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Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Javier Zanetti, Javier Mascherano, Gabriel Heinze and Maxi Rodriguez. This is just part of the wealth of talent that the Argentina National team have at their disposal. Nevertheless the Argies, who haven’t won the World Cup since 1986, are making qualification difficult for themselves under the recently appointed manager, Diego Maradona. Maradona (below) replaced Alfio Basile midway through the campaign after various disappointing results including defeats to Chile and Columbia whilst disappointing draws to Peru and Ecuador were deemed failures by the majority in Argentina.
Maradona - Will he inspire the Argies?
Argentina began their South American Qualifying campaign back in 2007 with a home match against Chile, now managed by former Argentina manager Marcelo Bielsa. A relatively convincing performance in the first half saw midfield playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme, who has recently required from international football, grab two goals to put his country in a commanding position at half time. The sending off of Chilian Christian Alvarez made the second half a comfortable affair which never saw the Argies get out of second gear. Argentina maintained their 100% record for two more matches which saw a comfortable 2-0 win away to Venezuela and a routine 3-0 home victory against Bolivia.
However, the first cracks of the qualifying campaign were evident to be seen as Argentina blew a 1-0 half time lead to end up losing 2-1 away to Columbia as Carlos Tevez was sent off. This was followed up with an unconvincing display at home to Ecuador as Argentina needed a 93rd minute goal by Boca Juniors striker Rodrigo Palacio to snatch a 1-1 draw. Although this was followed up with a very good 0-0 draw away to Brazil, Argentina had failed to win in three games and their promising early position was starting to look precarious.
Messi - Will he grace the 2010 World Cup?
Even though Argentina were only up to match 7 of 18, the next match against the unpredictable Paraguay had the feel of a big clash about it. The Paraguayans had already managed to comprehensively beat Brazil 2-0 at home yet crashed 4-2 to second bottom side Bolivia just three days later. Even so, it was clear that Paraguay were going to be a very dangerous outfit for Alfio Basile’s team. The encounter lived up to it’s pre match billing as Gabriel Heinze put through his own net after 13 minutes whilst Tevez was sent off for the 2nd time in three internationals after two violent tackles. Fortunately, Sergio Aguero rescued a draw for Argentina in the second half although it failed to disguise another below par performance.
However, Argentina’s form was quickly becoming a concern. Three days later they visited rock bottom Peru who were in awful form along with off the field scandal. Argentina struggled to get going and thought they had grabbed the three points as Esteban Cambiasso scored in the 82nd minute. However, in the 93rd minute, Peru stunned the star studded outfit with an equaliser that put even more pressure on manager Basile.
Tevez - sent off twice in three internationals!
With a country expecting better, Basile’s job was on the line during the home encounter against Uruguay. His team gave him a stay of execution as early goals from Messi and Aguero proved just about enough as Argentina finally claimed three points after five games without a win. However, enough was enough as Argentina quickly reverted to their previous ways with a lacklusture 1-0 away defeat to qualifying surprise package Chile. This was a result that caused manager Alfio Basile to resign as head coach of the Argentina national team with immediate effect. It was clear what the player’s thought of Basile’s decision after this quote from Lionel Messi.
“Argentina haven’t played well for a while and the results haven’t been good. We needed a change.”
Nevertheless, what followed next was something not many football supporters globally could have predicted. Diego Maradona, a football icon, a man well documented in recent years for his personal problems was chosen as the man to get Argentina’s qualification campaign back on track. The man who’s well known for his “hand of god” goal during the 1986 World Cup didn’t have the smoothest of transitions to the managers chair though. He threatened to quit the side after only two weeks after the Argentina Association refused to let him have his chosen assistant. Soon after, playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme retired from international football following a falling out with Maradona.
Riquelme - won't be playing under Maradona!
Maradona’s reign began with what seemed a routine fixture on paper at home to Venezuela. However, the away side were no longer the pushovers of years gone by following some impressive qualification results in recent times. Nevertheless, as expected, Maradona had the instant reaction as Argentina cruised to a 4-0 victory playing some exquisite football at times.
The new manager’s next fixture would provide him with a much sterner test though. The side were to travel to Bolivia, a trip that is viewed as a great challenge due to the high altitude that the matches are played at. Even so, with Maradona at the helm, many supporters were confident of their team coming away with the three points. Unfortunately, Argentina were humiliated 6-1 at the hands of the Bolivians. With the score poised at 1-1 midway through the first half, Bolivia took the lead in the 34th minute and extended it even further on the stroke of half time to leave the Argies with quite literally an uphill task in the second half. Things went from bad to worse as Angel Di Maria was sent off for Argentina in the 64th minute with the score at 4-1. Bolivia completed the rout to signal Maradona’s honeymoon period as manager well and truly over.
The result leaves Argentina currently 4th in the overall standings and only two points ahead of 5th place Uruguay. With only six games remaining and only the top four guaranteed to reach the World Cup, Argentina have some work to do before they can book their ticket to South Africa.
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World Cup 2010 is just around the corner. As the last bunch of games for qualifications get played this year we face the possibility of a tournament without some of the games giants.
It’s still early but in Africa we stand the chance of missing out on Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon. In Central America Mexico are sitting 4th, although the change in management might be enough to catch up with Honduras.
In Europe, Sweden, Portugal, Scotland, Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Belgium, and Bulgaria are all in trouble and may not even make the play offs. While France will no doubt be playing a playoff game, but if Eire can put in some good results it could Italy V’s France in a playoff game.
