Sergio "El Checho" Batista DT (interino) de La Selección Argentina

Romero might be the best option, but it is not a bad idea to give Andujar, or Ustari a start, just to give Romero something to think about.

Gabbarini is better by far IMO...

Carrizo is better too, IF he gets his head straight.

I would call Gabbarini for sure against Spain. he should have been in the World Cup squad to get NT experience, but Diego sided with the 32 year old never-was Pozo

Yea Gabbarini is the best GK in Argentina and he should get a start.

'twas a shame he lost his place at Lazio to Muslera (Uruguay's number 1) and went into that bolivia game with hardly any matches under his belt.

hopefully now that he's back at River, he can regain some of that confidence.

at best - i think he can be a backup. Romero is probably the best option right now and with more games, he'll get better; but ustari and andujar should be considered too. the key is to have the same defenders play in every game - once that chemistry is formed; the defense overall will improve. the constant rotating of defenders under maradona was a big problem that we all noticed during the WCQ's...

Lets get it straigth Zanetti has 120 caps + for the seleccion what has he acheived.Both he and Cambiasso were a disaster under Basile.The notion of the best players in the World playing in Serie A is simply wrong,as is the idea of Argentina playing Catenaccio. where they had success under Mourinho who doesnt have foibles about how his teams play.

Maradonas big mistake was not playing Veron alongside Mascherano against the Germans.i dont know what you have proven anywhere but the fact is he has been South American player of the year for trhe past two seasons.
As for what we should do that all depends on whether our focus should be primarily on the Copa America or the Mundial.My view is we should win something now
so this is how I think we could line up with the Copa as the principle objective but also trying to solve our deficiencies in goal and full back

Carrizo;
Clemente Rodriguez,Burdisso,Samuel,Cahais;
Mascherano;
Messi,Banega,Veron,Teves;
Higuain.

The rest of the squad

Romero,Gabbarini
Angeleri,Otamendi,Aveldaño
Yacob,Bolatti,Di Maria,Pastore,Affranchino
Aguero,Viatri

romero was a joke in the world cup. i mean none of germany's goals were spectacular, they all kind of trickled in. i'm not completely blaming romero, but to win the world cup you need a goalkeeper to save you a few times. romero at the moment isn't capable of doing that.

romero is also playing in a very weak league. you seem to very against the idea of local players in the NT, but the standard of play in Argentina is much higher than in holland- one of the weakest leagues in europe. whenever he steps up his competition, he is completely clueless. world cup and champions league he has flopped.

give gabbarini a chance. the way that guy played last torneo was incredible. he took an independiente side that was probably middle of the table caliber, but his saves almost won them the title

I'm not going to say that Gabarrini is shit, because he does rate well, even after only ONE torneo. Also we can just down play Romero as garbage because he did go some 600 minutes without being scored on. And I don't care what league you play in, going that long with a clean sheet means something.

I say give Romero more minutes and Carrizo and Andujar can be his immediate "suplentes".

i'm not against it, but i'm not entirely for it.

this goes for even the brasil NT - a 17-21 year old who has only seen play in their domestic league in argentina/brasil has not faced the level of competition that you see in europe. in europe you're guaranteed to play against europeans, south americans and africans - basically the melting pot of all the top players and styles of the world.

but you take a player who is in his mid to late 20s who probably has made a life choice to play in their domestic league who is able to adapt to other styles of play, i wouldn't mind as much on the NT if he was a good fit.

during the WCQ's and some of the friendlies it was good seeing palacios, papa and otamendi playing when they did. what i was against was seeing players like veron, garce, schiavi and palermo (and was clemente really one of the best options?) on the team when there were other younger and better players out there. the fact that maradona chose domestic players based on how they did versus ghana's C team and haiti is shocking...

just from a numbers perspective, the most experienced players are the ones that are in europe - they have played against a good number of other internationals and are familiar with different styles of play.

plus with the depth of talent available for countries like argentina and brasil -
chances are the best are in europe.

