Gonzalo HIGUAIN’s fantastic goal against Honduras was enough to give Argentina the win.
Argentina line-up, Erik LAMELA starts
Argentina’s startling eleven against Honduras.
Argentina’s line-up vs. Honduras is out.
ROMERO; MERCADO, OTAMENDI, FUNES MORI, ROJO; BIGLIA, MASCHERANO, LAMELA; MESSI, HIGUAIN and DI MARIA.
Sergio AGUERO, who didn’t train with the team yesterday does not start. Lionel MESSI will fly back to Spain directly after the match.
Walter SAMUEL retires
Walter SAMUEL has called it quits to his career.
A Serie A and Supercoppa Italiana winner with both Roma and Internazionale, add to that a treble with Internazionale and a Copa Libertadores with Boca Juniors, you could say Walter SAMUEL had a pretty good career.
A legend in his own right, not many were able to make it through The Wall. A no non-sense defender, SAMUEL took part in two World Cup’s for Argentina in 2002 and 2010 and was part of the legendary 1997 U20 team which won the World Cup.
SAMUEL played only for the top teams in his career. An impressive resume includes playing at Newell’s Old Boys, Boca Juniors, Roma, Real Madrid, Internazionale and the top team in Switzerland, Basel.
SAMUEL reached the peak of his European club career when he won the treble in 2010 with fellow Argentina team mates Javier ZANETTI, Esteban CAMBIASSO and Diego MILITO. SAMUEL formed one of the strongest CB partnerships with the Brazilian LUCIO, a rock solid duo which must have struck fear into the eyes of any forward.
They truly don’t make them like this anymore. Thank you for a great career, SAMUEL.
Argentina’s line-up from Thursday’s training
The line-up from the training session on Thursday.
On Wednesday, it was Lionel MESSI who didn’t take part in Argentina’s training session as he had just landed in the country. On Thursday it was Sergio AGUERO due to muscle fatigue. Tata MARTINO held his last training session prior to the match against Honduras in San Juan on Friday.
Here was the eleven from training:
ROMERO; MERCADO, FUNES MORI, OTAMENDI, ROJO; BIGLIA, MASCHERANO, BANEGA; MESSI, HIGUAIN and DI MARIA.
Sergio AGUERO trains separately from group
Sergio AGUERO did not work with the rest of the team on Thursday.
Ole in Argentina is reporting that Sergio AGUERO trained separately from the rest of the group today.
While there’s no major injury, it appears as if AGUERO’s suffering from muscle fatigue. Argentina play Honduras on Friday and with Messi having to fly back to Spain and then to the United States, it will be interesting to see how long he plays and now with AGUERO’s fitness issue, MARTINO has some decisions to make on how he will handle the situations.