Argentina to face Bolivia as Copa America kicks off
The inaugural game of Copa America 2011 will feature the hosts Argentina who will be taking on Bolivia in a group ‘A’ game at the Estadio Ciudad da La Plata, Buenos Aires. Playing at home have made Argentina the favorites to win this year’s Copa America by piping their arch rivals Brazil. Argentina haven’t won the Copa America since 1993, but with the star studded lineup and home advantage, it gives them the edge in this year’s competition. This year in the 43rd edition of Copa America, the teams have been divided into three groups.
Group A: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica (Invited)
Group B: Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela
Group C: Chile, Mexico (Invited), Peru, Uruguay
Argentina will be playing their 1st international game after the loss against Germany in the quarter final of the World Cup in South Africa. Argentina will be looking to start on a high against Bolivia, the weakest team of South America. Argentina captain and also Champions League winner with Barcelona Javier Mascherano said – “We want to win the Copa America to recover our aura and be clearer in our way of playing.”
After Maradona’s departure Sergio Batista took charge of Argentina and this will be his 1st official tournament as Argentina coach. Batista also announced that he will be lining up Tevez along with Messi and Lavezzi to complete the attacking duties. Argentina strike force is one to be feared, they have some explosive and big name forwards in their ranks, which can cause any opposition problems.
The possible Argentina squad:
Sergio Romero(Gk), Javier Zanetti (Def), Nicolas Burdisso (Def), Gabriel Milito (Def), Marcos Rojo (Def), Ever Banega (Mid), Javier Mascherano (Mid), Esteban Cambiasso (Mid), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Forward), Lionel Messi (Forward), Carlos Tevez (Forward).
Argentina does not have pretty memories of their last meeting with Bolivia. They were defeated 6-1 in a World Cup qualifier in April 2009. So the Bolivians will be trying to repeat that result again. The inaugural match will start from 00:45 GMT. With the entire spotlight on Argentina to perform in this year’s tournament, it will be interesting to see how they live up to their favorites tag.
Tags: Argentina, Bolivia, Copa America 2011, Football, La Plata Stadium, South American Championship
