Can This Team Win The World Cup?

By Dominic Vieira, writing from Portugal

‘El Pibe’ Announces Argentina’s Provisional Squad

After calling over 100 players throughout the past two years, Maradona had enormous decisions to make as 30 players had to be selected for Argentina’s provisional squad. The former World Cup winner has less than 3 weeks to select the final 23 men and start building a team which should be considered a contender to lift the prestigious trophy.

Throughout the qualification stages, Argentina were a disappointing side to watch. They did not play their best play football, there was constant formation switches and almost failed to qualify for the greatest football tournament on the planet. One of the major barriers of coaching international football is that managers don’t have sufficient time to prepare for matches, they usually have 3 or 4 days to work together before a match. But, World Cup preparation is a completely different cycle.

Diego Maradona has one month to build a team, not eleven individual players, but a solid and compact team which should play beautiful football. It’s a big challenge ahead of him, but with the quality of players he selected and the admiration and respect they all have for him, one month is enough time to produce one of Argentina’s greatest teams.

We’re all fans of beautiful, collective, free flowing football and Argentina are a team which must show the world how the game should be played. It’s a fact that many of the most talented players are Argentinean. Plus, if they perform at the level and quality they should be at, they can win the World Cup. Surprised? I wouldn’t be.