If there are two teams that started out on opposite sides of the spectrum, well they will be facing each at the Estadio José Anzoátegui in Puerto La Cruz. It's a different story compared to their last encounter in Kolkata, India where the Argentines won 1-0.
Alejandro Sabella was able to strike often against a Claudio Borghi Chile side that decided to gamble and it paid off terribly as they went down 4-1 to an inspired Messi and a hat-trick happy Gonzalo Higuaín.
César Farías in the meantime decided to put all his eggs in one basket and now he faces an early must-win match against the Albiceleste as his European players were left behind in an effort to have them focus on the home match. Ecuador beat the Vinotinto handily at the altitude of Quito, and quite honestly, the 2-0 result could have been much worse save for the Ecuadorians' wastefulness and the offensive ineptitude of Venezuela's domestic side.
Now with the European-based side Farías looks to attack more and impose conditions much more than they did in Ecuador. Wholesale changes will come in as Farías loks to use as much of his 38-man callup as he can. More importantly he knows that three points are vital and will be hard to come by against a team that they have never beaten in their history.
Oswaldo Vizcarrondo as well as Athletic Bilbao's Fernando Amorebieta will start in the central defense while the midfield will be completely revamped with Tomás Rincón (Wolfsburg), César González (River Plate), Juan Arango (Borussia Monchengladbach), and either Juan Guerra or Franklin Lucena. While the Venezuelans will have some important firepower up top with Nicolás Fedor (Getafe) and José Salomón Rondón (Málaga).
Argentina, based on their recent practices, will look to go 3-4-3 and will have Javier Mascherano return to the lineup after a one-match suspension. Málaga's Martín DeMichelis also returns to the lineup after sustaining a head injury in practice last week.
Pablo Zabaleta would scoot up to the midfield and would be the obvious backup to the right of Nico Burdisso. Spartak Moscow's Marco Rojo would also do the same role bt on the left. José Sosa would repeat in this lineup and would be the linkup between the midfield and Lionel Messi.
KEYS
Venezuela's success in the past Copa América was based on the hard work in the middle that was implemented by Tomás Rincón. What Chile did not have was the capability of returning and pressuring a Lionel Messi. Gary Medel went on the attack too often and that left a great deal of space for Argentina to attack. Venezuela ill not offer that type of space.
That is the good as well as the bad as Rincón's hard work gets the ball to the players that can make things happen offensively for the Venezuelans. The problem is that his hard work sometimes leaves this team a man down. If he is left in the middle of the pitch on an island, he will have to pick his poison- either Messi or Sosa... maybe even Di María.
The Real Madrid man could have a big day based on this as obvously Messi will be the focus of Venezuela's attention.
Despite winning 4-1, the Argentine defense still remains suspect at best. Sergio Romero's absence due to his ankle injury makes them even shakier when Mariano Andújar is in net. The Catania keeper let in a rather soft goal against Chile and has the propensity to allow many of those. So with Miku as well as Rondón in the middle, Argentina's back line of three could become five rather quick. That will mostly depend on how sharp Juan Arango and César Gonzalez are in the final two-thirds of the pitch.
Probables:
VENEZUELA: Vega, Rosales, Vizcarrondo, Amorebieta, Cichero; Rincón, Guerra, González, Arango; Fedro, Rondón
ARGENTINA: Andújar, Burdisso, DeMichelis, Otamendi; Zabaleta, Mascherano, Sosa, Rojo; Di María, Messi, Higuaín
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