List of 26, defined. Concentration in Atlanta, begun. Physical condition of the squad, optimal. Unless one of the football players left something behind in Washington, The Argentine National Team has everything ready for Thursday’s debut against Canada that will launch the 2024 Copa América in the United States.
Lionel Scaloni’s team arrived in hot Atlanta on Saturday night and this Sunday afternoon they already had their first training session on the campus of the Kennesaw State University, where he will be working through Wednesday with a temperature forecast of 30º average.
This campus is approximately half an hour by bus from the hotel where the delegation is stopping – there were a good number of fans waiting for the players -, located a few blocks from the Mercedes-Benz stadium, scene of Thursday’s match against Canada, starting at 9 p.m. in front of 70,000 spectators.
The National Team has had a tight schedule since Friday night’s win against Guatemala in Washington and, for now, no free day appears on the horizon. The players trained on Saturday morning in that city and then flew to the city of Coca-Cola (that’s where the famous soda was invented). This Sunday was the first of the four practices they will have in the capital of the State of Georgia.
Scaloni will use the next training sessions to decide on his debut eleven against the -on paper- most accessible rival in the area. To take a reference, The FIFA ranking has Canada in 49th place while Chile, Tuesday’s opponent, is 42nd and Peru, Saturday’s rival, 32nd..
In any case, the FIFA list can be misleading. In favor of the Canadians, they have just played in the last World Cup while Peru and Chile watched it on television. In turn, according to the specialized site Transfermarktthey have two footballers among the 25 most valuable in the Cup: the left-footed Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) and the scorer Jonathan David (Lille), valued at 50 million euros. In that area, the Chilean leader is the center back Guillermo Maripán (Monaco; 10 million) and the Peruvian is the ex-Vélez defender Luis Abram (Atlanta United, 3 million). Finally, Canada has secured its place in the 2026 World Cup – as organizer – while Peru is last in the Conmebol Qualifiers (2 points in 6 games) and Chile, second to last (5 in 6)..
So things are, The team’s main unknown is number nine: Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez They shared minutes against Ecuador (1-0) and Guatemala and the Bahiense, starter in both – the Córdoban started only in one – could have taken a slight advantage with the two goals on Friday.
Furthermore, in the midfield, even though the De Paul-Alexis-Enzo trident is immovable, they could rotate Giovani Lo Celso -starter in both friendlies and the one who added the most minutes behind Dibu and Lisandro Martínez- or Leandro Paredesanother that had a good amount of play during preparation.
If Argentina almost excelled in its friendlies, Canada He had it very difficult. The team led by American Jesse Marsch lost 4-0 against the Netherlands in Amsterdam and beat France 0-0 in Bordeaux. For its part, Chile played only one game and beat Paraguay 3-0 in Santiago while Peru drew goalless against the Guaraníes in Lima and beat El Salvador by a brief 1-0 in Philadelphia.
