Jonathan Liew

Odegaard and Sander Berger and Nusa and Oskar Bob as well.

It's a really, really, really stacked team.

Yeah, it is actually, which is, I think, quite a good thing for them because we saw how slowly they started four years ago where Saudi Arabia, let's be real, almost put them out in the first weekend.

And Argentina, they spent the last two or three years playing...

quite a lot of what I call joke friendlies.

They've been playing teams like Australia and Beijing and Indonesia and Puerto Rico.

Basically, what they've done is they've tried to take their most bankable asset on a US tour.

It's basically like a Springsteen tour.

They've been trying to play every city in the US.

They've been taking them to New Haven and Sacramento and Fort Worth, whatever.

And

It creates a bit of an issue, really, because first of all, it's allowed them to sweat their most bankable asset, the most famous player in the world, and pretend they're acclimatising for the World Cup.

But it's hard to see any point where they've been remotely tested in any of these friendlies, which makes it kind of hard to gauge where they are as a team.

The spine of it, the continuity from four years ago, I think 10 of the 11 started, basically everyone except Di Maria from the 2022 final is in this squad.

So obviously Scaloni's gone for continuity there.

And

This is essentially a squad that's four years older.

Martinez is four years older.

Messi is four years older.

Taliafico is four years older.