With the presence of Leo Messi and the absences of the goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and the defender Christian Romero, The Argentine National Team held its first practice this Monday at the Inter Miami complex for the friendly match on Friday at 9:00 p.m. (our country time) against Honduras at the Hard Rock Stadium in that American city. Martínez and Romero have not yet arrived from England to the Florida peninsula since, due to the burial ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II, they could not obtain the corresponding visas.
After Paris Saint-Germain’s win on Sunday against Lyon in Ligue 1 with his goal, Messi flew in his private plane from the French capital and, accompanied by Ángel Di María, Leandro Paredes and Nicolás Tagliafico, arrived in Miami at dawn, where The coach and the players Lisandro Martínez, Thiago Almada, Julián Álvarez and Alexis Mac Allister were already there.
Nicolás González also joined who had been pre-called but was later left out of the final list due to injury. However, the midfielder and left winger he was able to play 25 minutes on Sunday in Fiorentina’s victory against Hellas Verona for Serie A (he scored a goal), for which the coaching staff headed by Lionel Scaloni called him up at the last minute.
Instead, Marcos Acuña, Giovani Lo Celso and Paulo Dybala arrived touched. Acuña came out with a muscle soreness in the Sevilla match with Villareal in which Lo Celso was replaced 30 minutes into the first half because the yellow team coach, Unai Emery, said he was not one hundred percent. Dybala, for his part, suffered an annoyance on Sunday in the heat of the Roma match against Atalanta and had to be replaced at the last minute.
We will have to wait for the course of training to find out if Scaloni will use these friendlies to prepare the eventual starting team for the World Cup debut on November 22 against Saudi Arabia or if they will be the last opportunity to evaluate some players who have not yet been insured your ticket. The final list for the World Cup must be delivered no later than Monday, November 14.
The Argentine team will close this friendly window prior to the World Cup on Tuesday 27 against Jamaica at the Red Bull Sand, from New Jersey. The last preparatory match will be played against the United Arab Emirates, led by Argentine Rodolfo Arruabarrena, in Abu Dhabi on November 16, six days before the start of World Cup activity in Qatar.
