Sergio Batista has just announced a preliminary squad for the 2011 Copa América – which starts in Argentina one month tomorrow – which will be trimmed slightly to 22 players for the final squad. Carlos Tevez, after the amazing about-turn from both parties at the end of last week, is in the squad. Gabriel Heinze – another player rumoured to have supported Diego Maradona’s campaign to remain as national team boss – is out. River Plate goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo, much criticised of late, is in. The full list is right here.
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Goalkeepers
Mariano Andújar (Catania, Italy)
Juan Pablo Carrizo (River Plate)
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)
Defenders
Gabriel Milito (Barcelona, Spain)
Ezequiel Garay (Real Madrid, Spain)
Nicolás Burdisso (Roma, Italy)
Javier Zanetti (Internazionale, Italy)
Nicolás Pareja (Spartak Moscow, Russia)
Marcos Rojo (Spartak Moscow)
Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City, England)
Luciano Monzón (Boca Juniors)
Midfielders
Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)
Lucas Biglia (Anderlecht, Belgium)
Éver Banega (Valencia, Spain)
Esteban Cambiasso (Internazionale)
Javier Pastore (Palermo, Italy)
Diego Valeri (Lanús)
Enzo Pérez (Estudiantes de La Plata)
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid)
Forwards
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Ángel Di María (Real Madrid)
Gonzalo Higuaín (Real Madrid)
Sergio Agüero (Atlético de Madrid, Spain)
Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)
Diego Milito (Internazionale)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy)
As noted above, this list will be trimmed to twenty-two names before the start of the tournament.
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Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Apart from the obvious, who is the player you reckon is the one to watch in the tournament?
Keep an ear open for our Hand Of Pod previews on that regard, Neil… but I’ll say I’m interested to see how Neymar does for Brazil, and really looking forward to seeing Radamel Falcao García back in Argentina for Colombia.
anybody else planning on going to some games in Argentina for the copa america?
Which ones do you have tickets for, fergus?
None, Ive just started to look into it now, I believe there are still some tickets left for some games on ticketek. I’ll be based in Mendoza for part of it anyway. Do you know what way the ticketing system is based, i.e. how easy will it to be to buy from the touts or is it a registered system where you’ll need to show id ?
That’s interesting, I’d heard every game had already sold out. The AFA, organising committee and CONMEBOL have been issuing warnings for the last few weeks to, ‘not buy tickets from sources other than Ticketek they are false’ (I’ve copied their grammar, or lack of it, as well).
I don’t know about the situation with ID but this being South American I imagine it’ll be easy enough to get around if you do buy from touts. I’ve got an accreditation for the tournament so fortunately it’s not a risk I’ll need to take.
Cheers, I’m in La Paz at the moment and I found a travel agency selling tickets for the opening match for $30 so I guess i’ll have to take a chance if I go for it.
Let me know if you need someone to carry your laptop into the games.
Theres actually tickets available on ticketek for most of the matches apart from Argentina’s games, the final, the group games in Mendoza and one of the semis.
I’ll be going to games in San juan, Cordoba, Santa fe and Mendoza if anybody has a similar plan?
i know that the list came out days ago but its given me time to think about some things. what is the point of all these games using the home players if this is the list? sucks for teams like racing, who would send players like hauche and yacob in the midweek, and get them back fatigued for the weekend. the defense is still trash and i expect very little from them. without going back to far into the past, i wish we’d have sorin and ayala in their prime over any of these bums. i deeply believe grondona is one of the most corrupt presidents and is really the man that comes up with the list, not that puppet batista. its my only explanation for why cambiasso, burdisso, and milito still get called hahaha. the one up side is that biglia got called up. that guy is all heart and good to see he’s gonna play the copa despite that shoulder injury.
I think the local selección is a little pointless too, john, but in fairness no-one ever pretended these players were going to form any significant part of the squad. The idea is to take the side around the country, give fans in the provinces a chance to see some of the Primera favourites, and – yes – sell out a few stadia and make some money as well. It’s an exercise in revenue, with the useful side effect that players like Erik Lamela get a chance to experience early on what it’s like to represent their country without necessarily getting the same pressure piled on them right from the off as if they were called up along with the big boys for a proper match (that, of course, is pushed as the main reason for it).
As I say, I agree it’s a stupid exercise. But I don’t think there’s any need to feel too much sympathy to the players who didn’t get to the Copa after being involved with the home-based setup. I can’t imagine any of them were expecting a call-up.