Argentina FIFA friendly matches and more!

Milito wants to be in Africa so he defends Maradona without explaining why he is the man, according to him:

“Con él ganamos nuestro último Mundial y sólo él puede enseñar cómo se lleva esa camiseta. Es el hombre perfecto para guiar a la Selección”, aseguró en una entrevista al diario italiano La Stampa. Milito fue convocado en seis oportunidades por Maradona para las Eliminatorias rumbo a Sudáfrica, pero no tuvo muchos minutos en cancha.

Con respecto a las declaraciones del entrenador luego del partido ante Uruguay, el delantero se mostró comprensivo: “Son cosas que pasan cuando las pulsaciones van a cien, cuando te lo jugás todo. En esa situación cada uno tiene su modo de reaccionar y no se puede disimular”.

Milito has always come across to me as sincere so I do not subscribe any alterior motive to his statement.

It’s possible that some people still like and, dare I say respect Diego Armando Maradona.

Regards

Posted from  Canada

Higuain and Maxi at the Madrid derby today reminded me of Valdano and Burruchaga in 1986. Is it safe to say that Higuain and Maxi should both start for Argentina? I think so.

Posted from  United States

maxilopez,
if he was so badly injured why did he look perfectly fine the next day with no sign of injury? he was interviewed the next day n looked perfectly fine to me. the guy is a pussy and screwed us. i mean we had badluck. we played a good game and shouldve won that game. we wouldve gave the italian a good good game as well idk it wouldve been very different but that is the past. world cup 2010 is a new cup. i realli like the lineup that albo had put up though. that as a very legit lineup. ive never heard that one but zabelata does everyone have confidence in this guy? i mean i remember someone posting a while ago that he doesnt even start at man city? i would rather have zanetti in there. insua is a good fit in the left side. andujar over romero? i think so. both good goalies but i like andujar better. but banega and aimar at the top maybe playin banega a little lower then aimar playing more defensive minded. great lineup though albo. props man

I think its time for Maradona to use a similar formation to that of Barcelona. Some ppl might say that this is copying and Argentina have different players and so on, but Maradona needs to find a system that lets Messi play and score goals like he does with Barca because he is the best players in the world and therefore the formation should be set up to suit his style.

I like ur formation Albo. In terms of players, at this stage I prefer Cambiasso coz he has more experience than Banega. In RB, we should try Zabaleta. I havent seen him play yet, but he starts for Man City every game which is good. In LB, Insua is not too bad. I am not a big fan of Heinze, but somehow he performs well in LB. In CB, he is terrible.

As for Pato’s injury at the wc against Germany, I think we were unlucky that he got injured. If he was feeling pain at the time, then it would have been unwise to keep him on. But definitely, if he didnt have that injury and stayed on, he would have done much better than Franco especially when it comes to penalty kicks.

Higuain scored again for RM. This guy will eventually become the best striker in the world. From an attacking point of view, we are looking better than in 2006. With Messi, Higuain and DiMaria, we can destroy any team on this planet, but we must first get our tactics and defense right.

pato’s injury = a wasted sub for his replacment…that could have been messi or aimar….instead it was leo franco

bad luck indeed

We have a problem in our RB and LB positions, Insua is good going forward but is inconsistent in defensive duties. Zabaleta did not impress me much, infact only option I see is keeping the Left side defense as mobile while the right side as static.
Due to Insua’s running front Heinze covers him and whole back line shifts left.
Zanetti/Angeleri-Demi-Heinze-Insua
To cover the defense I would put Cambiasso/Banega, and move Mache front of him.
Messi-Aimar-DiMaria
—–Lopez——–

Subs being Milito/Aguero/Maxi/Higuain/Angeleri/Samuel/Tevez/Zabaleta

BTW regarding WC2006, Pato was indeed hit with Klose.
The degree of injury is arguable, since when he got injured he could have asked for substitution , but instead he opted to stay, only when 1st sub was getting ready (Riquelme -> Cambiasso) he cried for substitution, basically Pekerman lost 2 subs, since if he had known before he wont replace Riquelme.
Pato could have also opted to continue with the injury, since he did continue for many minutes without any signs of pain.
I would state that his cry for substitution was unprofessional and risked the whole team plan.
Pato has his part in the loss to Germany… and bigger than Pekerman’s substituion or Cambiasso/Ayala’s penalty miss.

BATIGOAL,
Playing 4-3-3 or any other system would lead us to the same results. There is no movement in our team. Without movement, you can’t play futbol.

