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The Argentine national team has the resumption of the competitions on the horizon South American qualifiers for the United States-Canada-Mexico 2026 World Cup after the 2024 Copa America and The Argentine Football Association (AFA) announced on Monday the list of players called up by coach Lionel Scaloni to receive Chile on Thursday, August 5 at the Monumental stadium for the seventh date and will visit Colombia on Tuesday 10th at the Roberto Meléndez Metropolitan Stadium in Barranquilla.
The absence of the payroll stands out Lionel Messiwho injured his right ankle in the final of the continental tournament against the Colombian team and is going through the last weeks of his recovery to put on the Inter Miami shirt again. He is also not Angel Di Maria because he retired from the national team. Other notable absences are those of Franco Armani -would have finished his cycle with the albiceleste-, Paulo Dybala, Lucas Martinez Wednesday, Marcos Acuna y Exequiel Palacios who, like the ’10’, was not called up due to injury.
Lionel Messi is recovering from the injury to his right ankle that he suffered in the 2024 Copa América final vs. ColombiaAníbal Greco / Special Envoy – LA NACION
Without Armani, Scaloni called again Walter Benítez y Juan Musso. Besides, Valentin Barco, Alejandro Garnacho y Valentin Carboni were supported after forming the preliminary squad for the Copa América -in the case of Garnacho and Carboni they were champions- while the surprises are Ezequiel Fernandezrecently transferred from Boca to Al-Qadisiyah of Saudi Arabia; Matias Soule, Julian Simeon y Valentin Castellanos.
The Argentine national team leads the South American qualifiers with 15 points thanks to five victories and a single defeat against Uruguay 2-0 at the Bombonera. Their last appearance was in November last year when they beat Brazil 1-0 at the Maracaná stadium with a goal from Nicolas Otamendi.
The matches against Chile and Colombia will be the first two that the Albiceleste will play after being champion of America for the second consecutive time. and also the six-team group remaining this year. In October, they will face Venezuela (V) and Bolivia (L) and in November, Paraguay (V) and Peru (L). The qualifiers will conclude in 2025 with the last six matches: in March, the Albiceleste will face Uruguay (V) and Brazil (L); in June, Chile (V) and Colombia (L); and finally, in September, their opponents will be Venezuela (L) and Ecuador (V).
The standings of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World CupCanchallena
Following FIFA’s modification of the number of teams that will participate in each World Cup from 2026 onwards (there will be 48, as opposed to the 32 participants in the last seven World Cups), The qualification process in each member federation has also changed. In the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), the game format remains the same, but not the number of places: it went from four and a half to six and a half (five direct and one through play-offs).
The 10 teams belonging to Conmebol (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) play each other in a round-trip format, which means they will play 18 matches each. Those that finish between first and sixth place will qualify directly for the World Cup to be held in the United States-Mexico-Canada, while the team that finishes in seventh place will have to face a playoff against a team from another confederation.
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