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Pekerman - all matches are finals
 Pekerman believes all of Argentina's three World Cup games will be tough BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's matches at next year's World Cup will all be finals said coach Jose Pekerman - after his team were drawn in the "Group of Death". Friday's draw in Leipzig put Pekerman's team in Group C where they will meet Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro and the Netherlands in that order. "We will play all finals," said Pekerman, who was the only coach of the 32 teams not to attend because he had just had surgery on a broken hand. "One knows that in World Cups the team has to be ready from the start, but you also have to acknowledge that it's not the same to face the strong teams at the beginning rather than as the tournament progresses. "This means that all our matches will be finals from the first day. We have got a demanding group because all the teams in it are going through a good spell. For example, Ivory Coast are the best team in Africa and they have players who shine in Europe," he added. Veteran defender Roberto Ayala was happy with the group, saying: "It's very good, maybe the most complicated but interesting so we can go gathering strength. "We know the quality of the Dutch players and Serbia & Montenegro almost knocked Spain out in the European qualifiers," said Ayala, going to his third World Cup although he did not play in Japan in 2002 because he was injured. "We want to be candidates but not beforehand, rather when the World Cup starts and advance match by match because we have virtues and we don't want what happened to us in the 2002 World Cup," said Ayala. Argentina went to the last tournament in Asia firm favorites to win the trophy for the third time only to go out in the first round after finishing third in the toughest group, including a 1-0 defeat by England. Julio Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association, played down the difficulty of the group. "This group is certainly less difficult than that of four years ago. We can't qualify it as a group of death when there is Serbia & Montenegro, who are a new team, and Ivory Coast who are also playing a World Cup for the first time. "Holland on the other hand are first rate rivals." 
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