Argentina v Venezuela: preview and match thread

Im going to watch this match live!!Omg..3:40 a.m at my time zone..Sounds Great
Vamos Argentina!

what time is the game USA time? Thanks

It will be 7:40 PM NY, and 9:40 AM in Sydney.

I am hearing that it will be the same starting 11.

Also on a side note it was 3 years ago today at the age of 17 that Messi made his debut for the barcelona first team. I think that Messi will celebrate tonight with two goals.

This game might be more complicated that some think.
Venezuela comes from a 0-1 surprise victory over Ecuador in Quito.
They are very confident and they play at home.
I hope our guys don’t take it for granted like so many times have done in the past.

Heinze is not confirmed for tonight’s game yet.
He carries a mild groin injury from the game with Chile.

Who will replace Heinze?

the rumour is that villareal will sell riquelme come january for anasking price of $3 million. it is also said that ac milan are one of the front runners to land him. i have mix feelings towards such a move. sure it would be great for riquelme to play for such a high profile club. but how would he fit into a midfield with so many big name stars. riquelme is a guy who must have a team built around him in order for him to excel. if he is just a role player he will become very ordinary.

Linda –

just wanted to thank you for stewarding this blog so well!

ACMilan and Riquelme? I can’t see it at all. Imagine it – Ruiquelme on the smae team as Kaka and Ronaldo? Oh yeah, and a bunch of other Italian guys. Whichever team it is, if it is in Italy, I hope it’s not that one where Mourinho finally lands.

Is it just me, or does it always seem that these clubs and players wait until the last possible second to work on these deals? Shouldn’t the teams and Riquelme be settling this issue now?

Albo – just getting over the Ecuador loss. We are going to have a really really really hard time qualifying if Suarez remains as the coach. No disrespect to Venezuela, but it’s a really bad sign for my guys when we lose to them at home. And now my guys play Brazil (who looked woeful againt Colombia, but still)in the Maracana. Anyway, thanks for your nice words about it!

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=447812

[...] the Blog * The lowdown on the match against Venezuela (Argentina World Cup Blog) * A ‘b’ squad for The Don (Italy World Cup Blog) * Ready for a European road trip? [...]

I am very happy that we got off to a winning start against Chile. I did not see the game, but I have read everything you guys have said about it. I hope Kun will be given the chance tonight. Tevez-Messi is not a good combination.

Venuzuela have come on leaps & bounds & the football team is making a mark on the consciousness of the Venuzuelan public at last after years in the background to American sports.

The players will not take anything for granted & it should be three points.

Alexa Ecuador will find it hard to qualify. Right now its a toss up between Argentina & Brazil for top spot. Uruguay for third they have a decent crop of youngsters coming through. And probably Paraguay plus Columbia/Chile.

Miguel Tevez has just completed a two week trial at Manchester United. He is the younger brother of Carlitos but don’t get too excited. I hear Messi has a younger cousin who is displaying all the abilities of Lionel himself. Fact or fiction ?

Chau for now.

messi has a younger cousin playing in brazil.

Maxi Biancucchi

Sir Alex says miguel tevez is the star of the furture

Predictions? Put it out there for everyone to read I say 3 to 1. messi with 2 goals and the other by Roman.

game plan ? Play good defense the first 15 minutes with plenty of players back pass the ball around and let them run through that first initial rush of adrenaline. The we play our game. Most of the losses that we have had over the last few years have almost always been becasue the other time gets a goal in the first 15 minutes. Then they can put everyone back and not worry to much about attacking accept counters. It is key that we defned that first 15 minutes like that game depends on it because it does.

i’m not sure riquelme will go to italy or england. there was a report a while back saying that riquelme turned down man u because he needs to be in a spanish speaking country, because of he’s kids education. so to me it’s either some team in spain or boca.

Espn says these are the starters and subs
Venezuela Argentina
1 Renny Vicente Vega (G) (G) Roberto Abbondanzieri 1
6 Alejandro Cichero (D) (D) Nicolas Burdisso 17
3 José Manuel Rey (D) (D) Martín Demichelis 2
17 Jorge Rojas (D) (D) Gabriel Milito 15
4 Andrés Rouga (D) (D) Javier Zanetti 8
2 Luis José Vallenilla (D) (M) Esteban Cambiasso 5
18 Juan Fernando Arango (M) (M) Javier Mascherano 14
5 Miguel Ángel Mea Vitali (M) (M) Juan Riquelme 10
11 Ricardo David Páez (M) (M) Maxi Rodríguez 7
8 Luis Vera (M) (F) Leo Messi 18
9 Giancarlos Maldonado (F) (F) Carlos Tevez 11
Carlos Simón
Substitutes
12 Leonardo Morales (G) (G) Juan Pablo Carrizo
7 Héctor González (D) (D) Daniel Alberto Díaz
16 Roberto Rosales (D) (D) Hugo Benjamín Ibarra
10 Luis Seijas (D) (M) Fernando Gago 16
13 Leonel Vielma (D) (M) Federico Insua 17
14 Alejandro Guerra (M) (F) Sergio Aguero 13
15 Daniel Arismendi (F) (F) Javier Saviola

