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Copa America could be hosted in United States, not Argentina

Roy Nemer
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23

Argentina could lose out on hosting the Copa America as there’s a possibility that it could be moved to the United States.

A report on Monday coming out of Colombia that the entire competition could change continents. Per a report by BluRadio Colombia, there has been talk about the tournament.

While the United States are hosting the Gold Cup in July, the idea would be to host the Copa America in the United States in cities that are not hosting the Gold Cup. Here are the stadiums hosting the Gold Cup:
Dallas, Texas: Cotton Bowl
Arlington, Texas: AT&T Stadium
Houston, Texas: NRG Stadium
Houston, Texas: BBVA Stadium
Austin, Texas: Q2 Stadium
Frisco, Texas: Toyota Stadium
Glendale, Arizona: State Farm Stadium
Las Vegas, Nevada: Allegiant Stadium
Orlando, Florida: Exploria Stadium
Kansas City, Kansas: Children’s Mercy Park

The current COVID situation in Argentina has meant that football matches were suspended last week and the country itself is in a lockdown. Javier Hernández Bonnet, of Blog Deportivo on Blu Radio had this to say:

“The phone has shook in the last 72 hours. The crisis that the public order has generated in Colombia and the pandemic in Argentina is making it that it’s being looked at elsewhere, some approaches have already been made. The Copa America outside of the South American football confederation: The United States.

“They are trying to establish a circuit of cities where there’s no Gold Cup to be able to have a Copa America with people in attendance.”

In addition, Argentina are looking into potentially postponing the Copa America by a few days in order to advance the vaccination in the country.

Those who were in that meeting were Matías Daniel Lammens Nuñez, minister of Tourism and Sports of Argentina and Claudio Tapia, AFA president.

Argentina U23 team for June friendly matches vs. Denmark, Saudi Arabia

Roy Nemer
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16

Argentina U23 coach Fernando Batista has selected his 23 players for the two friendly matches vs. Denmark and Saudi Arabia in Marbella.

Fernando Batista has selected several European based players as well as MLS and local based players for the two matches. Goalkeeper Jeremias Ledesma of Cadis, Nehuen Perez of Marseille, Facundo Medina of Lens, Leonardo Balerdi of Marseille, Fernando Valenzuela of Famalicao, Alexis Mac Allister of Brighton Albion, Adolfo Gaich of Benevento and Ezequiel Ponce of Spartak Moscow are the European based players.

In addition, Claudio Bravo of Portland and Ezequiel Barco of Atlanta United are the two MLS based players. The rest make up players from the Argentine league along with Santiago Colombatto of Leon in Mexico. The first match will take place on June 8 vs. Denmark with the second on June 11 vs. Saudi Arabia.

Jeremias Ledesma (Cadiz)
Lautaro Morales (Lanus)
Joaquin Blazquez (Talleres)
Hernan De La Fuente (Velez)
Marcelo Herrera (San Lorenzo)
Nehuen Perez (Granada)
Nazareno Colombo (Estudiantes de la Plata)
Facundo Medina (Lens)
Leonardo Balerdi (Olympique Marseille)
Francisco Ortega (Velez)
Claudio Bravo (Portland)
Martin Payero (Banfield)
Fausto Vera (Argentinos Juniors)
Santiago Colombatto (Leon)
Tomas Belmonte (Lanus)
Pedro De La Vega (Lanus)
Fernando Valenzuela (Famalcao)
Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton)
Thiago Almada (Velez)
Agustin Urzi (Banfield)
Ezequiel Barco (Atlanta United)
Adolfo Gaich (Benevento)
Ezequiel Ponce (Spartak Moscow)

Carlos Izquierdoz, Enzo Pérez will be in the preliminary Argentina list for the Olympics

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According to Diario Olé, Carlos Izquierdoz from Boca Juniors and Enzo Pérez from River Plate will both be part of the Olympics’ preliminary list of 50 players. It is worth mentioning that just 18 out of those 50 will make the final cut to Tokyo 2021. Of those 18 players finally selected, just three can be over the age of 23.

In addition to Enzo Pérez (35) and “Cali” Izquierdoz (32), Argentina’s U-23 coach Fernando Batista will also include seven more players over the age of 23 in the list of 50 players: Agustín Marchesín (33), Juan Musso (27), Jeremías Ledesma (28), Nacho Fernández (31), Ángel Correa (26), Sebastián Driussi (25), and Lucas Alario (28).

Although the preliminary list is not official yet, the Argentine Football Association would have already sent the list to the International Olympic Committee. The tournament will take place between July 23rd and August 8th.

Franco Armani, Gonzalo Montiel, Julian Alvarez called to Argentina team for World Cup qualifiers

Roy Nemer
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37

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has called-up the River Plate trio of Franco Armani, Gonzalo Montiel and Julian Alvarez to the squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers.

With the European based squad already having been announced, Scaloni has added three local based players to the team. A goalkeeper in Armani, a defender in Montiel and an attack minded player in Alvarez.

No player from Boca Juniors or any other club in Argentina has been selected, which means no Esteban Andrada in the squad.

The team will play Chile at home on June 3 before playing Colombia away on 8, just five days later. Here is the updated squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers:

Marcos Acuña (Sevilla)
Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Lucas Alario (Bayer Leverkusen)
Emiliano Buendia (Norwich City)
Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
Joaquin Correa (Lazio)
Rodrigo de Paul (Udinese)
Angel Di Maria (PSG)
Nicolas Dominguez (Bologna)
Juan Foyth (Villarreal)
Alejandro Papu Gomez (Sevilla)
Nicolas Gonzalez (Stuttgart)
Giovanni Lo Celso (Tottenham)
Agustin Marchesin (FC Porto)
Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
Lautaro Martinez (Inter)
Lisandro Martinez (Ajax)
Lucas Martinez Quarta (Fiorentina)
Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
Nahuel Molina (Udinese)
Juan Musso (Udinese)
Guido Rodriguez (Real Betis)
Cristian Romero (Atalanta)
Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla)
Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Jose Luis Palomino (Atalanta)
Leandro Paredes (PSG)
German Pezzella (Fiorentina)
Nicolas Tagliafico (Ajax)
Franco Armani (River Plate)
Gonzalo Montiel (River Plate)
Julian Alvarez (River Plate)

Alexis Mac Allister a doubt for Argentina at Olympics, pending Brighton approval

Roy Nemer
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1

Alexis Mac Allister is a doubt for Argentina at the Olympics, not due to injury but pending the approval of Brighton.

Argentina Olympic coach Fernando Batista no doubt wants to count on the 22 year old in August but the Argentine’s coach at club level also counts on him. While he has not been included in Lionel Scaloni’s team for the World Cup qualifiers, Brighton coach Graham Potter is counting on him long term.

Speaking in an interview with The Argus, here is what Graham Potter had to say:

“We always have to take the discussion with the player and we will probably do that at the end of the season. But his focus would always be on playing for us and getting as much game time as he can.

“And then he is a very proud Argentinian. He wants to play for his country in whatever tournament it is. But that is obviously linked to how he is doing with us. They have had a short break and then this season again. The guys who have had internationals have had no breaks at all and it has been pretty full on.

“Everyone is at a point where they need a break, a bit of a recharge and hopefully get back to normal with the supporters. They can see their families a bit more and next season can be quite exciting.”

Since the Olympics are not organized by FIFA themselves, club coaches are under not obliged to release their players. A similar situation happened with Lionel Messi at the 2008 Olympics where the board was refusing to allow him to join the team while Messi himself wanted to win gold. In the end, Messi joined Argentina and the country won its second Olympic gold medal in football.

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