Mascherano broke his silence: “The South American was a failure” and that convinced him to continue with the Under 20

“After the South American I wanted to take some time to think about many things, because It was a huge blow and a failure for us.” Thus, bluntly, Javier Mascherano described how he felt after the premature elimination in the last youth team tournament. And he described the support he received from the senior coach: “Beyond the intentions of the president (Chiqui Tapia) as well as Bernardo (Romeo, coach of the national teams) and the coach of Major League Soccer (Lionel Scaloni), whose support I appreciate, I also believed it was good to do step aside and give them peace of mind, so they can choose whoever they want“.

“Time went by, they insisted on me and a conversation I had with Scaloni in the Ezeiza property was fundamental where he expressed his intention to continue counting on me in the same way”, revealed Mascherano.

The Sub 20 DT spoke to DSports Radio before the World Cup that is coming to our country and was clear on what he wants: “The primary goal is to improve, the squad has changed a lot. Our goal is to play all 7 games.”

Mascherano​ said that, after a period of reflection, he has agreed to continue working with the national team. And that this decision was taken before it was defined that Argentina would organize the Under-20 World Cup: “The reality is that everything was anticipated and I had to make the decision much faster because everything had to be rearmed. I was in the process dialogue with Scaloni and Romeo”.

Finally, he spoke about how bad his friend Messi is at PSG with the mistreatment of the fans and analyzed: “Insulting Leo is a sin. They didn’t realize what kind of player they didn’t know how to have in their squad. Instead of enjoying it, they spent their time criticizing it. You can’t fault Messi’s professionalism.”

The 21 chosen for the World Cup

After several twists due to the refusal of some European clubs to sell their players, Javier Mascherano has formalized the list of 21 players who will play the Under 20 World Cup in Argentina. And in the cut of the 37 footballers selected there were many who were in the failed South American, apart from small stars like Alejandro Garnacho, Facundo Buonanotte and Nicolás Paz, who didn’t let them come.

The selection office has worked and negotiated a lot in recent days. Because since Fifa has not included the Under-20 World Cup on the calendar, clubs are not obliged to sell their players. Thus Bernardo Romeo (Youth Sector Coordinator) and Javier Mascherano (Under 20 coach) met with coaches and managers to be able to put together the best possible squad.

The big problem on the list were the three players that Mascherano went looking for in Europe but failed to convince the clubs, beyond their presence and that the boys also asserted themselves, but failed. Thus, Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United), Facundo Buonanotte (Brigthon) and Nicolás Paz (Real Madrid) could not be part of the final list of 21.

Those who will be in the Argentine Cup

They weren’t all bad from the outside. Because there are clubs that have decided to bet on the Under 20 national team and on the growth of their players. For this reason, beyond the fact that important things are played at the end of the season, Juventus have authorized Matías Soulé, Manchester City have authorized Máximo Perrone, Lazio have authorized Luka Romero, Inter have authorized Valentín Carboni, Sporting Lisboa cleared Mateo Tanlongo and Barcelona to Roman Vega.

Only nine repeated by the South American

Mascherano has decided that only nine of the 23 who went to the South American in Colombia, in which Argentina did not even pass the first phase, play in the World Cup which the national team entered when the change of venue was decided. The survivors of the squad are: goalkeeper Gomes Gerth, defenders Di Lollo, Giay and Valentín Gómez, midfielders Perrone and Infantino, and forwards Maestro Puch, Véliz and Aguirre.

Those who miss the World Cup

Then, from the list of 37, the coach has three players who he could not count by decision of the clubs (the aforementioned Garnacho, Paz and Buonanotte), Benjamín Domínguez (Gymnastics) has not recovered from the injury suffered at his club and then the coach chose two different left-backs ((Barco and Vega), leaving out two with more experience in the cycle such as Julián Aude (Los Angeles Galaxy) and Franco Carboni (Monza).

The Avilès case

The chromatic data of the list are provided by Tomás Avilés, multi-purpose defender of Racing. Why the 19-year-old played in the South American league in Colombia defending the Chile shirt -he too was excluded in the first phase, like Argentina-, and now they will play the World Cup with the blue-and-whites.