With Burdisso in place of Heinze i think that this line up is even more defensive. I miss Aimar as the offensive spark of the bench. Who do we put in if we go down a goal? What if it is 0 to 0 at half? There are no midfielders on teh bench that can do that but I guess you could sub in Aguero and push Messi back and take cambiasso out.

what time is the game. On espn its says 840 eastern? On here someone said 740. Which is right?

After this game, we’re gonna have to wait about 7 months for the next qualie.
Boy, that’s a long time…

Toddutah, I understand it’s at 8:40 pm eastern time.

Does anyone know if they are they showing it on Fox? and what time?
Thank you.

4-0 is my prediction, a hattrick by messi and a one by tevez.

Albo, there will be 2 games after one month, home game against Bolivia and an away game in Colombia. After that we will have to wait for 7 months before we play Ecuador at home and Brazil away.

17 – 0 3 pato 6 messi 4 tevez 1 aguero 1 saviola 1 mascherano 1 Leo Franco

Ortega85, you’re right about that one.
My bad…

argentina fans in malaysia
LIVE ASTRO Channel 811 8:40am
^_^

arGhh…Can’t wait!!!;[ ]

Hi, I’ve never posted but have been reading since the WC. What is that one website where we may be able to watch the game online? Thanks

http://www.sopcast.org/player/index.jsp#

Argentina fans from Lithuania..3:18 am..Yawn..

Looks like there are going to be some changes for this game.
Burdisso is going to play the left back, for Heinze.
Ibarra on the right for Zanetti.
Zanetti will move to the right center-field for Maxi.
That’s about it.
Enjoy the game.

ortega85,

which channel do i select/

you will one of the channels says Venezuela vs Arg

http://www.sopcast.org/player/index.jsp# is bad quality… is there another site i can go to? pleeease i need to watch my boys!

cctv-5 also shows the game

or CCTV-5

goalll!!!!G.militoooo!!

GOOOOOOOOOAL SEXY CROSS FROM RIQUELME TO MILITO.. MILITO IS GOOD!

what is CCTV5? is it like sopcast?

Goal by Milito. Headed in a pin point set piece by Riquelme.

its on that link that ortega provided

good call cctv-5 is much better just have no idea what there saying

thank you guys, CCTV5 is excellent

wat the hell is this ‘pass the ball around’ game venezuela is playing, theyve made this game dead.

MESSI!!!! GOLLLL

Messi goallllllllllll

can these anouncers be any less enthusiastic

nice goal by messi!!^_^

Game is pretty boring. Is Maxi playing at all?

Offense a bit disjointed. Messi’s goal was great, gorgeous assist by riquelme for the first goal. Riquelme told/let messi kick that one free kick. Can someone tell me Cambiasso’s role here? (honestly, I’d like to know).

Demichelis might become a real good CD after all.
And looks like him and Milito can play together.

does anyone have a link? where do I watch the game. I at least want to see the second half?

What is wrong w/ argentina midfield?

download sopcast—

http://www.sopcast.org/

then click on CCTV channel 6002

Messay, go here http://www.sopcast.org/player/index.jsp#
and then click on CCTV5 on the right. I think you have to have SopCast player installed though.. not sure..

you can use sopcast http://www.sopcast.org ch. cctv-5

Messay, http://www.sopcast.org/player/index.jsp#

click on CCTV-5

i cant stop thinking about messi’s goal.. it was so beautiful, was like a bullet

thank you so much. sad i missed the first half. work was hectic

agreed!

messi = beautiful ^^

Download the sopcast player (not the web player). Install it and choose CCTV-5 under sports.

First half sucked really bad. Pain to the eyes, torture to the brain. What is wrong w/ our midfield? I would say put gago,at least he would distribute the ball around. Brazil will thrash us if our midfield doesn’t improve. Team is so much disjointed. There is no flow from defense to midfield and midfield to offense. Lets see if they improve in the 2nd half.

hgthghj dghjgfjh

is very good

Goals were nice. Messi always surprises me. His goal was awesome.

