Lionel Messi, the legendary Barcelona goal scorer, is coming to the United States with the Argentina National Team to square off versus the U.S. Men’s National Team on March 26 at New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Messi is FIFA’s World Player of the Year for both 2009 and 2010.
March 14, U.S. Soccer announced that over 52,000 tickets have already been sold to the match. The USA have a 2-6-1 historical record against Argentina, ranked fourth in the world by FIFA. The match kicks off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast by ESPN.
Coach Sergio Batista is bringing many Argentine luminaries including Gabriel Milito and Javier Mascherano of Barcelona, Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti of Inter Milan and Angel Di Maria of Real Madrid. [full roster below]
USA coach Bob Bradley will face his first major test of 2011. On January 22, the USA played their first game versus Chile, but coach Marcelo Bielsa brought a very young and inexperienced squad and the uneventful game finished 1-1. Since then, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati has reportedly offered Bielsa the position of technical director for the U.S. Men’s National Team program.
On the U.S. roster are goalkeeper Tim Howard, defenders Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo and Oguchi Onyewu, midfielders Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Stuart Holden, and Michael Bradley and forwards Juan Agudelo and Edson Buddle.
Bradley’s selection meet in North Carolina on March 20 for training, from where the final roster will be chosen for the Argentina match. Another roster will be formulated for the March 29 match versus Paraguay in Nashville, Tennessee.
Advance tickets to USA-Argentina are available through ussoccer at 1-800-745-3000.
U.S. ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (3): Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton), David Yelldell (MSV Duisburg)
DEFENDERS (9): Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Jonathan Bornstein (UANL Tigres), Timothy Chandler (FC Nürnberg), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Vancouver Whitecaps), Oguchi Onyewu (FC Twente), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United), Zak Whitbread (Norwich City)
MIDFIELDERS (9): Michael Bradley (Aston Villa), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Mikkel Diskeruud (Stabaek), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), Jermaine Jones (Blackburn Rovers), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)
FORWARDS (3): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Jozy Altidore (Bursaspor), Edson Buddle (FC Ingolstadt)
ARGENTINA ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS (3):Mariano Andujar (Catania), Adrian Gabbarini (Independiente), Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar)
DEFENDERS (8): Javier Zanetti (Inter Milan), Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City), Ezequiel Garay (Real Madrid), Gabriel Milito (Barcelona), Nicolas Otamendi (Porto), Federico Fazio (Sevilla), Nicolas Burdisso (Roma), Marcos Rojo (Spartak Moscow)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Javier Mascherano (Barcelona), Mario Bolatti (Internacional, Brazil), Ever Banega (Valencia), Fernando Belluschi (F.C. Porto), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter Milan), Lucas Biglia (Anderlecht), Javier Pastore (Palermo)
FORWARDS (6): Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli), Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid), Nicolas Gaitan (Benfica), Jose Sosa (Napoli), Eduardo Salvio (Benfica)
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