Guardiola asks Iniesta & Xavi to move vertically. Maradona asks our side midfielders to defend only, stay at the back, and let Messi do miracles. That is the difference. By the way, we are not Barca. We are Argentina. But on the otherside, we are in such an urgent situation that 4-3-3 would seem the perfect short term solution. But we need to learn how to defend first. We are starting from scratch because of AFA. It is too bad the blog has been repeated itself for so long. Probably AFA’s fault again.

Regarding our full backs positions, we have what we have. We can’t rely on old players that can’t run anymore. Check Zanetti at Inter, he always avoid contacts & duels. Zanetti is a “signore” but he can’t be a right back anymore. The present should belong to Zabaleta, whether we like it or not.

Regarding Pato’s injury, I remember Maradona blamed him after the elimination. He accused of not being a man, leaving his teamates. Man, just like it was a war and that a soldier had deserted of his side. Pato was then never considered by Maradona in his team probably because of his “lack of love for the albiceleste. Our coach is a psycopath.

MaxiLopez,

I agree with u when u say that there is no movement in our team. By watching all the WCQ games, I have realised that we have this problem coz the players seem to pass the ball around without making runs to open up spaces and create chances. However, a 4-3-3 system should be tried and players need to pass the ball and move more effectively to make opposition defenders follow them which will create space for players like Messi to attack and score.

BATIGOAL,
Unfortunately, we need a coach to do what you wrote, not a “motivator” who ask people to suck him. Maradona doesn’t know how to explain to the players how to re-positionate themslves after creating movements and getting exposed. That is the big problem. Maradona isn’t a coach.

Last day, Messi was interviewed in Paris. The journalist asked him if he could say some words about Guardiola, and then Maradona. About Guardiola, he said he was a great coach. About Maradona, he said he was like a 12th man in the locker-room, like a player.

Crespo +2. What a monster.

A quick look at what’s going on with “AFA’s triangle of power”.
Grondona, Maradona and Bilardo, that is.

A couple nights ago, Bilardo said to “Radio del Plata”, he wanted to become the new president of AFA, and that he expected Grondona to help him do so, “the way Blatter has helped Platini and Beckenbauer” (!)

Tonight, Maradona and Grondona are flying to Spain. They have a few hours to talk on the plane. : )

They’ll stay at the same hotel where Real Madrid players are concentrated.
So Maradona has made public he wants to have a talk with Gago.
Reminds me of Passarella and Redondo, doesn’t it?

Grondona as we know, has no plans to give AFA away and has been training one of his sons for many years now, thinking about that fine day when he gets bored with it all.

Conclusion: 3 people (making good money) all in their own huge ego trip.

Now, how can we even talk about team playing, group bonding, trust one another in a more relaxed way, if the 3 stooges who conduct AFA can’t stand each other’s guts.

Lastly, after watching the type of relationship Maradona establishes with people, more specifically players, I noticed one has to “kiss ass” in order to get along with him.
There is no other way around it.
You wanna be “loyal”? eat it.

Plain dictatorship.

Posted from  United States

Maxilopez

The AFA went back to 86 philosophy cuz Argentina’s beautiful football failed to produce result again and again. The AFA is on the mark in its decision to go for result. Maradona, apart from being the greatest footballer of all time, personifies win at all cost mentality. It is understatement to say Argentina went home early 98-02-and 06 becuase the boys lacked determination. This is what Maradona brings to the table,and of course he does not have experience and it may take time for him to learn. It is a trade off that AFA and people who are tired of Argentina going home early are willing to accept.

The trade off:

Maradona’s strength = Win at all cost.
Maradona’s weakness = lack of experience in tactics.

For me, I already see Maradona’s influence, win at all cost mentality, bringing results. The last three minutes of Peru’s match was a turning point for Maradona’s men. They had to win when they needed to. The next match against Uruguay which they had to win, Maradona’s team did do. The hope is that Maradona inexpereince will take care itselt sooner enough that it won’t interfere his great contribution.

Cappelo says today he is not worried about Maradona.

The irony is that Cappelo has never been coach in WC tournment and he is already acting he has the credentials to outwit Maradona in the WC. While cappello has never been involved in WC tournment, him always been CL coach, Maradona was master mind of world cup finals.lol

Cappelo is fooling himself here if he thinks Champion league expereince = World Cup tournment. I think Maradona has the right expereince between the two. We will see how cappelo performs in the knock out stages for England.
What a fool. lol

Posted from  United States

“Lastly, after watching the type of relationship Maradona establishes with people, more specifically players, I noticed one has to “kiss ass” in order to get along with him.”

Albo how do you explain Maradona calling more than 80 players to give them chance to showcase their talent. All of them kiss ass for Maradona?
You aslo may be confusing maradona’s deserved respect,what all young players are showing their idol with “kiss-ass”.

Less emotions here and more about facts.

