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Top 10 - South American Notable Absences

June 6 2010,
There's a natural law in football, and it's the survival of the fittest. These ten examples show how fierce the fight for a place in a World Championship can be

Years of experience and glory mean nothing when a coach has to choose the best 23 to travel to South Africa. Some absences have to do with a blurry performance at the present time, while others have a public controversy that keeps them away from wearing its National Football Team's colors. Paraguay and Argentina suffer the most notable absences, but both team's prolific present makes up for these key losses. Once again two Internazionale's players occupy our top-three.

1.Javier Zanetti

Diego Maradona did not make many surprising choices for South Africa, but the absence of Javier Zanetti, one of Argentina's most experienced player, current triple champion with Internazionale (Champions League, Scudetto and Coppa Italia) and more than 16 years of experience playing for the Albiceleste is indeed strange. Jose Mourinho found in Pipi Zanetti the solidity, regularity and fighting spirit his team has shown during the whole season. But for some unknown reason he won't be part of Maradona's squad.

 

One of Zanetti's main characteristic is his ability never to lose his nerves, for he has not received a single red card in more than 11 years with Internazionale, and it's been over 200 games in which he performed continuously for the Neroazzurri. Argentina's young wingers will have a tough time trying to fill in the space left behind by Il Capitano's absence.

2 Ronaldinho

Considered as the most valuable player of the last decade, Ronaldinho has suffered since he left FC Barcelona, never fully able to recover the level that made him shine like few others. There's no doubt his irregularity on the fields (able to score a delicious hat-trick one week and almost disappearing in the following matches) has been the main reason why Dunga decided not to include him on his strategy, even though his statics with the Verdeamarelho are rather impressive, having scored 32 goals in 87 matches.

Brazil's Jogo Bonito will be lacking one of their main player for this World Cup, will the speed and ferocity of Dunga's choices be enough to make up for the loss of a warlord in the midfield?

3. Esteban Cambiasso

For some reason Maradona has neglected half of Internazionale's Argentinean stars an opportunity to show their skills in South Africa, as Cuchu CCambiaso has been the cornerstone of Neroazzurri's defensive strategy. Without him Argentina is missing Mascherano's perfect partner, which would have offered Maradona the opportunity of defending with three man in the back, even though it did not work as expected during the qualifying stages.

Cambiasso has only known success with Inter, having conquered the league's title for the last five years, and managing to score 23 goals in 183 matches playing for the Italian champion (Many important ones, as the first goal in 2006's Coppa Italia's final against Rome and Argentina's first goal against Peru during the qualifying stages of 2010's World Cup).

4. Cristian Rodriguez

Being suspended for two matches during Uruguay's last match for the qualifying stages against Argentina, Porto's Cristian Rodriguez will be undoubtedly a major absence for the Charrua squad, for his speed was one of Celeste's main weapons to finally get into the World Cup. But team's coach have his reasons for leaving Cebolla Rodriguez off the squad, as his team has been lacking regularity during the last two years (winning, losing and tying the same amount of matches during the 18 qualifying games).

With Porto FC Rodriguez was able to show his skills both in the Champions League and the Portuguese League, scoring 10 goals in 47 matches. His speed and technical ability will not offer Uruguay an edge in the midfield to take the Celeste to the Knockouts.

5. Salvador Cabañas

The fifth position is occupied by a striker which would have perfectly fit Paraguay's strategy, for Cabañas is a player that's been almost half of his life performing on professional football matches. But early this January Salvador Cabañas was shot in the head during a robbery, and even though he has shown some fast recovery his future with the ball is yet unknown.

Several times recognized as one of America's deadliest strikers (both playing in the Mexican Football or with his National Team), he made his head an extension of his will ,completely dominating the aerial play, as well as possessing incredible skills to control the ball in tight situations. Luckily for Gerardo Martino, Lucas Barrios appears to be the perfect replacement for Cabañas.

6. Ronaldo

Words won't be enough to describe Ronaldo's deep footprint in modern football history, for Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima's history has been indeed a prolific one, scoring 347 goals in 501 official matches. Having become a legend in the (arguably) best four teams of the world (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Internazionale, Milan), Ronaldo returned to its roots to perform in Brazilian football and finish his career as a hero; but things has not worked as expected back with Corinthians. With 33 years Ronald has to gone through the operation room 8 times, and this has been one of his major setbacks to maintain his level.

Dunga's four choices for the World Cup kept Ronaldo off his fourth World Championship. Will the Verdeamarelho will be able to lead their offense without his guidance?

7. Nelson Cuevas

Another veteran will be missing South Africa's trip, for Nelson Cuevas' years leading Guarani's offense are finally over, and even though he was the main responsible for Paraguay's advance further from the Group Stage eight years ago, those golden days are now over, and in 41 matches playing for its national team Cuevas was only able to test the net 6 times.

These last years have offered Paraguay an almost unlimited amount of deadly strikers, and thus these absence will not be as suffered as other on our ranking. Nelson Cuevas has performed in more than three teams in the last two years, and maybe regularity was all he was lacking to get his ticket to South Africa.

8.Juan Roman Riquelme

Roman Riquelme appeared to be the one to replace Diego Maradona commanding Argentina's cruise to another title, but these two egos have both grown so big that South Africa is not big enough for both of them. Diego Maradona's public declarations warning Riquelme to recover its level not to loose his place in Argentina's squad, and the aforementioned started another of Argentina's footbalistic controversies involving Riquelme.

From its debut with Argentinos Juniors he become a star in Boca Juniors to later try his luck in Europe. But Villareal has not been a place for him to call home, returning to Boca Juniors to recover its level. This has been a rather difficult year for him, still unable to fully recover from a knee injury. Boca Juniors' shameful presentation in Argentina's Clausura (the worst in many years) showed the worst of Riquelme during the few times he was given a chance in the starting eleven. Nonetheless his finesse and skills to create offensive opportunities will be deeply missed by the Albiceleste audience. Will Juan Sebastian Veron be able to cover his place as a leader?

9. Bruno Silva

Bruno Silva's long-time experience in the superior European Football have not granted him a place in Uruguay's squad. Currently playing for International, on 09/09/09 was the last time Bruno Silva officially wore its National Team colors, and from that moment on his performance has been going downhill. It's been six years since he lastly claimed a title, but things appears to be running quite smooth for Internacional for the moment.
 
Uruguay's back line will be missing one of its referents, will they be able to secure their future in South Africa without Bruno Silva?

10. Manuel Iturra

The last place of this list is finally occupied by a Chilean, for Marcelo Bielsa has made its team grow to such level that almost every player was able to show their best. But things has not been so easy for Manuel Iturra, even though he made it to the provisional 30-man list released by Marcelo Bielsa one month ago. Known by its versatility (He can perform as an offensive midfielder as well as cover the bands, even becoming a defender in times of desperate need), The Lion has been the offensive engine of Universidad de Chile, the only team he's ever performed in, playing more than 200 matches when aged 24 with the Blues.

There's still much time for Iturra to grow into a Chilean giant, but South Africa will not be the first time for him to show his skills. The next four years will be decisive for Manuel Iturra to live up to the expectations he has arisen during these last seven years.

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