As this article is for an Australian organ, I shall start by admitting something frankly: I haven’t the foggiest what chance your guys’ national team has of a podium finish in the Olympic Football Tournament in China. I’m a Brit and, as may not have escaped your notice with the talk about London 2012, we don’t generally enter a team for the Olympic tournament (which may or may not be a cover for the fact that they wouldn’t be good enough to qualify against the other European Under-23 sides anyway).

I know a thing or two about a side who most definitely are in with a shot, though, and this is why I’ve been asked to pen this article, because they’re a side your young Aussie countrymen will be getting know face-to-face fairly shortly. Because whilst Serbia and the Ivory Coast will provide an interesting challenge in any group, there’s one side who have the potential to give this competition the look of something a little more prestigious than the somewhat discredited tournament it’s become.

Other countries have accepted that their biggest stars won’t be released to take part among the over-aged players in the OFT. Brazil talked briefly about including Kaká in their squad, but ended up naming Ronaldinho, Robinho and Diego as their overage players. They’ll be challenging, with full international boss Dunga aiming to take the only title Brazil have never won back home. It’s their biggest South American rivals, though, who will be the team to beat in China.

Because determined though Brazil may be, promising though the likes of Italy’s young attackers may look and even considering the always important say of the African sides in this tournament, it’s the defending champions who look the most complete team. The overage players in the Argentina squad are veterans from the 2006 World Cup: Inter’s Nicolás Burdisso, Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano and a certain Juan Román Riquelme of Boca Juniors.

But whilst most other sides in the contest look to these players to lead the team amidst the relative inexperience of the others, there’s no such attitude for Argentina’s Olympians. Burdisso’s exit from the squad with an injury, in fact, has simply resulted in one of the under-age ‘reserve’ players, Nicolás Pareja of Belgians Anderlecht, getting a call-up. No need for age and experience here. So why the confidence?

Their two goalkeepers are both in their clubs’ first-team squads, whilst their defence includes two of La Liga’s best starlets as well as new Real Madrid signing Ezequiel Garay. But although they may lack real experience in terms of pitch-time in the back third, there’s a very real sense that Argentina’s midfield and attack will be able to steamroller any side they come up against.

As well as Masche and Riquelme, their midfield contains more full internationals: Fernando Gago and Ever Banega, of Madrid and Valencia respectively, are Boca Juniors’ two most stellar recent graduates. José Sosa is learning well at German champions Bayern München, and remember where you heard the name Diego Buonanotte first; the midfielder-cum-forward was leading goalscorer and leading assist-maker for River Plate this year as Argentina’s most domestically successful club finally ended a four-year wait for the national championship. Meanwhile Angel Di María, of Benfica in Portugal, has pace and control as well as height which could see him used further forward if there’s any need to vary the attack.

But that need probably won’t arise, because if the midfield looks solid and full of creativity, then Serb, Ivorian and Aussie defences could be forgiven for requesting brown shorts be included in their sides’ kits for the group stage. Lautaro Acosta has recently been unveiled as Sevilla’s new signing as the ambitious Spaniards try and break back into the Champions League places in La Liga, whilst Ezequiel Lavezzi has now been with Napoli in Italy’s Serie A for a year. When he was signed from San Lorenzo, many Napoli fans expected great things. When he was given the number 10 shirt – yes, an Argentine forward being given the number 10 for Napoli – well, you can see why the expectation might have become too much for some, can’t you? Lavezzi responded to the demands of the stands instantly though. On his debut, Lavezzi came off the bench and scored a hat-trick. Maradona casts a long shadow, but that’s one way of shining a little yourself. He followed it with an impressive first season in Italy, and in any other side he’d surely be the star forward.

But for Argentina he’s got to sit very comfortably back in third place. Because if there are only two young players at this tournament who are of genuinely world class, they’re the two who are likely to spearhead the Argentine attack. Sergio Agüero is coming off a season in which he’s lead what some have called Atlético Madrid’s best ever strikeforce and driven the club back into the Champions League for the first time in twelve years; for a club with a seemingly chronic reputation for shooting themselves in the foot, that’s impressive, and El Kun has shown in the last twelve months that he truly is the real deal.

And if there’s little need to convince anyone of Agüero’s class, the name of the side’s final attacker (in every sense of the phrase) is surely all that’s needed. He’s left for last here because, frankly, the best should be saved until last, but also because he was the last member of the squad whose attendance was confirmed. Ronaldinho is with AC Milan now but when the Brazilians named their squad, was with Barcelona, who were only too happy to allow him to travel to Beijing (and then, more permanently, to Italy). Argentina, though, are able to call upon a player Barça valued sufficiently highly to declare him untransferable – and then to attempt to block his call-up even though FIFA’s own regulations stated they had to let him go. Because if Mascherano and Garay can’t stop opponents scoring, if Riquelme, Lavezzi and Agüero can’t pull their defences apart, Lionel Messi might just have the quality to win it all by himself anyway.

The reason Argentina are such heavy favourites to start with, though, as that he’s not going to try to. Messi spent too long injured during 2007-2008, but when he did play he demonstrated another level in his improvement: he’s becoming more of a team player than ever before. Sure, he’s got the ability to beat half the opposing team en route to goal if he so wishes, but increasingly he’s picking the right time to bring team-mates into play, improving his knowledge of when to move wide and when to cut inside, and he’s also now added the ability to play some truly killer through-balls. Whilst Cristiano Ronaldo was so conpicuously failing to shine in Manchester United’s two Champions League semi-finals, Messi, although his side eventually lost the tie, showed the world how complete his game was becoming; and the first leg was just a week after he’d come back from a three-and-a-half month injury layoff.

Of course football history is littered with examples of pre-tournament favourites coming unstuck. With Argentina having such a wealth of talent to call on, though, and such intelligence as Messi, Agüero and Riquelme in the final third, they’re likely to prove an entertaining team to watch even if they can’t repeat their Carlos Tevez-led heroics of Athens, when the football side won Argentina’s first ever Olympic gold medal (the all-time tally was doubled, in the fashion of London buses, the very next day by the basketball title). At the very least, Adam Federici and his defenders should get ready for the test of their lives next Sunday afternoon.

Sam Kelly is an Englishman who has followed Argentine football for the last six years, and written about it for nearly two years for various websites. He is the editor of Hasta El Gol Siempre, which aims to be the best English-language website on Argentine football, and has been published, among other places, in UK magazine When Saturday Comes. He also enjoys travelling, reading, and taking photographs. If you’ve got anything more you’d like to know about the beautiful game in Argentina, you can contact him at sam@hastaelgolsiempre.com.

Photo credit: Panos Photographics(Peter) on Flickr via the84thminute photo pool.