By Charly
May 23 2006

With a talented squad but lacking preparation, Argentina doesn’t have much pressure other than do better than in the last World Cup. While many people always think Argentina is a challenger, the squad members prefer to keep a low profile and try to do their best as underdogs. After a very decent qualification league, in which the team finished second but was the leader from the beginning to the last match, Argentina seemed ready to face the World Cup and the hopes of having a good tournament were healthily high, only to start decreasing heavily in only six months.

Even though the results in the qualifications were positive, the surprising resignation of former coach Marcelo Bielsa after his controversial management is far from being forgotten in the hearts and minds of the Argentinean people.

Reminder: under Bielsa, Argentina had almost the same squad each time there was a match; the qualification process was the best in a long time just to fail miserably in the World Cup and achieve one of the worst places in history for the national team. After that, the confirmation that his contract was going to be extended was controversial to say the least, and the public was extremely divided between the haters and the supporters of the Bielsa management. These last people were more than relieved when Argentina won the gold medal at the Olympics, but his shockingly unexpected resignation while in glory has never been completely swallowed by the public, the FA and the team.

Today’s team has a lot in common with Bielsa’s style of play. Youngster development expert José Néstor Pekerman, who worked for many years with the youth national teams getting wonderful results and winning 3 U-20 World Cups, was appointed. The logics were there: the kids that had won these cups with him were now professionals playing in Europe at the highest level, nobody knew them better than Pekerman.

There is still much controversy about this, which is the reason so many people are skeptical about what Argentina can achieve in Germany. A principle of efficiency is broken when the proven youth coach is asked to train the professional team, some might argue, and they are not entirely wrong.

Pekerman is a man that has the exact words for the right person at the right time, and while many people doubt his abilities, he prefers to play deaf and keep a low profile. His person is under heavy pressure since when media saw he didn’t talk much and looked somewhat reserved and hesitant when confronted with questions, the rumour of FA president Julio Grondona forcing the coach to do what he wanted with the team was spread and received successfully. After many denials in the past six months, the story has been forgotten by the press, for now.

Speaking in terms of football, Pekerman is no tactical genius. Here is where Bielsa’s influence is shown, since most of the configuration of team is like a continuation of Bielsa’s system. Pekerman’s youth national teams had no complex system at all (which of course, fits in perfectly with 19-year-olds or less) so the team today combines part of the tactics of the former manager with the freedom of creativity suggested by the current one, but always keeping an Argentinean style of football.

In these past six months, Argentina has had a couple of very disappointing friendlies and while the rest of the teams called up a squad of thirty or more players to spend some days together in concentration and work, Pekerman called up 16 players to spend 48 hours in Madrid, watching videos of rival teams. Of those 16, only 14 players went, and 2 of them (Lionel Scaloni and Leandro Cufré) were unexpected by the public, as they hadn’t taken any part in the national team in the past months or had made enough merit to deserve it.

In that aspect, Argentina seems to stand far behind from the rest of the competitors, and the hints coming from the coaches regarding the final squad were so ambiguous that the attempt to keep the list a secret till the last day only meant more controversy, disheartening and skepticism.

But opposed to that, Argentina has the usual amount of talent available on which the foreign opinion stands to back their positive view on the team. Barcelona star Lionel Messi carries this flag of talent and hope, and is already seen as the only possible savior. In second place, Corinthians star and Brazilian League Best Player Carlos Tévez, whose amazing skill, ability and strength are the main weapons in the team. Other popular choice remain the probable team skipper Villarreal’s Juan Pablo Sorín, who always performed best for Argentina, boosted by Bielsa, who with great vision gave him a special role on the left to bring the best out of him (a unique position in which he starts as left back, goes off the ball directly to the penalty spot or overlaps on the wing and in defense he stands half as a second defensive midfielder and half as left back, all sustained on his amazing stamina, aggressiveness and attitude).

Usually, Argentina plays its typical offensive style: 4 defenders, of which the left back is Sorín, who will stand a bit more forwards, so the right back is moved to the centre (probably Fabricio Coloccini) and the central pairing (Roberto Ayala and Gabriel Heinze); 4 midfielders, a defensive midfielder (Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Mascherano fight for this place, in a clash of two different styles, in which the second has always been better and his probable omission is upsetting), one on the left helping the defensive midfielder and without going forwards, since he has to cover up for Sorín (Cambiasso or Luis González), another on the right more attacking (Maxi Rodriguez, Luis González, perhaps even Messi), and the playmaker, that will be Juan Román Riquelme; and 2 forwards, Hernán Crespo (Julio Cruz as his sub) to stand inside the area looking for headers, dragging mark, distractive off the ball moves, and either Tévez, Saviola or Messi to pull back and help create, go to the wings and cross, create space, hurt with pace and skill, add spark to the game.

Controversy remains high due to the many unknown ideas in the national team like whether will Tévez start or not; and the dodgy performances, like the defense lacking organization and safety, are the highest worry. Juan Román Riquelme’s latest performances with Villarreal and the national team have been disappointing and people seriously doubt he should be the one the team is built around, considering he is a liability and has ceased to pull the rabbits out of the his hat as he used to do.

The 23 lucky ones going to Germany are:

Goalkeepers: 1- Roberto Abbondanzieri (Boca Jrs.), 12- Leonardo Franco (At. Madrid), 23- Oscar Ustari (Independiente)
Defenders: 2- Roberto Ayala (Valencia), 3- Juan Pablo Sorín (Villarreal), 4- Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruña), 6- Gabriel Heinze (Manchester Utd.), 15- Gabriel Milito (Zaragoza), 17- Leandro Cufré (Roma), 21- Nicolás Burdisso (Inter)
Midfielders: 5- Esteban Cambiasso (Inter), 8- Javier Mascherano (Corinthians), 10- Juan Román Riquelme (Villarreal), 13- Lionel Scaloni (West Ham Utd.), 16- Pablo Aimar (Valencia), 18- Maximiliano Rodríguez (At. Madrid), 22- Luis González (Porto)
Forwards: 7- Javier Saviola (Sevilla), 9- Hernán Crespo (Chelsea), 11- Carlos Tévez (Corinthians), 14- Rodrigo Palacio (Boca), 19- Lionel Messi (Barcelona), 20- JulioCruz (Inter)

Join us for the world cup, where we aim to provide something a little different from the rest; we have writers from all over Europe and even one in South America.

We will be concentrating on the news not readily available in England, all translated and waiting to debate.

So join us for the greatest tournament in the world, with a healthy dose of cynicism thrown in for free.