Not an awful lot has happened really. The selección landed in Bogotá on Sunday and Carlos Tevez gave a press conference alongside Juan Román Riquelme on Monday, in which he stated, among other things, that ‘It will be a very difficult match, as it always is when Argentina visit Colombia in the qualifiers…
‘…They’re a rival who’ve done a lot in recent years and they’ll be fighting for a place at the World Cup,’ stated El Apache, giving the lie to the theory that it’s only England players who can be staggeringly banal in the runup to international matches.
Riquelme, meanwhile, continued playing the humble card by telling the gathered journos that, ‘we know that if we have a good day, we can create chances to win the match.’ Argentina’s current FIFA World Ranking is 1st, by the way, not that you’d believe it from the way these two were carrying on.
Even the altitude question was raised – never mind that Argentina have to deal with it at least four times in every World Cup qualifying campaign since they started (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia). Tevez deadpanned, ‘if we can keep possession of the ball, it will be them [Colombia] doing the running, not us, and that will make it easier.’ Riquelme said that ‘we’re very pleased with the three wins so far, and we want to end the year in first place.’ A win will ensure that – Paraguay are currently second on seven whilst Brazil and Colombia are level with five each.
The Colombian side already looks all-but decided, so whilst I’ll bring you the formations and final starting XIs before the match tomorrow night (kickoff is 9:50pm Argentina, 12:50am UK), here’s what Olé reckon it will be, in a 4-4-2 due in part to the injury to Radamel Falco García:
Agustín Julio; Rubén Bustos, Aquivaldo Mosquera, Walter Moreno, Javier Arizala; Carlos Sánchez, José Amaya, Freddy Grisales, Jaime Castrillón; Tressor Moreno, Wason Rentería.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 