Argentina lost its last friendly before the Olympics, fans call for Claudio Echeverri to play a bigger role

The Summer Olympics in Paris is near, and the U-23 Argentina national team is preparing for the tournament. The national team will include many talented players, including Claudio Echeverri, but his manager, Javier Mascherano, did not feature for many minutes in the last friendly match ahead of the Olympics. The Argentina U-23 team lost 1-0 to Guinea. Echeverri is seen as the future of the Argentina national team but yet did not start in the match against Guinea.

The U-23 Argentina team has four days left before the Summer Olympics tournament begins. Echeverri signed for Man City and will likely make his Premier League debut next season when he arrives at the club in January. He impressed many European clubs after his performances in the U-17 World Cup last year.

His hat trick against Brazil in the quarter finals of the U-17 World Cup caught the attention of many football fans last year, which led to clubs like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona being interested in him. Argentina fans want him to get minutes in the Summer Olympics to show the world his talent and continue to develop at a high level.

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The U-23 Argentina team will debut in the Paris Games against the U-23 Morocco team on Wednesday. Three senior players from the senior Argentina national team have already joined the squad: Julian Alvarez, Nicolas Otamendi, and Gerónimo Rulli. The River Plate attacking midfielder will be wearing the number 11 on the team, or it could be predicted that since he wore that in the friendly match against Guinea.

Many Argentina fans have lots of high expectation for Echeverri, who many believe that he could wear the iconic number 10 shirt of Lionel Messi in the future. Echeverri and the Argentina U-23 squad want to reach the final in Paris and win the gold medal, which they have not won since 2008 in the football tournament.

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Javier Mascherano on the Argentina U-23 squad

Javier Mascherano, the head coach of the Argentina football Olympics team, spoke after the 1-0 loss to Guinea ahead of the Summer Olympics football tournament. He spoke highly of the three senior players in the squad and insisted that it would help them a lot.

Mascherano said, "The major players have taken the leadership of the group. Because of their experience, because they come from the senior Argentina national team, and because they are World Champions. This gives us a leap in quality."

Mascherano was asked about reaching the final to win the gold medal this summer in Paris, but the head coach does not want to look head too far past the competition has yet started. The former FC Barcelona defender said, "The most important game is the first, the one that is coming. Then, you have to keep thinking about the others. Beyond that, our goal is to compete, try to take Argentina to the top and we believe that we will have a team to be able to compete at a very high level." In their group, they will face Morocco, Iraq, and Ukraine.