Two of the world’s most renowned offenses will face-off in a friendly tomorrow Tuesday September 7th in Argentina. Argentine scoring sensation Lionel Messi will battle against many of his beloved Barcelona teammates as his national side face this summer’s first time World Cup champions of La Furia Roja. And the game might just be a friendly, but a great deal is at stake for Maradona’s former side including the potential fate of their interim head coach Sergio Batista.
Batista will likely retain the position following this month’s action and AFA president Julio Grondona has admitted that Batista will likely be the side’s long term manager unless any serious problems occur sometime soon. And Batista is attempting to fix many of the bizarre roster choices made by his predecessor this summer and Argentina’s most capped player Javier Zanetti is expected to return to the starting lineup and the renowned Inter Milan star was of course snubbed from the World Cup this summer by the strange tactics of the legend himself Diego Maradona. Esteban Cambiasso, another snubbed Inter Milan star this summer, is also on the active roster and is expected to see some reserve minutes at the least as well.
As for the side’s attack Messi is expected to remain in his playmaker role as a secondary striker/attacking midfielder and will be joined up with Manchester City man Carlos Tevez and overlooked national team forward, but treble winner for Inter Diego Milito. The three headed monster of an attack will hope to make a greater impact then the side’s offense could manage in the World Cup. As for the real debate with the Argentine side is the weak defense that was displayed this summer against Germany in that 4-0 quarterfinals routing. The side plans on remaining an attack oriented side and hopes that the Inter additions will provide the necessary support for the defensive half of the pitch.
As for Spain the side is expected to make few changes from this summer’s roster and tactics considering the obvious fact that it worked so well in the World Cup. The champs trained at the Boca Juniors stadium yesterday and David Villa, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Iker Casillas, and even Fernando Torres are all expected to play tomorrow.
Spain and Real Madrid defensive back/winger Sergio Ramos made the following statement about the squad’s plan of attack:
Were going to be playing a great team. But we are going to stick with the same philosophy that brought us success.
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