The B-Team vs the “Non-Call-Ups” Eleven
“The horror… the horror”
That famous line from Apocalypse Now is what some of you will be muttering after reading this entry, as promised though, I came up with a rudimentary “B-Team” made up of mostly players from the Local League (although Gonzalo Sorondo, was my cheat inclusion from the Brazilian league). And just to show you that I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing all week I also went ahead and created the “Non-Call-Ups” eleven side, comprised of players that have zero chances of being called up by Oscar Tabarez in June.
The B-Team
I went with Rodrigo Muñoz as my goalkeeper (suggested by FourThreeThree & JulianBolso)… essentially I went with an unorthodox 4-3-3. While Gianni Guigou would be my starting Left Back, in reality he would be able to play more of a midfield role, thereby allowing El Chino Recoba (playing also as Team Captain) to move into a central attacking midfield role. Guigou’s inclusion on the team is important, as he would shore up the midfield. Gerardo Alcoba would then play the traditional left-back defender role. Gonzalo Sorondo from the Brazilian League would be your central sweeper with Matias Aguirregaray as your right back. In the midfield I would stick OJ Morales as the de-facto Central Defensive Midfielder and Mauricio Pereyra as your right midfielder. Up front is where the fun begins; I’m going with Urretavizcaya as my left-puntero, Emiliano Alfaro as my centre forward and Federico Puppo as my right-puntero.
Non-Call-Ups Eleven.
I thought long and hard about this one, I pretty much went with players that have a snowball’s chance in hell of being capped by Tabarez. I’m employing a 4-4-2-diamond formation, so I recruited Serie-C1 goalkeeper Nicolas Bremec as my keeper (unless he wants to play for Catalunya instead, but even if he wants to play for Catalunya instead of Uruguay, he could actually play for both! But for our purposes, he’s in!) Followed by Leandro Cabrera, Leandro Miglionico, Miguel Angel Britos & former Celeste mainstay Carlos Diogo. I’m going with Sergio Orteman in the CDM role flanked by El Pollo Olivera on the left and Juan Albin on the right. My enganche would be Fabian Cannobio. Upfront I got Pablo Granoche & Santiago “El Tanque” Silva.
Pure Fantasy (and Stupidity for that matter)
The game would be interesting as the Non-Call-Ups would be employing a scrambling defensive bottleneck unit. The B-Team though would have more offensive movement; an Alfaro & Urreta goal would give the B-Team the early lead… El Pollo Olivera and Cannobio would continually test the B-Team with a barrage of direct free kicks and poison crosses. One of them might find Santiago Silva giving the Non-Call-Ups a goal. A Cabrera tackle would bring down Recoba, setting up a golden penalty situation for El Chino, who would score on Bremec easily. The game would come to an end and Uruguay’s B-Team would defeat the Non-Call-Ups by a 3-1 score-line.
I would personally include Ramis.
Ahhhh but on what team? B-Team or Non-Call-Ups? (remember the Non-Call-Ups would also have a bench that includes Zalayeta and Pandiani.)
B Team. Because I think he has the lvl to be a sub for the World Cup.
btw… how about Arevalo Rios as your 5? and I am even refering to the A team. He played vs Brazil at the fall of the year 2007, in the 1-2 that you sent me. -if im not wrong- but now hes playing for Peñarol and doing it well looks like.
I don’t recall him… the guy I did forget to include on the Non-Call-Ups list is Gonzalo “El Chori” Castro. So lets Deep-six Granoche (sorry Pablo) and stick Castro there. I’m still staying with Santiago Silva on the right. With Castro in the line-up, the Non-Call-Ups might actually have a chance. I’ll go ahead and say B-Team 2-2 Non-Call-Ups with a goal by Orteman from a Castro set-piece.
BTW saw Valencia destroy Villareal today, can someone explain to me again why we need Godin on the A-Team? Maybe we should consider a new zaguero… what about one of the Non-Call-Ups? I got 3 in there already we could chose from.
When the idea of a B Team first surfaced, I was not very much in support. I didn’t think people would pay to see them, or that opposing teams wouldn’t want to play against them. And it would drain the already cash-strapped AUF…..But if we did have a B-Team, I guess I would use it primarily as an evaluation platform (for the A Team), and that being the case, two guys who I would drop would be Recoba (sorry!) and OJ Morales. Both guys are 30+. So, in the MF, I would keep Pereyra (played as a “5″ in the U20). Add Montelongo from River Plate and Viudez from Defensor (although I heard he was moving to Brazil). And Aguirregaray, I would replace with Damian Suarez. On the U20, Guinino (Boca?) started instead of Aguirregaray.
On the Non-Callup, I could not understand why Canobbio never was capped after the 2007 Copa America. Maybe he didn’t like that Nacho started instead of him in the last game vs Mexico. Now, he is hoping to jump on the bandwagon. Same comment about Albin and Castro. These guys never even had a cap? still scratching my head about that. And Pollo? For a guys whose only 26, this guys does not run at all.
BTW, Yorugua, you should mail in your B-Team selections to the AUF. At least, you didn’t try to stuff the team with players from just one team. I can just see the discussions in the AUF. Nacional and Peñarol will argue that since they represent 90% of the fan base, that they should get to place their players first. With 16 teams and only 11 starters (or 22 spots if you switch over at half time), it will be interesting to see how the selection process would work.
Yoru.. you need a new zaguero? how about one even taller than Materazzi? I go for Coates, 196 cm.
My A team nowadays is the following:
——————ramis
———–forlan
cebolla—————————-
————–nacho—————-
————————-ruso
————–arevalo————–
caceres—coates—-lugano—mono
————–muslera
arrows:
going backwards and forward: caceres,mono,ruso
only going backwards: arevalo, forlan
only going forward: nacho
going forward and right diagonal: cebolla
yes suares on the bench but he makes the pitch in second half, ramis out.
basically it is a 4-4-2 diamond but nacho plays the free role playmaker, so by advancing some metres he plays upfront as second striker switching the system to a 4-3-3; but that willdepend on on how the game develops itself. As a midfielder he can organize the team. I would go with this line up to the WC.
btw guys try this, it causes great merriment, open your explorer and type: garracharrua.com or click this: http://www.garracharrua.com/
• FourThreeThree ––– I got 3 manyas & 4 bolsos on the team, so the top two teams would be well represented. I hear you on Pollo (that’s why I stuck him on the Non-Call-Up side) — regarding Recoba, hey you never know, if the guy has an unbelievable season at Danubio, Tabarez may take him to South Africa, I know it sounds crazy and misguided but Recoba might still surprise (although the probability that he has a mediocre season is higher). I’m with you on Cannobio, in fact I had this discussion with Nico recently regarding Cannobio… I saw a recent Valladolid game, he wasn’t that bad, he was all over the place. If you need an enganche on the 2010 Squad, this is the guy, although I’m sure Nico would disagree.
• Nico ––– I didn’t include Coates because he’s played on the A-Squad already… trust me though, between Godin and Coates, I prefer Coates.
• Mono is fine as a midfielder but you got 3 guys playing in Porto together (Pereira & Cebolla on the left hand side) and Fucile on the right, so I think Fucile deserves a call-up alongside Mono. In a perfect world I would also take Diogo too, I’d rather have a tight defense than load the team with midfielders who can’t pass and scorers who can’t score. Ramis is a possibility but there’s no way he would muscle Suarez out of a starter’s spot.
•••Regarding la AUF website, I think ForoCeleste has a better site (and that’s not saying much) BTW this is my new favorite website (from Mexico)
http://www.record.com.mx/