Argentina to face Costa Rica, not Nigeria, in March friendly game

By
Osvaldo Godoy
-
10

The AFA announced this Wednesday through its official website that Costa Rica will replace Nigeria as one of Argentina’s rivals for the friendly games in March. The Nigerian national team had to withdraw from the match in the United States due to an administrative issue with visas.

With this confirmation, Argentina will first face El Salvador on March 22nd in Philadelphia and then Costa Rica on March 26th in Los Angeles.

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10 Comments

  1. Fantastic goal by Lautaro with his left foot. Didn’t know he had that in him.
    Julian falling far behind. Needs to get out of Manchester City. If he’s a striker, he should insist on playing as striker every match. Not going to happen on Haaland’s team.

  2. i dont think it would matter much. We played teams like Estonia, Honduras, Jamaica & UAE in the build up to WC2022. So it is more of team spending time & getting settled faster for the big tournament.
    I am hoping to see
    1) a backup CB ( Medina, LMQ, Perez, Senesi) getting some good minutes
    2) Soule & Garnacho called & well utilized .
    3) Dimaria, Otamendi having limited time or bench
    4) A Varela gets a call in
    5) No spot for Ocampos, Pezella & Sir Armani

  3. Why even El Salvador? May be to get the team together again after the long break. But the next match should have been a high ranked team like Morocco, Senegal, Japan, Iran, Hungary, Egypt, Turkey. I hope Scaloni gives chance to some young players like Soule, Beltrain etc. Lautaro is in great form but it seems he is scoring only against minions like Salernitana, Lecce et al. His performance against AC Milan and Juventus was not good at all.

  4. Come to think about it, when was the last time ARG played vs a big team in a friendly??
    Off the top of my head, Spain in that disastrous game before 2018 WC, Italy, dunno sometime in 2017! Germany right after 2014 WC, that candyass aka her highness in 2013 or 14.

  5. It’s a shame that we couldn’t manage to play higher ranked team. Teams like Switzerland, Denmark or even Japan would be good for us to prepare for upcoming tournaments.

    Nigeria is 28th in FIFA ranking whereas Costa Rica is 54th (below Venezuela and Saudi Arabia) which i guess is a downgrade.

    Anyway I always love to see our team playing. Love from Nepal.

    • i guess, Albiceleste american training complex is somehow related to mega advertisement of world cup 26 coz Messi will play. big European teams don’t travel to USA to play Argentina prior to euro cup.according to p:-m.i.t.c Argentina may hamper in fifa ranking because of playing lower rank teams but AFA don’t risk players prior to Copa American playing warm up match as a strong team…. money,politics,fame are somehow hampering friendly matches now a days. vamos albiceleste , love from nepal too.

      • I agree. FIFA and US will convince AFA to ensure Messi participates in the 2025 WC! Messi is easily the biggest star any sports has produced in the last 3 decade and they will make sure he will be there , even if that means he only plays a role of a super-sub.

  6. It doesn’t matter who we play in the friendlys because Scaloni will not make many changes from the world cup team. Moreover, If I am not mistaken only 23 players will be allowed. Most of these players have played with each other since 2019, have great chemistry and brotherhood. The warmup matches before Copa and the training sessions will be more important. These
    friendlys will be benificial to test new players so can they can break into the national team.

    We can’t go with the same team to the 2026 world cup, we will crash out due to lack of motivation like most defending champions.

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