Alejandro Sabella, the manager of Argentina National football team, confirmed the previous list of 30 players from which the 23 that will go to the World Cup will be chosen.
On Tuesday, May 20 the list of the players that must begin to train in Ezeiza (near Buenos Aires) will be known, and on June 2 (before the friendlies against Trinidad and Tobago and Slovenia) will come the confirmation of the definite list of players that will go to Brazil.
The 30-players list is the following (in bold, are 20 players out of the 23 final that in my opinion have an ensured place in the 23-list if they don’t suffer any injury):
Goalkeepers:
Sergio Romero (Mónaco)
Mariano Andújar (Catania)
Agustín Orión (Boca Juniors)
Defenders:
Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City)
Federico Fernández (Napoli)
Ezequiel Garay (Benfica)
Marcos Rojo (Sporting Lisboa)
Hugo Campagnaro (Inter)
José Basanta (Monterrey)
Nicolás Otamendi (Atlético Mineiro)
Martín Demichelis (Manchester City)
Lisandro López (Getafe)
Gabriel Mercado (River)
Midfielders:
Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)
Fernando Gago (Boca Juniors)
Ever Banega (Newell’s)
Angel Di María (Real Madrid)
Lucas Biglia (Lazio)
Maximiliano Rodríguez (Newell’s)
Ricardo Alvarez (Inter)
Enzo Pérez (Benfica)
Augusto Fernández (Celta)
Fabián Rinaudo (Catania)
José Sosa (Atlético de Madrid)
Strikers:
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)
Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli)
Rodrigo Palacio (Inter)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (París Saint-Germain)
Franco Di Santo (Werder Bremen)
The most important players that are out of the list are Carlos Tévez (Juventus), Javier Pastore (Paris Saint-Germain) and Willy Caballero (Málaga). However, there isn’t much surprise as the boss didn’t call them for any match, and although some of the Argentinian press wanted Tévez and Caballero, the manager prioritized the ones that played in the qualification and friendly matches.
On defense, I believe that Sabella will rely on Gabriel Mercado, a player that he knows since he coached at Estudiantes de La Plata, leaving Otamendi, Demichelis and López out from the World Cup.
The biggest doubts question arises in the midfield. Augusto Fernández was supposed to play in the World Cup but he suffered a knee injury in the match against Real Madrid last weekend, and he may be out of the pitch for three weeks so he couldn’t train with his partners until one or two weeks before the first match.
Because of that, I think that he’ll miss the World Cup unless he recovers faster that expected from his injury. I believe that José Sosa and Ricky Álvarez will be chosen for the remaining places, but Enzo Pérez has his chances too.
Finally, it’s very improbable that Rinaudo goes to Brazil. In my opinion, Sabella only put him in the list because he has to give a 30-player list, and if there aren’t many injuries he’ll watch the World Cup on TV.
About the strikers, Sabella has it very clear as he always called the same players in previous matches. Fabian Di Santo will only go to the World Cup if any of the other five gets injured.
