Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

🚨 A potential alternative date for the Finalissima is March 2026 due to a complicated calendar in 2025. However, nothing is confirmed yet, and a decision will be made soon. @HernanSCastillo 🏆🇦🇷🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/5p7ndNXDYC

— All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 (@AlbicelesteTalk) August 10, 2024

 

Lisandro Martinez is such a joy to watch. Having a nice game for Man U right now. Started at left back and now slid over to CB.

Him and Cuti on the NT are a damn nightmare to play against!! Im so happy we finally got to see their partnership take off in the Copa America.

My only concern is that Lisandro is so good, Man U are gonna give him too many minutes and burn him out.

 

Fking Bernardo Silva trying to injure our boy Garnacho. Intent to injure there, should be red.

Incredible goal by Garnacho just before that!

 

One thing about Garnacho is that he can shoot equally well with both foot.

 

lisandro late on that challenge, bad marking. Should have won the game by now

 

Alejandro Garnacho's goal for Manchester United!pic.twitter.com/JKUU5qxvU4

— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) August 10, 2024

 

Dybala was offered about 20ME per year net from a Saudi side but has declined the offer and wants to stay with Roma. He wants to continue with the seleccion, which would hinder his call-up.

Glad we still have players who are not driven by money alone.

 

CLAUDIO ECHEVERRI!pic.twitter.com/KGAIET9Jy0

— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) August 11, 2024

This assist from Matías Soulé for AS Roma!pic.twitter.com/FHpMCwXTkq

— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) August 10, 2024

Echeverri and Soule!

 

Although their team didnt win the shootout, Lisandro & Garnacho both scored their penalties. They must have thought "if only Dibu is our goalie"

 

We have a number of youngsters who have the potential of being top-top class. I just hope the transition is smooth and seamless. These youngsters need to be around the current squad who has won everything.

Soulé is around Dybala and Paredes and they seem to be really tight. Mati himself has said Paulo is like a big brother to him. Soulé has natural talent, has size and appears to the have the determination for showing his worth. He's already talked about in January, Juventus wanted to sell him to a Saudi club but he did not want to go. He's now said he wants to show his worth for Roma. That is just great to see a youngsters hungry to achieve.

Garna has Licha. Ale has already been around the guys for the CA, so he has experienced the euphoria of winning a Copa America and learned about a long tournament. I have said it before, I do not think Garna has natural talent like a Soulé, Echeverri and a Mastantuono. When you watch players who have innate ability, you see it. Nothing seems forced, it is a natural talent. However, he works very hard as his craft. He wants to show his worth.

Since he is ambidextrousness, he could be a threat on either side of the pitch. He doesn't have to be a Di Maria replacement and I personally do not think he is suited for that role at all. But I think he is more similar to somebody from the past like Caniggia. Maybe if he plays closer to the goal than have him way out on the wings. I will be curious to see how he progresses this year.

Yet all of this feels kinda strange. Scaloni took over six years ago (August 2nd, 2018), it seems like a long time when you look at in terms of years as a manager of a national side. And in this time, we have won 4 trophies. But I think when were around 2020-2021, we had a rough idea who was going to go to Qatar. I am going to be very interested to see how many youngsters Scaloni is going to bring in now. There will be the likes of Soulé, Garnacho, Colo who are now in Europe. Will Varela make an appearance? Will he call-up Echeverri sooner than later?

Here are the players who won't or possibly be there in 2026.

Armani
ADM
Papu
Foyth*
Almada*
Otamendi*
Acuña*
Dybala*
Pezzella*


* These are players on the out rather than fully retired. Otamendi and Pezzella should be all but retired from the seleccion but nothing is formal.

Foyth might have an outside shot if he gets back to his old form.

Almada is out and going to Brasil then to Europe, so who knows but there are youngsters ahead of him.

Dybala is getting up there in age and taking a 32.5 year old Dybala for limited minutes might be a stretch. He's already won a World Cup, so the blow won't be so bad. But you never know.

Huevo is on his last legs, IMO. Maybe a move back to Racing is what he needs to end his career.

There is a lot of groundwork to do. I've mentioned many-many times before. Scaloni needs to start the rebuilding now. We have the tools to be a threat in 2026 but the time is now.

 

Soule was also close to Dybala and Paredes even at Juve. The 2 of them went drove out for Soule's birthday last season.

 

Franco Mastantuono - Interstellar pic.twitter.com/XfG6fiOnXQ

— Ben Mattinson (@Ben_Mattinson_) August 10, 2024

This is art.

I know River Plate did not give us Maradona or Messi, but their youth academy has to be the world’s best or thereabouts.

 

Players that I hope are called up in September

- Soule
- Garnacho (time for him to have a more prominent role in the team)
- Barco
- Senesi
- Balerdi
- Varela

Since we have 2 tough game vs Chile and vs Colombia in September, I don't expect any of the "newcomers" to start or make an sub appearance. But I do want them in the squad to train with the team, get to know the Scaloni way and feels what it's like to be in the WCQ games.

