I was there man, and last nite was AMAZING ;D

Argentina will leave for the FIFA World Cup in high spirits after a passionate send-off from 55,000 fans and encouraging signs concerning the fitness of Gabriel Heinze and Lionel Messi.
Boca Juniors striker Rodrigo Palacio scored a hat-trick as Jose Pekerman's side beat the national U-20 team 4-0 in a warm-up at the River Plate stadium on Wednesday night.

Manchester United defender Heinze played in the game and, for Pekerman, just as pleasing was the support of the crowd. "I have a dream that Argentina might be the surprise of the World Cup," Pekerman told reporters.

His team are looking to erase the memory of Argentina's failure in Asia four years ago, when they started as favourites and were eliminated in the first round.

Argentina fly to Rome and will spend several days preparing in Italy, where they play a warm-up against Angola in Salerno on Tuesday before moving on to their FIFA World Cup base near Nuremberg.

The twice champions face Côte d'Ivoire in their opening FIFA World Cup match in Hamburg on 10 June and then play Serbia & Montenegro and the Netherlands in Group C.

Heinze last played a competitive match for United in September when he damaged knee ligaments and required surgery. Barcelona's Messi, meanwhile, is recovering from a thigh muscle pull in March that has taken time to heal.

"Heinze is looking better each day," Pekerman said. "This was his return to the national team because, before, he had played two matches for the Manchester United reserves after his injury.

"He's a bit short of match practice but we believe he's going to get there well.

"Messi had been in doubt until this (Wednesday) morning because his pulled muscle has been playing up. Luckily, we saw he looked good and he even surprised us with some movements."

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MUCHA MIERDA muchachos!