With several absentees, Scaloni fielded Argentina's first XI pre-World Cup | OneFootball

The Argentina national team got down to work in Kansas and, with no mysteries or speculation, Lionel Scaloni fielded an eleven in the first training session at the Compass Minerals complex. Amid a delicate situation regarding injured players, who are gradually progressing in their recoveries, the coach carried out a tactical drill that offered clues ahead of the friendly against Honduras.

Although it cannot be said that this is the team leading the way toward the World Cup, since among those who did not take part were key backbone players such as Emiliano Martínez, Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez, among others, the session served as a draft to begin shedding light on the coaching staff’s idea for Saturday.

The first training session in Kansas began with work in the gym, and then the players moved onto the field, where they practiced speed, coordination and technical movements at four different stations. Later, Scaloni set up tactical work: first, the group did an 11-vs.-0 drill to work on rehearsed movements and, after that, a traditional football scrimmage that lasted 40 minutes.

The main surprise for the Argentina national team, aside from the absences, was Nicolás Capaldo’s presence among the starters. The Hamburg player is not part of the 26-man squad for the World Cup, but he is among the seven additional players Scaloni took to Kansas for the friendlies against Honduras and Iceland. In addition, in his particular case, as with Agustín Giay, they are the only ones on that list who still have a slight hope of playing in the World Cup if Gonzalo Montiel does not recover favorably from his muscle tear.

The Argentina starting eleven Scaloni tested in the first training session

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.