Don't Cry For Me.

ARGENTINA

There were 2 major shocks as unpredictable Argentina legend and manager Diego Maradona, chose to leave out the vastly experienced F.C Internazionale pair of Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti, as he adopted a youthful looking 30 man squad to take to their training camp before Maradona is forced to cut that number down to just 23 players on the 1st June.

Despite never playing under Maradona, who incidentally has called up over 100 different players in his year and a half in charge, Cambiasso was expected to be involved in the provisional squad having played an integral part in Inter's march to the Champions League final. Another defensive minded midfielder was left out as Real Madrid's Ferdnando Gago will have to watch the tournament from the sidelines along with Barcelona's Gabriel Milito. Although the older Milito brother, Diego, did make the squad following on from an impressive first season at Inter.

Maradona found a space for Newcastle United winger Jonás Gutierrez who has been plying his trade in the Coca Cola Championship this season, whilst Liverpool wide man Maxi Rodriguez also made the cut.

The Argentines are coming into the tournament on the back of a very difficult run of form. They only just scraped over the qualification line, with two late winning goals against both Peru and Uruguay, which was preceded by a humiliating 6-1 defeat at the hands of the mighty Bolivia. Maradona however remained confident in his ability despite raising many question marks with some strange team selections including a very peculiar rotation policy which included the dropping of talismanic midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme, which ultimately cause the Boca Juniors man to retire from international football.

However with qualification assured, the Argentina side, captained by Liverpool's enforcer Javier Mascherano, contains copious amounts of quality players, including the world's greatest player Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, and Sergio Aguero to name a few. It was Messi, Aguero and Riquelme who fired Argentina to the finals with each player ending with 4 goals the their names. Despite a very poor qualifying campaign, the Argentines will undoubtedly be amongst the favourites to win the competition, having been drawn in, what should be a relatively straight forward, Group B consisting of Greece, Nigeria and South Korea.

ONE TO WATCH

How do you narrow it down to just one?

Ángel Di María, who makes up one fourth of a devastating front four, will be one of the leading lights in this years finals, the speedy left winger is capable of breathtaking goals and skill and in fact is entering the tournament on the back of his best goalscoring season, having netted 10 times helping Benfica to the Portuguese title. His direct running and vision mean he is equally capable of taking the pressure off Lionel Messi and in fact many Argentina fans see Di María as their most important player at this years tournament. Defences will be hoping the winger has a poor competition but with his confidence high and his form being the best of his career thus-far, the omens don't look good for full back, as when Di María plays well, he is almost unstoppable, which suggests why he is so sort after, with Manchester United the most recent club to express an interest.

Sergio Aguero, who recently became Diego Maradona's son in law, is also set to show his quality on the world stage having helped his Athletico Madrid side to Europa League glory. He too has been linked with some top European clubs, with Chelsea his most likely summer destination, after South Africa of course. The striker, who scored 20 goals this year, can play on the shoulder of the last man or in a deeper, more creative role. He too is seen as a very important player for Argentina, having ended qualifying as joint top scorer with 4 goals.

ARGENTINA PROVISIONAL SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar/NED), Mariano Andujar (Catania/ITA), Diego Pozo (Colon)

Defenders: Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarsfield), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich/GER), Walter Samuel (Inter Milan/ITA), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille/FRA), Nicolas Burdisso (AS Roma/ITA), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes), Ariel Garce (Colon)

Midfielders: Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle/ENG), Maximiliano Rodriguez (Liverpool/ENG), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool/ENG), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Angel Di Maria (Benfica/POR), Javier Pastore (Palermo/ITA), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina/ITA)

Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona/ESP), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid/ESP), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Diego Milito (Inter Milan/ITA), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City/ENG)

Paul Seed