With the completion of the two-match ‘tour’ of the United States on Sunday, the Argentina squad returned to Buenos Aires to begin preparations for the next round of South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On Sunday, Argentina will host Ecuador in El Monumental, before travelling to take on Brazil in Belo Horizonte next week. After training on Tuesday, two of the players in the 27-man squad – Oscar Ustari and Esteban Cambiasso – were deemed not fit enough to take part in the matches. Sergio Agüero and Lisandro López also skipped training due to illness, but will be fine by play by Sunday. The full squad is right here, minus the two injured parties.
Goalkeepers:
Roberto Abbondanzieri (Getafe, Spain)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)
Juan Pablo Carrizo (River Plate)
Defenders:
Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo de La Coruña, Spain)
Gonzalo Rodríguez (Villarreal, Spain)
Gabriel Heinze (Real Madrid, Spain)
Javier Zanetti (Internazionale, Italy)
Nicolás Burdisso (Internazionale)
Martín Demichelis (Bayern München, Germany)
Pablo Zabaleta (Espanyol, Spain)
Midfielders:
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid)
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England)
Maxi Rodríguez (Atlético de Madrid, Spain)
Ever Banega (Valencia, Spain)
Sebastián Battaglia (Boca Juniors)
Jonás Gutiérrez (Real Mallorca, Spain)
Juan Sebastián Verón (Estudiantes de La Plata)
Juan Román Riquelme (Boca Juniors)
José Sosa (Bayern München)
Forwards:
Sergio Agüero (Atlético de Madrid)
Lisandro López (Porto, Portugal)
Julio Cruz (Internazionale)
Fernando Cavenaghi (Girondins Bordeaux, France)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Spain)
Rodrigo Palacio (Boca Juniors)
I’ll be away from Friday night until Tuesday but will do my best to put up a summary of the press reaction to the Ecuador match (and videos of any goals) on Monday, and will of course be giving the Brazil match my full attention.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
So, will Pato Abbondanzieri still be first choice at the 2010 World Cup? Will he even have a club by then? I sure hope they plan for this and get Carrizo some international experience. To rely on Pato two years from now is crazy.
why they are not considering tevez.. even he is in good form
Coco said he was going to leave Tevez out for the first part of the summer, because he hasn’t had a real rest in several years.
Besides, Tevez is suspended for the match against Ecuador and Coco said it was meaningless to have him joining the team for a month (with the tour of the USA) for only one game. Plus, they both decided it was the best for him to miss out this time.
Argentina looked poor today. They really need to play two forwards up top, once Cruz came in to the game they actually started to create chances. Riquelme showed practically nothing. What a golazo by Ecuador, though.