Argentina glides past Canada in warm-up!

Higuain Messi

Tevez

Di María Pastore Jonas Gutiérrez

Mascherano

Heinze Otamendi

Samuel Demichellis Banco: Milito/ Clemente Rodriguez/ Veron/

Romero

The above would i be the most effective line-up for the Argentine National Team come June 12th!

O Canada, stick to hockey! The friendly w/ Canada was purposely organized by the AFA, so that the Argentines could have any easy run around & build some confidence before getting on the plane to South Africa. Only, the game went better than many skeptical Argentinians would have expected. The result 5-0 is more or less something expected, however the ball movement & full-on collective effort was some to suggest some serious expectations. The big surprise will be to start the 20 year old slick Pastore. Although marking was non-existent, I picked up on something in Pastore I haven’t seen from an Argentine central midfielder since Aimar in his prime. A distributor who doesn’t need to hog the ball & slow the pace like a Riquelme nor an over anxious long ball passer as Veron can be when unsettled. Pastore showed flashes to be the perfect unknown, w/ a bit of swagger who can find the ball, & within seconds have redistributed it to a player running into open space. Hallelujah! Many analysts suggested Pastore started in place of an injured Messi. I would beg to differ, or at least only hope that Maxi Rodriguez is relegated to the bench so that Messi can run wild on the right side of the pitch which is his strength. Could the coaching staff have been saving some master plan all along? Argentina has some serious potential to be a mad-happy offensive team.

It seems Di Maria is going to be rode like a horse, if something happens to him, there is no-one for the left wing, other than Aguero, or switching over Messi if on top of his game. Palermo was the only player in the friendly vs. Canada who looked like he did not belong when brought on from the fans clamoring, “Paleermo, Paleeeermo!”. Heinze is an extreme liability defensively, yet as long as he plays aggressive attacking, he may be Ok. Clemente Rodriguez would be a more sure fire choice in that position if I were in charge. El resto del equipo me parecio barbero!