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| LIONEL Messi |
Stopping Lionel Messi is the primary
concern of South American teams facing Argentina in the World Cup qualifiers.
This week it is Uruguay's turn. Argentina defend their lead in the South
American group at home to Uruguay in Mendoza on Friday (0100 GMT Saturday).
After seven matches they have 14 points, one more than Colombia and Ecuador and
two ahead of Uruguay and Chile.
They will be looking to make amends
for a poor performance in their last match, a 1-1 draw with Peru in Lima where
Messi, who had scored 10 goals in his previous six internationals, had one of
his quietest games for his country. South American champions Uruguay want a
second successive upset over their neighbours after their Copa America
quarter-final victory on penalties last year.
Uruguay's coach Oscar Washington
Tabarez does not believe in man-marking Messi, but rather in preventing
Argentina from functioning in support of the Barcelona ace. "Messi is a
great player, among the best seen in the history of football...so I'm not going
to say too much about that because it would be redundant," Tabarez told
reporters in Montevideo on Tuesday.
"But Messi has a team around
him trying to ensure be shows all his potential. "So we have to work on
and counter everything Argentina does for the ball to get to Messi and after
Messi takes it try to mark him." The Uruguayans, World Cup semi-finalists
in 2010, need to recover from a poor September when they lost 4-0 away to
Colombia and only managed a 1-1 draw at home to Ecuador.
Captain Diego Lugano believes this
double away fixture will be the hardest trip for Uruguay, who play Bolivia at
high altitude in La Paz next week, in the 16-match qualifying series.
"These are key (qualifying) points, much more so after the last
double-header when we didn't do well," Lugano said. "We're facing two
matches that are surely the most difficult of the qualifying series. An
Argentina-Bolivia sequence (away) is very hard and we're practically obliged to
bring back some points," the central defender said.
Uruguay have to manage without left
wing back Alvaro Pereyra, who is suspended, and injured midfielders Diego Perez
and Gaston Ramirez. Argentina, who beat Paraguay 3-1 at home then drew 1-1 away
to Peru last month, welcome back Sergio Agüero but have lost fellow striker
Ezequiel Lavezzi to injury. Midfielder Javier Mascherano said good results
against Uruguay and then Chile away in Santiago four days later would put
Argentina well on course for a berth in the 2014 finals in Brazil.
"If we can get six out of six
points it would be ideal and we would be well on track to qualifying, not
certain but on the right track," Mascherano said at Argentina's training
base outside Buenos Aires. "For us, the match against Uruguay is a
classic. The last ones we have played against them were very tight(and) if we
win we'd go with more confidence to Chile."
The Chileans, whose coach Claudio
Borghi is serving a four-match suspension for dissent, first travel to play
Ecuador in the rarefied air of Quito nearly 3,000 metres above sea level on
Friday (2100 GMT). Colombia, with striker Falcao in red-hot scoring form, are
at home to bottom team Paraguay in their favourite Caribbean cauldron in
Barranquilla (2030 GMT) and Bolivia, at home in both fixtures, host Peru in La
Paz (2000 GMT). Venezuela, in sixth place with 11 points having already played
eight matches, have a bye at the halfway stage in the competition.
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