Explain then why we won the world cup in 78 and 86 with squads who were vastly home based as we did in the Copa Americas of 91 and 93 but since futbol entered its current globalized state we have failed and failed time and again useing players who play in Europe.In South America we can see the tide is turning and this year more players have returned to primera than left for europe which i suggest is a hugely positive factor for the seleccon if the trend continues which it will with the gradual progression in tv deals in Argentina and Brasil

What has the standard of the league got to do with anything? Even if we agree with your assumption that the Dutch league is inferior to the Argentine league (which I don't), what has that got to do with the standard of goalkeeping? The Dutch NT team goalie plays in the Dutch league and he is better than anything we have and that includes our goalkeepers who do not play in the Dutch league. If you believe Romario is no good, fair enough, but I don't see what that has to do with him playing in Holland.

Futbol's changed man, the money is in Europe and by default the best players too. They have the infrastructure, the stars and the high level competition. What they don't have is our passion, which they never will. But passion isn't enough to win titles, Diego pretty much proved that.

I think our league is pretty substandard as of late. A new champion every 6 months, players flying in and out after every transfer window, no stability at the clubs (apart from Velez, Lanus and Estudiantes), the hostility and violence of the barras...

I mean the best player of our league so far is Almeyda!!! He was playing showboll upto a couple of years ago, what does that tell you of our overall quality?

are you seriously trying to compare 1978 / 1986 / 1991 / 1993 to now?

like volrath says - it's a different era of football now. for the most part south america is a football factory for young stars who get their feet wet in argentina/brasil/etc. before heading off to europe. teams change so much with players coming in and out which is why you see different champions all the time.

and like i said earlier - if you think your domestic has good players - who should be on the team instead? you're not giving any suggestions but rambling about how good your domestic league.

gabarrini, papa, otamendi, cellay, cubero
veron riquelme somoza buonanotte
funes mori pavone

Just a couple of names off the top of my head that could comprise a decent local based NT.

Feel free to substitute names as you wish.

Seriously, its stupid to argue whether the european base player is better than local league or not. It does not reflect their performance in national team.

During a tournament Argentina always get a good result against any team except in bold.

WC
1998 - Defeated Croatia, Japan, Jamaica, England & beaten by Holland
2002 - Defeated Nigeria beaten by England ,draw against Sweden
2006 - Defeated Ivory, Serbia, Mexico, draw against Holland & beaten by Germany
2010 - Defeated Nigeria, South Korea, Greece, Mexico & beaten by Germany

CA
2004 - Defeated Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Columbia & beaten by Brazil
2007 - Defeated USA, Paraguay, Columbia, Peru, Mexico & beaten by Brazil

Confederation
2005 - Defeated Tunisia, Australia, Mexico , draw with Germany, beaten by Brazil



Argentina record against the big team proof everything, the last time they beat a strong side at a tournament was in 1998.

Carizzo was horrible for Lazio and Zaragoza. Unless he has a very very good season this year I dont see why he should be considered.

It could be argued then that Pozo was/is a better option.

Ahead of Ustari?

I think that Carrizo should be considerd if he is in a good form this season but he should first finish this Apertura fully and then get a call, If he plays like he played in the Clausura 08 he should get a call without quastion.

I liked Ustari in the past. I've nothing against him.

Agreed 100%. Sometimes a goalie just needs to get scored upon (alot) before he starts getting good.

No to Checho.

Why not? Just curious?

Aside one or two exceptions, I don't think any players over 30 should be getting called up anymore. It's time to bring in those who will be still be in their prime in 2014. As for next year's CA, as long as it takes a strong team, with the home field advantage Argentina should be able to win it.

He will get the job. The team was amazing against Spain. Unless they flop against Brazil or Japan, the job is his. He'll get a contract until 2011 CA. If Argentina wins, he'll get a contract til 2014. If not, and if they dont play well, someone else will take his place.

Which is a good approach I think. If he can confirm he can get this team to perform at this level against the top sides on a regular basis, then he definitely deserves the job up to 2014. If not, then we still have a chance to get a better option (possibly Bianchi).

Upon watching our performance against Spain I was smiling from ear to ear. It would seem that someone was able to make all the puzzle pieces work. Then I found out that Spain was on a promotional tour of the Americas trying to gain support for their 2018 World Cup bid. This Buenos Aires date and the previous Mexico dates were constructed to gain support of the federations so they would vote in Spain's favor.

Now the result of the game becomes rather suspect as does the sitting of many first team players.

Considering that piece of news, I suspect that Checho's real test will come against Brazil in November.