This Saturday’s match against Peru in hot Miami represents an opportunity more than a problem for the Argentine National Team. It is that the absence of Messi could be a headache, but the tranquility of the two initial victories against Canada and Chile make the third match of group A of the America Cup finds her qualified for the quarter-finals. And that opens the door to a test for a not-so-distant future: The Post Lionel Era.
Lisandro Martínez, Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister, Julián Álvarez appear there, but also Alejandro Garnacho and Valentin Carbonitwo of the ‘eurokids’ in which Lionel Scaloni He placed his confidence in going to defend the title obtained in Brazil 2021.
It will be the Manchester United winger who will have the opportunity from the start, on the left in principle, on the other side where he will be located Angel Di Mariawho will wear the captain’s armband and is precisely the one he is called to replace.
Garnacho, 19 years old, He still did not have minutes in the previous tour or in the first two games of the Copa AméricaIn fact, this will be his second match as a starter in the Albiceleste jersey, having only started in one (vs Costa Rica in Los Angeles) of the four friendlies and the qualifying match he played.
The one born in Spain and with a mother from Cordoba (Patricia Ferreyra Fernández) is electric. Perhaps there is the intention to take it little by little and that the decision making improves with the errors that, first, they tried to correct in practice and now they will have to demonstrate on the field.
The case of Valentín Carboni is even more emblematic. Because beyond the fact that the kid from Monza in Italy was in the Sub 20 – where he barely played six games – he got into this call as one of the surprises after dazzling in training and the March tour, where he had played only eight minutes against Costa Rica that earned him the summons for the run-up to this Copa América, in which he started against Guatemala.
The elegant game of the son of Ezequiel ‘Kely’ -former Lanús footballer- captivated the coaching staffin addition to an effective punch and vision above average for his 19 years. He is the prototype of the football player to come: an all-rounder for the brand, with a great display and technical quality..
“We have a lot of expectations and a lot of enthusiasm because they are two players of a very high level. Everyone expects them to have minutes, they have earned it being here, they didn’t just come to complete the list, they train very well“, he valued Walter Samuelwho attended the official press conference following Scaloni’s suspension by Conmebol.
In addition to them, there are four other players – apart from goalkeepers Rulli and Armani – who have not yet played a single minute in this Copa América: Germán Pezzella, Exequiel Palacios, Lucas Martínez Quarta and Guido Rodríguez. The first two will surely be starters.
Numbers without the ace of spades are not a trauma
It is not a novelty that the Argentine National Team does not have Messi. In fact, it has happened in 17 games of the 72 that the cycle has from the world champion coach. Of those, he won 13, had three draws and only one defeat: the agonizing 0-1 against Brazil in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in October 2018.
If we take as a starting point the Copa América win in Brazil 2021, there were six games without the Flea, with a full house of victories and without many complications. The first of them, what a paradox, was also the only one in which Scaloni was not on the bench.
The coach – and his assistant Pablo Aimar – had Covid and could not travel to Calama for the match against Chile for the Qualifiers towards Qatar 2022, Samuel was on the line and it was a 2-1 victory for the Albiceleste.
In 2023, he also missed two matches: in the friendlies of the tour of Asia, he was absent for the second game against Indonesia and was absent at altitude in La Paz, where he watched from the bench the categorical and historic 3-0 victory against Bolivia.
And in the current calendar year there were another pair of duels in which the 10 did not have an owner. The March friendlies in the United States against El Salvador and Costa Rica, injury to the hamstring of his right leg through.
Nobody wants that day to come, but fate seems to have allowed us to begin to advance a story that cannot be avoided. The Argentine National Team is going for first place, to fly to Houston without a problem, and to be able to enjoy a full Messi again.
