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Having seen 9 games in 5 different countries (both domestic and international fixtures) throughout South America and Mexico last year, I can tell you that South American players playing overseas are definitely of a higher calibre than the ones playing in their domestic leagues. Bringing a “B” team of solely domestic players would not be a good idea for the likes of Chile and definitely not Peru - however Argentina could most likely get away with it.
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I respect your first-hand experience, but the reason I was not 100% convinced is this item from the last WC qualifiers:
"Fresh from guiding America to the Mexican league title, Miguel Herrera then came in for the two-legged tie against New Zealand and took the radical decision of selecting only home-based players. His strategy paid off as El Tri finally put their shaky form behind them to sweep to a 9-3 aggregate win and qualify for the world finals for the 15th time in all."
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/brazil2014/te...
And Mexico, with all due respect, is not Argentina. In fact, they (Mexico) are a decent but not great performer in WC, going only as far as Round 16 in the last few decades. So Argentina may be excused for counting their blessing that Australia has gone from OFC to Asia, and that we are their opposition.