I hate that I won’t be able to watch it on TV until Thursday!

Vamossss!!

i think they are all on qualudes

Argentina’s performance is pathetic. They seem not to be able to score without set peices or indiviual brilliance.

i agree ortega85. Its really a torture to watch this game. Pathetic performance by argentina.

Why is Messi on the left? He normally plays on the right for barcelona, doesn’t he? I hope they put Aguero on soon.

Easy goal opportunity missed. Was that Tevez?

yup, that was tevez. riquelme actually missed a pass. never saw that before. the team seems to be sort of sleepwalking. messi and tevez haven’t really communicated yet, riquelme is waaaaaaaay back, almost in the other side of the field (im not surprised that he’s tired given the time he’s not been playing)

What is wrong w/ argentina’s midfield? They are seriously not being able to hold the ball at all. And dont even talk abt the mispasses. And why does pato keeps passing the ball to the opponent’s keeper? Tevez missed two chances.

Hah, Pato always kicks it out :S

LOL at that free kick!

I think Pato needs to be substituted asap. I think his terrible ball distribution has been the main reason for lacklustre performance.

Did Abbondenzieri just try to score??

another chance missed..messi should have taken the shot himself.

another tevez miss? man, Venezuela is woeful. I can’t believe my country lost to them. (head in hands)

Substitute Tevez immediately.

gago up —

finally gago is in.

lol riquelme trying to be smart ass.

why does pato not want to use his hands in any situation?

I am with maradona, Tevez is playing so selfish, and he is wasting chance after chance. Pato tried to score?? wow. The midfield needs some light.

I wish AIMAR was there.

what just happened? wasn’t that a goal?

since we have both gago and masche in, maybe it’s time to take cambiasso out and put it aguero or savioa and 4-3-3 with messi being on the right and tevez on the left.

Wtf.. pato kicks it out again…? what is wrong with him?

lol, pato just kicked the ball out. this is just sad. Argentina is playing with no organization. what in the world.

offsides

Oghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If we faced Brazil today in Maracana, we woulda lost with a margin of 4 or 5

One more time Pato kicks the ball out of bounds, I will be ready to punch his face.

i have a feeling i know what the people at home are going to say about this performance.

who is hurt? bad quality.. is it riquelme?????? fuck if it is..

This is where the coach should step in and discipline the players. Pato, Burdisso, Ibarra, Tevez need to step up or be substituted. Instead Demichellis is injured and Cata is in.

guys, you have to understand the sheer number of games all these guys have been playing. every single one of our players are pretty much dead tired and even the subs we have must be tired. Look at Brazil, they were listless playing vs Columbia, albeit in high altitude; but nonetheless their performance was nothing to write home about.

cut our players some slack. but yes, this 2nd half, it’s almost they’re already thinking of the plane ride back home.

burdisso is the one who got injured i think

Burdisso is hurt. looks pretty bad. The hit is from the back of his head.

AIMAR, ayyy pablito.

Riquelme has an excuse – he hasn’t played in 4months. What’s everybody else’s excuse?

and btw, this is the problem with Coco, he says ‘I play my way, I don’t care about what the opposition does’. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it does matters. We just aren’t technically sound in terms of pinpointing other teams weakness. Not talking about this game, but tactically we are lacking.

Or we can flip this whole conversation around say that despite playing like crap, we’re up 2-0. half full view…

i think its burdisso who is hurt. Not sure!!

by the way, where is Maxi????

yeah – it was poor burdisso. went off with a neck brace.

who is that guy coming in????

Denis is on

german denis in

Finally Tevez is out. Denis in. Cambiasso hit the post. Damn!

haha mascherano.

whattttttttttttttt the heckkkkkkkkkkkkk is Mascherano doing. This game is hilarious. I am laughing my butt off. are you guys laghing to???

haha Mascherano tried to nutmeg a defender and failed.

who is that new no 9? he is showing some positioning skills.

This game just needs to end already.

i’m falling into a stupor watching this.

messay – you made me laugh… what was mascherano doing? What is Pato doing? What’s happening here?

guys, we need a poacher badly.. tevez isnt working out.. can we get higuain, isnt he a poacher?

omg. this guy tried it again. lol. he tried a half field shot

OMG – Messi

I think I counted 3 opportunities missed by Mascherano on Riquelme’s pinpoint crosses towards the left post. A number 9 would have volleyed it.

Messi is playing TOOOOOOOOOO UNSELFISH. he should have shot that, but i guess he wanted Denis to get a goal. mannnnnnnn

OK I Know Arg is up 2 – 0. But what is going on here guys? Is the passing bad? Tactics bad? Whats going on? I haven’t watched the game. How has Riquelme performed so far?