I really doubt Italy will drop enough points to miss out on an automatic qualification spot, and to be honest France should be strong enough to dispose of most, if not all of the other play off teams. This of course leads me to South America, and an Argentina team that really is in a hole.
As it stands today Argentina are sitting 4th in the group on 22 points. This has them sitting in an automatic qualification spot, however they are only 2 points ahead of 5th place Ecuador and 4 points ahead of Uruguay. On the surface they sound safe to make it through but the recent form paints a different picture. They have only won once away from home, and have lost twice in the last 3 games including that 6-1 hammering at the hands of Bolivia. With 4 games to play (2 of which are away) Maradona really needs to get the most out of this talented squad.
In September Argentina are at home to Brazil, then travel to Paraguay for a tough away game. Realistically based on what we’ve seen lately this could be 0 points. Dunga has Brazil playing a solid game now and they should be able to take apart this Argentina team that seems so unorganized. Paraguay is not a super power by any means but they are sitting 3rd in the group and with the Argentine away form so far, it seems Argentina will struggle against anyone.
Then in October Argentina plays host to Peru which would be 3 easy points but then goes on the road for the last away game against Uruguay. If results don’t come for Argentina then they could come home after the Uruguay game with 3 points from 4 games. Uruguay will look at their run in and fancy taking 9 points from it and Ecuador will also like the chance of bring in at least 6 points. This would all add up to Argentina not only missing the automatic spot but also missing out on the play off place.
With this in mind it does not make any sense that the Argentinean Football Federation decided to give Diego a new contract until Oct 2009. If they don’t make the World Cup in South Africa, then the competition will miss out on some of the best talents in the game and a football mad nation will be left wondering what could have been.
Do you think Maradona should go now? Do you think Argentina will make it to the World Cup?
Well tomorrow Argentina will be starting with 3 forwards: Messi, Tevez, and Higuain. What do you all think? Let’s see what happens, right? I’ll be at the match tomorrow, so I’ll take a lot of pictures for you guys. I’m sure there are a lot of people from around the world who are big Argentina fans, and always have dreamed of seeing them play live. We’ll I’ll do my best! It has been raining all day today here in Buenos Aires, and they are calling for more rain tomorrow. I’m hoping that it won’t be canceled! The game starts at 5pm, Buenos Aires time.
Here are the most probably starting lineups for tomorrow’s Bicentennial match:
Argentina: Sergio Romero; Jonás Gutiérrez, Nicolás Burdisso, Nicolás Otamendi, Gabriel Heinze; Maximiliano Rodríguez, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di María; Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín y Carlos Tevez. Director técnico: Diego Maradona.
Canadá: Josh Wagenaard; Adam Straigh, Mike Klukowski, André Hainault, Paul Stalteri; Wil Johnson, Julian de Guzman, Daniel Imhof, Jaime Peters; Rob Friend y Richard Hastings. Director técnico: Stephen Hart.
Goalkeepers: Sergio ROMERO, Mariano ANDUJAR, Diego POZO
Defenders: Nicolas BURDISSO, Clemente RODRIGUEZ, Martin DEMICHELIS, Ariel GARCE, Gabriel HEINZE, Nicolas OTAMENDI, Walter SAMUEL
Midfielders: Jonas GUTIERREZ, Javier MASCHERANO, Juan Sebastian VERON, Angel DI MARIA, Mario BOLATTI, Maxi RODRIGUEZ, Javier PASTORE
Forwards: Lionel MESSI, Gonzalo HIGUAIN, Carlos TEVEZ, Diego MILITO, Sergio AGUERO, Martin PALERMO
Ola amigos,
More than 300 posts in less than 24 hours. Probably a record in the blog’s history. A figure that must mean something…
The 30-players list has been released yesterday by AFA and many of our best/favorite players do not appear on it. No Zanetti, Aimar, Cambiasso, Lucho, Banega, Lisandro Lopez, Saviola, Palacio, Riquelme, D’Alessandro, Zabaleta, Barrios, Gabi Milito, Gago, Garay, Delgado, … This is so hard to believe.
But it’s time to move on, even if you are always free the explain your feelings. This place is yours. And don’t forget: this is only futbol.
PS: I want to thank our Nigerian friends who contributed to interesting discussions in the previous thread. You guys are welcome here. I apoligize for the sudden interruption of our discussions, the communication of Maradona’s list caused a “tsunami” of posts.
Agüero, Sebastián Blanco, Andújar, Bolatti, Burdisso, Coloccini, Dátolo, Demichelis, Di María, Garcé, Jonás Gutiérrez, Heinze, Higuaín, Insaurralde, Lavezzi, Mascherano, Mercier, Messi, Diego Milito, Otamendi, Palermo, Pastore, Pozo, Clemente, Maxi Rodríguez, Romero, Samuel, Sosa, Tevez and Verón
As WC is coming in only 1 month, I invite you guys to start analyzing & discussing about our first opponent: Nigeria.
What are their tactics?
What is their probable starting lineup?
Who are Nigeria’s key players?
What will be the key factor(s) of the game?
Do you think Maradona’s starting 4-4-2 can bring us the victory, like Ferraro & Batista in 2005 & 2008?
Are Nigeria as unprepared as us for this WC?
Does Lars Lagerback know how to beat us?
Will this game be the most important of the tournament for Argentina?
I also invite all Nigeria fans, including our friend Osunneye, to come on this page and exchange ideas & feelings with us.
Lets discuss about Argentina-Nigeria with fair-play.