Posted from  United States

Plain dictatorship explained by our friend ALBO, with pure facts.
The beautiful game had only 1 chance (2006). Grondona’s chances are endless.

Posted from  France

In France, there has been an outstanding game! Lyon-Marselle: 5-5! Lopez scored twice when Lyon were down 2-4!

Posted from  France

I’m sorry. Capello is a proven coach, who leads and maintains discipline and emphasizes fitness and team work. His role isn’t a damn circus freakshow every press conference. To suggest that Maradona is even in the same league as Capello in coaching is laughable.

What he has done with Milan, Real, and Roma dwarf Maradona’s stint as manager (which was horrendous) at the club level for Mandiyu and Racing. Maradona was an abysmal failure as a manager, and then society and media recognized it. 3 wins, 12 losses, and 8 draws speak for themselves. So too do Capello’s league titles in Italy and Spain, along with European trophies.

As head of the national team, Maradona led a very talented Argentina team to barely qualify for the World Cup. Emarassing losses, poor tactics, and freakshow antics have been standard. Losses to Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil; an undeserved win over Colombia; barely beating lowly Peru at home are apparently to be ignored in favor of the positive results in his tenure. Beating minnows Venezuela at home, a French team that clearly is not playing as a top tier team at this point, a terrible Panamanian team, a 3rd string Ghana team, and a Scottish team that won’t even be at the Cup, and 2 desperate victories against Peru and Uruguay are his claim to coaching genius. Granted, we qualified – but on the last day of competition, thanks in large part to favorable results in the last 4 matches played by Uruguay and Ecuador.

Meanwhile, Capello took an English team that did not even QUALIFY for the Euro and got them to qualify with matches to spare for the World Cup. They lost a single match because of an early red card when it didn’t matter anyways, and drew with a great Dutch team in a friendly.

I only wish we had a tactician in the mold of Capello or Hiddink for our team. Their resumes as PROVEN MANAGERS support such a position.

Max and Albo,

You have strong negative opinion about Maradona but for your arguments to be judged fairly they should be followed by facts and examples.

Albo says players must kiss ass to be considered for spot, some people would ask Albo then to give facts, examples. Logically it makes less sense to call more than 80 players to sift through which one works better for the team if Maradona is only after “yes sir” characters.

Gago, Maxi, Zanneti, and most of the 80 players were given fair chances more than six games. They could not delever so Deigo had to find another combinations to put his team through. It worked and Maradona has been fair to his players.

Lol. Cappelo is only proven in the champion league but has Zero record in World cup environment. Maradona on the other hand has been there for two world cup finals and been the brain behind the team.

There are two overlapping arguments here. Cappelo pretending to have WC experience over Maradona, and the general question of who is more experienced between the two in terms of professional coaching.

I am arguing against Cappelo pretending to have any expreince in the world cup environment. Deigo has the upper hand here. No one is arguing Cappello has been professional coach longer then Maradona. Again, Maradona has the advantage over Cappelo in the real competetion. Everything is new to cappelo where Maradona knows what to do right away, because he not only been there but he was in the finals.

Maradona would get better with overall tactics of the game and he has 6 months to do it. I cannot wait to read the British Tabloids when Cappello cracks under presurre in the world cup. “The Italian Cracks under pressure” looooooooooooool

Albo,

I really like your line up. HOw about Esteban Cambiasso in place of Ever Banega? That’s probably the only thing I’d change.

some people in this blog is blindly undermining Maradona. so many people from all part of the world come to this blog because Maradona is an argentine.

After Maradona, what is the achievement of the NT, so, lets give him a chance. it could not be worse than 2002.

i beleive he can bring the best out of all our talents.

Go Argentina……

Posted from  Australia

i think the top european teams have a much easier chance to qualify compared to south america. so thats a very bad comparison in terms of argentina and england in their route to qualify. the fact is were in, so where do we go from here. the barca system intrigues me. and i think we have the players to do so. messi on the right higuain in the middle and di maria on the left. what we need now is a deep lying playmaker who can help mache defend and play behind aimar. i would prefer lucho or banega but donna will play veron and probably no aimar at all. we can make this work, the players will need to move off the ball, so donna must some how get the players to make runs and not be static.

himu27 i fail to see what past performances on the field have to do with things that effect the team RIGHT NOW

as a coach you must be professional…you are in a high position and should radiate what you want people to think of your country and your team

Maradona has failed miserably in this regard, he is simply not doing his job or at least a very bad one at that

i am confident that if it were any other person doing equally bad a job i would also hold the same disdain of them… but if it were any other person they would have been fired after the loss to Brazil

so ask yourself are you a maradona fan? or an Argentina fan?

and by my count maradona has had more than a second chance…gonna be hitting the double digits before south africa me thinks

good day