Battle for the Spot Under the Posts

By: Alan | July 8th, 2009

Atlas Atlas have acquired 24 year old Argentine keeper Mariano Barbosa. Barbosa played for River Plate last season and has come to Atlas but coach La Volpe has said that he doesn’t just get the starting spot, for that he’s going to have to outperform Francisco Canales.

Barbosa made his professional debut in 2002 with Club Atlético Banfield and had a great Libertadores 2005 the result of which was a spot in Villareal. He signed a three year contract with Atlas and is the last summer signing for atlas.

Barbosa’s Stats:
Name: Mariano Damián Barbosa
Date of Birth: July 27 1984, Lanús Argentina
Age: 24
Height: 1.90 m
Weight: 82 kg.
Debut: 2002, Club Banfield

But that’s only half the story because there is still the matter of keeper Francisco Canales who has played some time with Atlas’ first team, most recently in the SuperLiga. Canales knows that he lacks the experience that Barbosa can offer but is still confident that he can outwork Barbosa for the starting spot, “No one is a backup or a starter, everyone works in order to be good with the team and the coach will take the decisions, but everyone has to work as if they are starters in order to be considered. Every practice the keepers have to show that we want to be starters and La Volpe has made it clear to all of the young players that he doesn’t care about hierarchies and that if new players arrive to the team it is to increase the competition.”

So it looks like from now until the official starting roster is announced we’re going to have ourselves a good ol’ shootout, or blockout for the starting spot at keeper. Having seen Canales first hand and never having heard of Barbosa I have to say that I’m favoring Canales. Although Barbosa does have the experience of playing in Spain and at River Plate which is a huge team in Argentina.