Argentina vs Colombia: "They are back"

Sept 30th, 99

By Adrian Maladesky
Diario Ole

English translation by Mari

'Bielsa's team will be back the 13th of October for a match against Colombia. So the game of who's coming and who's not is on. There will be no matches taking place in Italy therefore all the "tanos" will be able to come. To begin with, we know of two that will come for sure: Batistuta and Almeyda. The two most missed in Argentina's matches against Brazil by the Argentinian people'.

They are back... With their long hair and all! Batistuta after only playing one match, Holland vs Argentina, of the twelve played in Bielsa's era. It will be Almeyda's debut in this cycle. As a curious note, the last match played by Almeyda was also against Holland in World Cup 98.

They are back... They will play against Colombia, October 13, in Cordoba. With their come-back their personal history with the National Team will continue.

In a survey conducted by "Ole" in which 295 people were involved, they were asked who were the ones missed the most in the friendlies against Brazil. Batistuta came out first with 58% of the votes, then Almeyda with 18%. It was also asked if Redondo should be a starter to which the majority said yes, but they want Matias as an alternative.

They are back...Why Bati? Lets begin with why he was not part of the team in this previous matches. Bati's absence were due to only one motive: That damn left knee. Which he injured twice. Then he needed time to recuperate, to be able to reach his level. Bielsa's reason for not calling Bati has always been the same. He want to give Bati time to recuperate, he doesn't want to rush him.

The last time Bielsa and Bati met was in Florence before the friendlies with Brazil. After their conversation Bielsa decided that Bati needed more time, he does not want to risk him. The same happened with the "Copa America". We have to say that Bati was not too happy with Bielsa because his absence was not clearly explained. It was the coach decision. We know that Bati wanted very much to play, he even cut short his vacations in Polynesia just in case Bielsa changes his mind. This did not happen.

Playing against Brazil, the number 9 was on Crespo's back. Against Colombia the two of them will play like they did in Holland. That time Gabriel was a starter, Hernan entered as a substitute, they played together for the last nine minutes of the match, during which Bati scored the tie goal.

The team: The majority of the players called are the ones playing in Italy. They will start arriving at "Ezeiza" by October 4th. Italy's National Team will be playing against Bielorrusia, Saturday 9th., therefore there will be no Serie A, on Sunday 10th. So Argentina will have almost ten days to work with the players before the Colombia match.

With the 'Italian' players will also be the'French' players, Marcello Gallardo, Eduardo Berizzo and the 'English' player Nelson Vivas. Reinforcements will be added from local players. Bonano, Sorin, Samuel, Claudio Husain are some of the players that could be called.

Why Almeyda? In his last interview with the press, Bielsa let it be known that he has followed Almeyda very closely and that he thinks that Almeyda is today one of the best in his post. He also said that he has Redondo, Simeone....We had very good players for this position. We'll see. At the moment Almeyda is in excellent form. Redondo will not be able to come, his team will be playing against Barcellona, a classic in the Spanish League. Physical problems have kept Almeyda out of the National Team until now. Almeyda's words for "Ole" were: "I'm in top shape, if I'm not called its only because of Bielsa's choices". We know Bielsa likes Almeyda. In this position the problems arises not because we need players but because we had an abundance of them. We welcome this type of problems. We welcome the ones coming back.