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Argentina given rousing send-off by fans
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-26 16:41
BUENOS AIRES, May 25 - Argentina will leave for the World Cup in high spirits on Thursday after a passionate send-off from 55,000 fans and encouraging signs about the fitness of Gabriel Heinze and Lionel Messi.

Boca Juniors striker Rodrigo Palacio scored a hat-trick as Argentina beat the national under-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 what pleased coach Jose Pekerman as much 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 have a warm-up against Angola in Salerno on Tuesday before moving on to their World Cup base near Nuremberg.

The twice champions face Ivory Coast in their opening World Cup match in Hamburg on June 10 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 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."