The 2010 World Cup preliminary roster was unveiled by Argentine national team coach Diego Maradona on Tuesday. Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso of Inter Milan, Lisandro Lopez of Lyon, and Fernando Gago of Real Madrid were not included on Maradona’s 30-man roster. For the World Cup, Maradona will reduce his team to 23 players.
The inclusion of homegrown players Ariel Garce, who led Argentina against Haiti last week, Sebastian Blanco of Lanus, and Juan Manuel Insaurralde of Newell’s Old Boys are the greatest shocks in Maradona’s roster.
The fact that Maradona’s selection contained seven forwards—Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Diego Milito, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Martin Palermo—was not unexpected.
The Boca Juniors striker Palermo, who provided Argentina with the decisive goal in their last World Cup qualifying victory over Peru last year, is one of the 10 native Argentine players in the team. It is anticipated that he or Ezequiel Lavezzi would be removed from Maradona’s final list.
On June 1, Maradona will provide FIFA with his final 23-man World Cup roster.
Argentina, a two-time World Cup champion, advanced to the 2006 competition’s quarterfinals. However, they were unexpectedly eliminated in the first round four years ago.
Team Argentina for the World Cup:
Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar), Mariano Andujar (Catania), and Diego Pozo are the goalkeepers (Colon)
Defenders include Fabricio Coloccini of Newcastle United, Martin Demichelis of Bayern Munich, Walter Samuel of Inter Milan, Gabriel Heinze of Marseille, Nicolas Burdisso of AS Roma, Ariel Garce of Colon, Juan Insaurralde of Newell’s Old Boys, Clemente Rodriguez of Newell’s Old Boys (Estudiantes)
Jonas Gutierrez of Newcastle United, Juan Sebastian Veron of Estudiantes, Jose Sosa of Estudiantes, Javier Mascherano of Liverpool, Angel Di Maria of Benfica, Javier Pastore of Palermo, Sebastian Blanco of Lanus, Maxi Rodriguez of Liverpool, Juan Mercier of Argentina, Jesus Datolo of Olympiakos, and Mario Bolatti of Italy are all midfielders (Fiorentina)
Forwards include Sergio Aguero of Atletico Madrid, Martin Palermo of Boca Juniors, Carlos Tevez of Manchester City, Gonzalo Higuain of Real Madrid, Diego Milito of Inter Milan, and Ezequiel Lavezzi of Barcelona (Napoli).
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