May 26, 2002

NARAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Argentina, aware of the great World Cup expectations in their fans back home, marked their national day on Saturday with a hard and intense training session under coach Marcelo Bielsa.

"If there is no quality of movement, there won't be quality in the match," Bielsa shouted as he exhorted his troops to maximum effort in demanding exercises of set-piece and open play situations at their J-Village bunker on the Pacific coast 200 km north of Tokyo.

Argentina, favourites to win their third world title after failing to fulfil their best expectations in the previous two finals, are preparing for their opening group F match against Nigeria in Ibaraki on June 2.

May 25 marks the day in 1810 that Argentines sparked a revolution against Spanish colonial rule.

In the World Cup starting next Friday, in which they meet Nigeria, England and Sweden in group F, Bielsa's team will be looking to overthrow title holders France.

Bielsa rarely brings the whole squad together in training, preferring to work on areas of the team separately.

He began Saturday's session with the defence, getting the players to defend attacking runs on goal at speed and then blocking shots to the near post with feet or heads.

This work appeared to be aimed at avoiding the kind of brilliant goal Argentina conceded to Michael Owen in their memorable 1998 second round clash in St Etienne against England, whom they meet again in group F in Sapporo on June 7.

DEFENSIVE WORK

"Marcelo is a coach who works differently from the majority of trainers, he works specifically on each position. He wants his team to attack and we are working towards that," left wing-back Juan Pablo Sorin said after the practice.

With the premise of winning possession at every opportunity, Bielsa also put the forwards through a strong session of pressing at goalkicks by the opposing side.

Players of the calibre of Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo, rivals for the central striker's role, were not spared the graft of dashing across the face of the penalty box chasing a goalkeeper's short kick or throw to a defender.

With speed of the essence, one of Bielsa's assistants timed the runs the forwards made between cones at the moment that one of the keepers released the ball, and cheered every improvement.

"If we all run equally (fast) in the match, we'll win the ball," Bielsa shouted.