WHAT…. THE….. FUCK….?

WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED??? I think Messi gave away 3 trivial scoring chances as well.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? why is he doing that? he should have taken the shot himself again. Another chance missed.

messi needs to take these shots

I dont blame mascherano, i blame the guy who play out of position.

is this an actual official game?

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON???

what the fuck cameraman!!!!

“I think I counted 3 opportunities missed by Mascherano on Riquelme’s pinpoint crosses towards the left post. A number 9 would have volleyed it.”

I totally agree. Crespo would be sitting on 3 goals if he was here.

wow now that we saw that shot it was horrible

Please blow the whistle and end this at once.

lol i think this is just one of those games, where everyone is just lazy. The camera guys are lazy, the comentators SOUND lazy, the players are surely playing like it. we have goalies taking shots, we have players taking shot from half field. lol. this is hilarious.

this is pathetic, even the chinese commentators are laughing at us

Is it the lack of chemistry? WTF IS GOING ON?

yeah but when they get in the box they decide to pass

Holy crap. Riquelme was about to take a shot and some wise ass team mate took it away from him.

Finally the torture is over. hahaha

Thank God.

Can someone tell me who was that genius?

decent comedy. amn ive got stomach pains from all that laughing

Basile tries to fit the players into his system, while in modern football you try to adjust your system or create a new system based on players you have. Basile never changes his system even if it requires some players to playe out of position. I am still on the “Basile is not the right coach for this team.”

The whole crowd laughed when the last shot (offside) too hit the post. Disgraceful performance.

lol. from what i saw in the second half. Messi is the man, cambiasso played good. Gago i thought did ok, he had one bad pass but he did good. masch was used as a winger when Burdisso got out, and it was a joke.

I thought Demechelis played well. tevez, lol. Pato Lol.

That was Denis who hit the post after the offside.

OK – thank god for Messay for showing the humor of this game. Hopefully it was an aberation, and not an indication of a deeper cancer.

But – it was just wacky – and lazy -tru. And the chinese commentators were laughing at us – it’s true. WTF?

On a positive note, Riquelme’s exquisite passing really was evident, although it didn’t lead to anything. Nobody was concentrating at all, though. My theory is that all golaies eventually lose their minds at some point, and then either become amazing in their craziness or unusable. I think that Pato is makinfg his way into the unusable ranks.

Cambiasso is a good player. But he has been misused by Basile and that made cambiasso look bad. And to support my opinion in my last comment, Masche plays as a winger evey time Gago come in, and cambiasso is always a winger. Those two play out of position, which make them look stupid at times.

I thought it was hilarious to see Mascherano show up inside the box hoping for some attacking action. His defense was good otoh. Messi was the good (gave away 3 easy chances) and Riquelme was okay. By far the worst players were Pato and Tevez.

^ Messi was dumbbbbb!!!! Tevez was sleeping!!!! We need Crespo so badly!!!!! Why didn’t Basile bring in Saviola? Oh, this is pathetic!!!

Basile is not the right coach for this team…
-_-

what is marscherano doing up there?~?~? winger..? >.

And why wasn’t Aguero on the bench at all? Sumtin wong heya!

yeah..tevez is really bad..
the combination of tevez + messi..is not working..
it’s a boring game from argentina….
it’s like a joke

I think Argentina missed 11 easy scoring chances today.

so maxi didnt play huh? what happend to him?

That was a boring match, and Burdisso being stretchered off was the highpoint.
It took the chinese commentators like 5 minutes to identify him, and he srsly adored Messi. Wait, they WORSHIPPED Messi. I would have loved to see Crespo ahead instead of Tevez. Well, 3 easy points = not a very exciting match. But I do hope Burdisso’s condition isn’t that bad. We need him (a bit) at Inter.

Oh, Lord.

After what happened to Antonio Puerta, I’d think everybody would be more concerned with the way Burdisso went down and stayed down than with repeating the same old tired attacks on our own players and coach.

And, you know, we got 6 points.

;[ pray for burdisso..
hope he’s ok..

