso and de paul are not proper DM. If they play together it will be a big problem in defence. We played few matches against big teams and we lost most of them

          • I never said they are DM. We need Guido as DM an De Paul and Lo Celso…

            I just brought up the stats from Ecuador Game I know but that’s not the only game those two were awesome as tacklers and intercepters… They were always better then Paredes who plays as our DM

  16. If romero doesn’t play we should go for lisandro Martinez and i think against Columbia we may need to start tagliafico due to Cuadrado threat plus acuna is tired according to reports. Dimaria should start. Guido should start.
    My 11
    Martinez
    Molina romero/lisandro otamendi tagli
    Depaul guido locelso (papu sub in 60 min)
    Messi lautaro dimaria (correa sub in 65-70 min(

  17. Does anyone here think that Peru can upset the favorites ?
    Well I think if they tighten their defensive errors then Peru’s free flowing possession football can upset Brazil who always play counterattacking football sitting back.

    • Common sense dictates, NO
      BUT nothing is impossible and as ridiculous it might seem, a slip here, a block there, a card in between……….I’ve been harping on the word “LUCK” for the past 3 weeks and how little or NONE of it ARG have had for the past FOREVER while many other nations have had the opposite.

      Higuian Misses an open goal, not once but 3 times…….VERY SHITTY LUCK
      France loses to Portugal on their own soil without her majesty by some unknown who is as good as an unemployed football player now ….shitty Luck.
      ARG had all the chances and scored none and that schmuck comes off the bench and scores a WOLRD CUP winning goal ……….fucked up luck.

      I can go on and on and on, can’t they just get some damn luck???!!!

      • Totally undestand since a long long time how this luck factor has screwed Argentina over n over again.

        Well to sound lil optimistic against Ecuador, this time around Argentina did have lady luck on their side . As expected Ecuadorian fought hard in that match n came close taking 1-0 lead in 2 occasions had that gone in somehow it wud have been lil difficult for us to crack their 11 men defense.

        They also came very close for an equaliser too… Lautaro also almost headed them an equaliser …So that was Argentinas luck this time and hope it continues for Semis + Finals too.

    • Peru naturally doesn’t win against them. Only good defensive side has a chance. Im not concerned for Brazil anyway. Im far more concerned about winning against Columbia that will be a tricky game. Remember they nearly beat full strength Brazil after reaching final we should care about others.

  18. C. Romero should play if he is healthy. C. Romero is the best defender of Copa America.Scaloni made one mistake that he was too defensive in starting games and that caused heavy workload to defenderscand they got small injuries.

  19. Don’t want to include the link because it might get deleted, Go to ESPN.COM, under soccer and watch the video, “Messi winning the Copa America in Brazil would be ‘very special’

    I like how Frenchy thinks

  20. Scaloni needs to understand Guido Rodriguez is must he should be in playing 11.Papu Gomez is also necessary he should play as Left Winger. If there is proper selection Argentina can beat Colombia easily and will also earn clean sheet.

  21. And it’s been too long without a trophy… what better way to win it than to go to Hell and beat the yellow&green Devil himself !! I’m hoping for the “Clasico” in the final ! Argentina vs the yellow/green Devils!
    Vamos!!!

  22. It’s not hard…
    Romero for pezella if healthy
    Gomez for Gonzalez (dimaria is a super sub)
    Guido for parcedes is a must

    Also I know la seleccion is upset about that 2-2 draw in qualifying vs Colombia!!! Motivation!!!

  23. I don’t know why Scaloni doubt to start with guido over parades??? A lots of fan and football analyst say that Guido is the pick point as CDM now but Scaloni’s favourite is Parades….it’s so awful….Plz Scaloni used Papu over Nico and Di Maria, used them as a sub against Lo Celso and Papu….but pls Papu should be starter the game with Messi. We the fans waiting so many years for a title not only messi but also to see a Great Team to Hold a Title…….Hope inshaAllah this time our beloved team will do so…
    Love football and love team Argentina Football Team.

  24. colombia physicality and speed almost similar to ecuador but they are sharp in the air and attack also its seems to be they are also organized from the back.. playing paredes over guido is big big no .. if scaloni do that then he will responsible for what he did

  25. We allowed Ecuador to create chances and our CBs were out of position at times. Pezzella in particular, as a number 6 type of defender should be better positioned to sweep the danger. If Romero is still unfit and cannot start we MUST then at least start Guido to add more teeth to our defense. Paredes did not have a good game vs Ecuador and I hope Scaloni starts Guido.

    I hope Scaloni and co are doing their homework and would have been looking at some of our weakness against Ecuador.

    Still, we are a better team than Colombia and should be able to win the upcoming contest. Lautaro regained his confidence it seems, Messi can always produce some magic, De Paul is a gem, Di Maria and Papu are excellent options off the bench, Guido is a very solid DM, El Huevo and Molina are modern fullbacks that can stretch the play and overlap.

    All in all, with the right tactics, full commitment of the players, fair refereeing and some measure of luck we will prevail.

    • Paredes had OK game in terms of spraying the ball but he is no way near at Guido level in term of tackling, Positional or breaking up play at the moment. He clearly missing his form with NT. I liked his passes VS Ecuador but in defensive wise he is so fragile. If Guido start from beginning then maybe he can come from bench replacing Lo Celso.

      • Paredes had a few long balls that were good but overall not enough to justify his role a starting DM. With Guido we have a more balanced team.

        I like Paredes, I really do but unless I am missing something, I am not sure he is currently indispensable.

  26. Anybody know who is going to be the REF. in tonight’s game?
    Imagine this, Brazil is held to a zero/zero draw……goes into PKs and lose!

    • Brazil will win. Stop thinking about them. Why u guys fear Brazil so much?? U want to win trophies without playing best teams?? If we r good enough we will win no matter who play against us and if we r not good enough we will not even pass the Columbia test

      • I have repeatedly stated over the past few days that ARGENTINA should play their game and that there is nothing easy about winning a trophy and that if they want it then they should go and get it.
        I was simply stating that anything is possible …….look at their game vs chile when things could have gone against them after the Idiot’s Kung Fu kick and ejection.
        I honestly DO NOT CARE if for a damn change we get some luck going ARG’s way like you seen it with other teams…….

      • I know what you saying, but I don’t want to play against this yellow team in the final the pain of losing to them in the final it’s not going to be good for me, hopefully Peru can pull a miracle today

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