The Argentine Olympic football squad had their first preperatory friendly under Sergio Batista’s stewardship in the early hours (Argentine time) of Thursday morning, and easily beat Guatemala by five goals to nil. Accepting that their rivals will hardly be challenging for the title themselves, Batista none the less declared himself ‘very pleased with the attitude’ of the team.
Juan Román Riquelme played the full 90 minutes and looked impressive, but it was an especially good night for the strike duo of Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuaín and Napoli forward Ezequiel Lavezzi, who between them bagged three of the goals. Higuaín opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute and by the time he’d added to his personal tally, Lavezzi had already got one of his own.
Argentina controlled throughout against opposition who were only ever planning to give them a run out, and two further goals came late on as two substitutes - centre back Jonatan Maidana and striker Marco Rubén added to the tally.
For the goal video courtesy of TN, click here.
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I don’t know about elsewhere, but in my area (Boston, MA, USA), this match wasn’t shown on any channel I could find. I’m pretty sure that neither of the two major soccer networks here in the US (Fox Soccer and GolTv) aired it; I remember reading (on some other site, can’t remember which) posts from other US fans who were disappointed at not being able to see the game. But – good news! I’ve just discovered that this Argentina/Guatemala match will air on Telemundo (in my area, channel 19) Sunday, Feb 10, at 1 pm. So, check your tv listings, everyone …