\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina\u2019s men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni announced the list of players called up for the team\u2019s friendly match against Guatemala, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n
The announcement brought several surprises, with unusual names listed among the hard core of Scaloneta players.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most surprising name is that of defender Tom\u00e1s Palacios. The 22-year-old plays for Estudiantes de La Plata in the Argentine top-tier, while on loan from Italian giant Inter Milan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The defender appears to have impressed Scaloni despite having played only eight games with the Pincharrata, where he\u2019s shown quality with his touch and passing ability and composure beyond his years.<\/p>\n
Another local player who\u2019ll have his chance with the Albiceleste is Racing\u2019s Gabriel Rojas. At 28, the San Lorenzo and Pe\u00f1arol man is hardly an up-and-coming prospect, but his performance with La Academia piqued Scaloni\u2019s interest at a time when national team stalwart Lisandro Mart\u00ednez is out with an injury.<\/p>\n
Others who make a surprise \u2014 even if not first \u2014 appearance are midfielder M\u00e1ximo Perrone, wingers Valent\u00edn Barco and Gianluca Prestianni, and striker Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez.<\/p>\n
The call-up for Prestianni, who\u2019s facing serious racism accusations after a spat with Real Madrid\u2019s Vinicius Jr, comes as a big backing signal by Scaloni. It\u2019s a similar case with L\u00f3pez, who is in an intense race with Joaqu\u00edn Panichelli for the third spot as a striker behind usuals Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez and Lautaro Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n
Among the absences, that of former River Plate wonderkid forward Franco Mastantuono and Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho appear as the most notable, while defender Facundo Medina, often touted as Lisandro Mart\u00ednez\u2019s replacement, is also out.<\/p>\n
A light-weight preparation? The friendly against Guatemala, announced after Argentina confirmed it wouldn\u2019t face Spain in the 2026 Finalissima as originally planned, drew criticism.<\/p>\n
Argentina Football Association (AFA) president Claudio \u201cChiqui\u201d Tapia highlighted that the Albiceleste will wrap up its World Cup preparations at home, but fans took to social media to lambast him for choosing \u2014 yet again \u2014 an unchallenging opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can round up 11 friends, can we schedule a friendly?\u201d commented one, while many pointed out that other South American powers like Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay will take on European rivals such as France, England and Croatia in the lead-up to the World Cup.<\/p>\n
In fact, of the 12 matches Lionel Scaloni\u2019s team has played since becoming world champions at Qatar 2022, none have been against a nation in the FIFA Ranking\u2019s top 20, with rivals like Angola, El Salvador, Cura\u00e7ao, or Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Argentina will face off against Guatemala at Boca Juniors\u2019 iconic home, La Bombonera, on Tuesday, March 31. Tickets are expected to go on sale a week prior, and start at AR$90,000 (just under US$64).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina\u2019s men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni announced the list of players called up for the team\u2019s friendly match against Guatemala, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup. The announcement brought several surprises, with unusual names listed among the hard core of Scaloneta players. Perhaps the most surprising name is that of defender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":44221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,69,66,5309,67],"tags":[2459,6040,1368,5308,1369],"class_list":["post-44220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-argentina","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-football","category-lionel-scaloni","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-football","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}