Sunday 15 March 2009

Maradona overlooks Zabaleta again

Diego Maradona has named his squad for Argentina's two up-coming qualifiers, against Venezuela and Bolivia, but has again missed out Pablo Zabaleta. The other big news is that Riquelme is dropped.

Here's the squad:
Goalkeepers

Juan Pablo Carrizo, Mariano Andujar, Federico Vilar

Defenders

Martín Demichelis, Gabriel Heinze, Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Daniel Diaz, Juan Forlin, Emiliano Papa, Marcos Angeleri

Midfielders

Fernando Gago, Javier Mascherano , Maxi Rodriguez , Luis Gonzalez, Jonas Gutierrez , Angel Di María, Sebastian Battaglia, Juan Sebastian Veron, Daniel Montenegro

Forwards

Lionel Messi , Sergio Agüero, Carlos Tévez, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Lisandro Lopez , Diego Milito.
Now, I've said before that it's always going to be a struggle for Zabaleta to get into the team in holding midfield, ahead of Mascherano and Cambiasso. (But Cambiasso isn't even in this squad, for some reason.) But I don't see why he can't even get near the squad as a defender. I've linked the Wikipedia profiles of the non-famous defenders, and it seems like Marcos Angeleri is a right back (for Estudiantes) and that Daniel Díaz can also play there (he plays for Getafe). If you've ever seen either of them play, and can compare them to Zabaleta, please leave it in the comments.

6 comments:

newsoftheblues said...

juan forlin is class! Another boca academy centre half.

Angeleri has been somewhat of a revelation in the argie leagues at verons side.

dont know why diaz is in the squad!

still suprised they wont call up buonanotte. He is easily as good as jonas...more skillful.


Maradona wants to add more players from the Argie league, thats why zabaeleta has not been picked.

Anonymous said...

What a joke Maradona really is, Zabaleta is a far better utility player/defender than half of those defenders in the selected squad.

Wtf Jonas Gutierrez is a complete Premier League flop, Carlos Tevez is way off his best, Javier Mascherano another Premier League player.

Your having a laugh Tommytheblue, huge laugh as hardly any of the players are from a south american league.

Not mentioning those 3 premier League playes above you also have Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Juan Sebastian Veron, Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel, Gabriel Heinze, Diego Milito are also in Europe.

Esteban Cambiasso is missing which is a complete joke also.

Tommy has not got a clue.

I hope Maradona fails big time, worst thing argentina could have ever done was to appoint this tool.

TLDORC said...

I ought to point out that Juan Sebastian Veron plays for Estudiantes in the Argentine league.

newsoftheblues said...

Trueblue. He picked 7 from the argentinian league and Vilar who plays in mexico.

He also dropped riquelme (another argentinan based player) Becasue of an outburst.

It appears you don't know what your talking about.

RENZO said...

Riquelme wasn't dropped, he was actually selected, but has now decided he doesn't want to play for Maradona ever again.

newsoftheblues said...

sematics... we know he had a public spat with maradona and has resigned from international football for now.

principles!