Since October and November have the easier run of games on paper, I am hoping that they get a significant amount of games during that time period.

 

I mean, do we really consider Chile and Colombia as tough games? Gareca will certainly help Chile but Chile seem to be done and dusted. The game is in Baires, I think we will handle them quite easily.

Colombia, oh... Colombia. That streak* that they had going(Since they were not at the World Cup that streak was hogwash) made our victory a bit sweeter. Not to mention they were already saying "This is our time!" We played like ass and still beat them. They have set the game in the middle of the day in good ol Barranquilla. Maybe, we should take the trophy there and just hoist it before the game starts.

Scaloni has six games left this years, he should make them all count.

 

To our credit, we did beat a tough team in final. They outplayed us in first half. You didnt go unbeaten for almost 30 games just because of luck. I mean, they beat Uruguay and Brazil recent time (Copa & qualifier), they also beat Spain earlier this year but off course naysayers will try to point out how we had an easy path...

 

🚨 Julián Álvarez has signed his contract with Atletico Madrid. It's a deal until June 2029 and is expected to be announced shortly. Via @CLMerlo. 🕷 pic.twitter.com/nwHz2lptcp

— Mundo Albiceleste ⭐🌟⭐🇦🇷 (@MundoAlbicelest) August 12, 2024

 

Yeah, I mean, that is kinda my point. They beat those teams and they were surely to win. They played their best tournament since maybe 2014 and we played our worst in the Scaloni era and we still won.

 

Can we have him?

 

This era we are experiencing as futbolistas for la albiceleste is incredible. We're getting euro pibes who are good, our talent is exponentially incredible. We are on the high of highs. Our rivals hate us like they have never have before. You can feel the salt in the air from the evaporated tears.

All those damn years of a failure, pinch me, this is a dream

 

Its even funnier when some European players claimed Euro is harder than WC. Then you check the history, Spain only reach a single WC final and they mostly out before QF.They also got beaten by teams like Russia, Chile and Japan at WC

Meanwhile countries like Russia, Czech,Denmark ,Greece & even Slovakia has managed to win the Euro.

 

To be fair, the Soviet Union was made up of 15 republics, and the 1960 squad had players who were Georgian, Ukrainian, and Russian(Perhaps a couple more). Czechoslovakia was unified at that point but I see your point.

The Danes were pulled from their vacations when Yugoslavia were expelled from 92, and they won it.

Yes, it is great to see how upset people get with our success. And for the most part, it is not from our direct rivals. It is mostly from those who think they are our rival who are punching the air and beating up their pillows before going to bed.
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Garna is the only Euro-pibe out there that is getting regular minutes. Soulé is a Velez product that went to Juve when he was 17 or so. Carboni(Valentin) also left for Europe as a teenager. Neither are really considered Euro-pibes. But somebody like Paz, who is on the verge of a move shows promise.

But indeed, it is a magical time for the seleccion.

 

and I wonder had East Germany won a WC back then, would they add the star to the Germany? There's basically two German teams at WC back in the day.

Lots of Portugal fans thinks they have real rivalry with Argentina simply because of Messi & CR rivalry. I mean Portugal lost to Greece twice at their home Euro, that's an equivalent of Argentina hosting a Copa and losing twice to Mexico. Portugal has never been in same realm as Argentina.

The rivalry with France never seems like much before the 2018 & 2022 encounters. However, after we beat them in 2022 final, they now sees Argentina as their no.1 rival in history.

 

Well, the Uruguayan get upset when you call them out for their two additional stars. They’ll say, “FIFA acknowledges it.” As they proceed to pull out their phones(where they have the article saved) and say “See, here is the article where FIFA says 24 and 28 were equivalent to a World Cup.” They are so insecure about it.

The Germans would 100% have an additional star if East Germany won it. They’d probably give some mundane monotone German answer to it as well.

 

Yet even in Fifa official site says 1930 was the first Fifa WC.

"The South Americans lifted the first FIFA World Cup in 1930"

https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/olympicgames/paris2024/articles/uruguay-1924-1928-1930-world-cup

I guess when a non Uruguayan ask FIFA how many WC Uruguay has , FIFA would say two. To every Uruguayan, FIFA would say you got 4 titles kid.

 

Yeah, I do not think we would've even bothered if we won in 28. If we did, it would've been embarrassing. Hell, we didn't even start putting stars on our shirt until 2004ish. I guess that tells you our standards.

But anyways, we've got qualifiers in a few weeks time, I believe we will be debuting this patch.

The 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 in the World 🌟🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/zMFdIHwefU

— Selección Argentina in English (@AFASeleccionEN) July 16, 2024