Lionel Scaloni to Lead Argentina Team Through Copa América and Beyond

The Argentina coach, Lionel Scaloni, confirmed that he will continue to lead the team

Lionel Scaloni scans the horizon and sees the Copa América not so far away. The continental competition, which will be played in the United States from June 20 to July 14, will be the priority objective of the Argentine team during 2024. And before that competition it will play four friendlies: tonight’s against El Salvador, in Philadelphia; next Tuesday against Costa Rica, in Los Angeles; On June 9, they will face Ecuador in Chicago; and on the 14th of that same month it will collide against Guatemala, in Washington.

That match against the Guatemalans will be six days before the debut in the Copa América: at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, against the winner of the tie that Canada and Trinidad and Tobago will play tomorrow at the Toyota Stadium in Frisco, the stadium of the FC Dallas of the MLS.

Scaloni knows that he will have to make an uncomfortable decision about a month before the start of the Copa América: at least three world champions in Qatar will miss the competition on North American soil.

That number could be expanded to four, five or six world champions if Scaloni decides to take Nicolás González and Giovani Lo Celso to the Copa América, two who were a fixture for Qatar and missed the World Cup due to injuries, and Alejandro Garnacho, considered by the Argentine coaching staff as the Argentine youth with the greatest projection in the world.

One step below Garnacho in the coach’s consideration is Facundo Buonanotte, a great presence at Brighton. But his presence in the Copa América today is in doubt due to a question of places: the list is very, very “tight” for the coach, who will go through the discomfort of leaving several players that he values ​​highly and who were always on the roster. on your radar.

Alejandro Garnacho, considered by the Argentine coaching staff as the Argentine youth player with the greatest projection in the world.

FIFA allowed each team to take 26 players to Qatar. Conmebol, on the other hand, enables the presence of 23 for the Copa América.

The 26 players that Scaloni took to the World Cup were these: Goalkeepers: Emiliano Martínez, Gerónimo Rulli and Franco Armani.

Defenders: Nahuel Molina, Gonzalo Montiel, Cristian Romero, Germán Pezzella, Nicolás Otamendi, Lisandro Martínez, Marcos Acuña, Nicolás Tagliafico and Juan Foyth.

Midfielders: Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis Mac Allister, Guido Rodriguez, Alejandro Gomez, Enzo Fernandez, Exequiel Palacios and Thiago Almada.

Strikers: Angel Di Maria, Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez, Paulo Dybala, Angel Correa and Lionel Messi.

If you notice that goalkeeper Walter Benítez today beats Gerónimo Rulli (he is a substitute at Ajax), that Giovani Lo Celso and Nicolás González are highly valued by the coach, and that Garnacho and Facundo Buonanotte are present and also future , eight players would have to be reduced from the World Cup list.

Who could be affected by the cut? Rulli, Foyth, “Papu” Gómez (suspended for doping and virtually banned from the national team for non-football reasons), Thiago Almada and Angel Correa. And the three who would be in doubt are Marcos Acuña, Guido Rodríguez and Paulo Dybala.

Of the three, Acuña and Dybala are recovering from different injuries and Guido Rodríguez runs against the fact that Mac Allister, Enzo Fernández and Paredes can act in his central midfield position.

As can be seen, the decisions that Scaloni will have to make will not be easy to define the team that in the United States will seek to repeat the consecration of the Maracaná in 2021.

After playing the inaugural match of the Copa América, Argentina will face Chile on June 25 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, for the second date of Group A.

The closing of the group stage will be on June 29 against Peru, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The Copa América final will also be played in Miami on July 14.

In the first round, the sixteen selected will be distributed into four groups of four participants each. They will play all against all and the first two will qualify for the quarterfinals. Then the semi-finals, the match for third place and the decisive match will take place.

After the Copa América, the National Team will have a little less than two months of inactivity, and between September 5 and 10 it will play the seventh and eighth dates of the Qualifiers for the United States, Mexico and Canada 2026 World Cup, first against Chile at home and then against Colombia as a visitor.

Argentina leads the Qualifiers with fifteen points out of a possible eighteen, after winning five games and losing to Uruguay on the Boca field. In October, the world champions will visit Venezuela and host Bolivia between the 10th and 15th. And the closing of the year will be between November 14th and 19th, first against Paraguay in Asunción, and then against Peru at home.

Since then, there will be six games left until the closing of the Qualifiers, which will be in September 2025. In March of next year it will be the turn to face Uruguay and Brazil, in June the rivals will be Chile and Colombia, and in September they will clash against Venezuela and Ecuador.

2024-03-22 05:55:00
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