Still relying on two weak African teams to fill the schedule, why can't Argentina always find strong teams for warm-up matches?

Written by Han Bing The March international match window is the last opportunity to evaluate players before the World Cup. Traditional powerhouse teams almost all arrange matches against strong opponents to ensure the quality of these test matches. Unfortunately, the World Cup defending champion Argentina can only warm up against two African teams ranked outside the top 90 in the world: Mauritania (ranked 115th) on March 27th and Zambia (ranked 91st) on March 31st. These opponents were finalized only one week before the first match, on March 20th. The arrangements for warm-up opponents are so rushed, and their strength is disappointing, which does not match Argentina's status as the dual champion of the World Cup and Copa America.

The weakness of Argentina's warm-up opponents in March is directly related to the cancellation of originally scheduled matches in Qatar due to the Middle East situation. Besides the UEFA-CONMEBOL Cup match against European champion Spain, Argentina's warm-up match against host Qatar was also canceled. However, while hastily looking for new opponents, the Spanish Football Federation quickly found European powerhouse Serbia to replace Argentina and persuaded Egypt, the original warm-up opponent in Qatar, to agree to play the match in Spain. Although UEFA bears undeniable responsibility for the cancellation of the UEFA-CONMEBOL Cup, the Spanish Football Federation was more efficient in temporarily finding warm-up opponents.

Argentina indeed faced difficulties in finding warm-up opponents. Originally, Argentina's opponent on March 31st was Guatemala (ranked 94th), but FIFA regulations prohibit teams from playing across two different continents during an international match window. Guatemala was scheduled to play against Algeria in Genoa, Italy on March 27th, making it impossible for them to travel from Europe to South America to play Argentina on March 31st.

During the March international match window, South American teams Brazil and Colombia alternated warm-up matches against France and Croatia, while Uruguay played against England and Algeria. Except for Italy participating in World Cup qualifiers, European powerhouse teams Portugal and Belgium alternated matches against host USA and Mexico. England (Uruguay, Japan), France (Brazil, Colombia), Germany (Switzerland, Ghana), Netherlands (Norway, Ecuador), and Spain (Serbia, Egypt) all faced strong warm-up opponents. Among these, only Serbia is not a World Cup participant, but its world ranking is high at 39th. The strength of Argentina's warm-up opponents is even inferior to Asian teams like Japan and South Korea (whose warm-up opponents are all World Cup participants), including China. After all, China's warm-up opponent Curacao is a World Cup participant, and Cameroon, though not qualifying for the World Cup, ranks 45th in the world.

It is noteworthy that the lack of strength in Argentina's warm-up opponents is not merely a无奈 choice after the UEFA-CONMEBOL Cup cancellation, but a long-standing "peculiar phenomenon." During the 2026 World Cup cycle, apart from South American qualifiers and the Copa America, Argentina has hardly played warm-up matches against strong teams. The Argentine Football Association prioritizes commercial value over competitive value when selecting warm-up opponents. Since March 2023, Argentina has arranged 13 warm-up matches: 6 against weak North American teams, 3 against African teams, 2 against Asian and South American teams. Only 4 opponents (Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela) were ranked within the top 60 in the world. Since the end of the South American qualifiers last year, among 6 warm-up matches, only Venezuela is ranked within the top 60, but it is also one of the weakest teams in South America. This does not include the canceled trip to India last November due to violating the "cross-continent warm-up" ban.

The high fee demanded by Argentina is the main reason for difficulty in finding strong warm-up opponents. Last September, the Russian Football Federation complained that the Argentine Football Association quoted a price as high as $10 million, leading to the cancellation of a match with Russia. From November 2019 to December 2022, over three years, Argentina only had one high-quality unofficial match: the UEFA-CONMEBOL Cup against Italy in June 2022. Looking back to the period before the 2018 World Cup, Argentina arranged preparations spanning three continents within half a month. Two warm-up matches were in Haiti (North America) and Israel (Asia), with team training in Barcelona, Europe. Ultimately, the warm-up match in Israel was also canceled.

Previously, during Grondona's tenure as president of the Argentine Football Association, warm-up matches for Argentina were even "contracted" to commercial companies, which arranged opponents based on commercial value. Consequently, Argentina's matches spanned across continents, playing against local teams in Belarus, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong China, Singapore, UAE, Indonesia, Morocco, and also playing in neutral venues with high commercial value in the USA, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Bangladesh, Australia, China, Israel, etc. Particularly in November 2017, traveling to icy Russia for two warm-up matches sparked strong dissatisfaction among Argentine media and fans.

Past coaches of Argentina have been helpless about the low competitive value of warm-up matches, and Scaloni has also become accustomed to it. Initially, he requested at least one match against a strong team each year to evaluate players, but now having any team for a warm-up is considered acceptable. There is no hope for competitive value in the last international match window before the World Cup.