I thought there were a couple of positive things worth mentioning in this boring match.
It’s true that nobody wants to see their team playing so dull, but Basile, after the 0-2, changed direction and gave possession to the Venezuelans.
After years of always playing the possession game and the one touch pass, we gave them the ball.
The problem is that Venezuela didn’t know what to do with it.
Argentina locked 8 men in their own mid-field and that was the end of the game.
From that point of view, it might be not pretty but it was very effective.
What I do regret is not having scored a couple of times on fast-break.
Tevez was flat. Messi scored.
Riquelme took advantage (again) of a set piece.
Demichelis is becoming our Right CD, pretty much officially.
Milito scored.
I thought it was noticeable that there was a change of tactics. It became dead boring because again, Venezuela didn’t know what to do with the ball.
Am I the only one who saw it like that?
I don’t like the way this team is playing.
I don’t like what Basile is doing.
But I don’t think it’s “pathetic”.
Have you guys watched Colombia-Brazil?
If we won 0-2 and we are pathetic, what is Brazil, with Robinho, Ronaldinho and Kaká, then?

We were ugly but effective, for a change. No big deal.
Some of the posts above sound like it’s the end of the world, though.

Basile just gave a press conference where he mentioned he wished they had scored a couple of more times in the second half, but the heat of Maracaibo had them exhausted.
Mascherano said he doesn’t usually show excuses but the high temperature and the horrible state of the pitch didn’t help at all.
Tevez talked about the same issue (excessive heat) saying “I’m glad it’s over and we take home 3 points from here.

i am really worried about burdisso safety right now. i have been checking other websites and i have not got an update on his situation. i hope everything works out for the best.

Burdisso is alright. At least what Clarín reports.
The team’s doctors where worried for a few minutes but he reacted well.
He’s got a nasty cut though.

The webcast was so terrible it was hard to even identify who went down. Maybe Argentina was playing so bad because they were rattled by Burdisso’s injury. Right now there is no news on Burdisso at all and there was no information in the press conference as well.

Albo, thanks.

Sometimes heat can cause questionable judgement. I think it affected Messi.

Please post the link for those goals.

Milito’s goal

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/venezuela+milito/video/x38a6k_venezuela-02-argentina-01-milito_sport

Messi’s goal

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/venezuela+messi/video/x38a88_venezuela-02-argentina-02-messi_sport

ChloeZen,

I wasn’t able to watch the game coz I was away for holiday Do you’ve info for Arg-Ven replay on Astro?

Thanks

It’s good to hear Burdisso is fine. I was worried about him, it looked very bad at first.

My only criticism to Basile is that he doesnt change his tactic even if it requires putting some players out of position like he did with Mascherano after Gago came in, and like he does with Cambiasso. The negative of this is that Mascherano cant effective in that position for obvious reasons and it causes imbalance for the whole team. My point is that he (basile) sometimes has to change his formation when certain players are on the feild at the same time.

By the way, my favourite line up is:

_______anyone

Zanetti___Demichellis___Milito___Heinze

_________Gago____Mascherano__________

______________Riquelme_____________
____Messi__________________________
_______________________Tevez or Aguero__
_____________Crespo or a #9_____________

Gago and Mascherano together with Gago being the more offensive one like Pirlo for Italy or Xavi for Barca. Zanetti will go forward to help and Heinze shouldnt go forward a lot so it changes to 3-4-3 when attacking. Messi will be as effective as he is in Barca which more effective for the NT. Tevez will fit in this formation more than Basile’s as he will play where he is supposed to, second striker. In Basile’s system, Tevez is limited. Riquelme will be Riquelme. Crespo or anyone in that position will just have so much support behind them which will lead to more goal scoring. An average true striker will be score a lot, and imagine it’s Crespo there.

I am not saying that Basile should change his formation to the formation i like, but in my opinion it’s deadly as it gets the best out of everybody especially in midfeild and offense.

Barca and ManU play with formation and u can see how deadly their attack is and how strong their defence is. So with this formation, Argentina can play its well-known beautiful football while having the ability to avoid counter attacks against defensive teams. Even if one our key players has an off day, we will still have a lot of other weapons and options.

Even Sir Alex who was very conservative with his 4-4-2 has tried a lot of formation until he reached this one, Capello has done it, Lippi has, even Mourinho changed his formation when acquired Sheva and Ballack. Basile doesn’t seem to even think about it unless we down and desperate which is sometimes too late. I think that as a coach, you should play based on what have, not the other way around. Plus doesn’t Basile like notice that it’s not working? We as fans who have little knowledge about coaching have noticed the things that are not working about this formation.

Well, maybe and hopefully Basile knows what he is doing as I hope he won’t be very predictable as he was in previous big games like the final, when a mediocre team with an inxperienced coach, whith all due respect to Brazil and Dunga, surprised him with a tactic that made Basile unable to do anything to beat it.

And again, I like Basile but he is just not the right coach for this team. He had his chance before and failed (of course Diego’s being expelled play a major role, but I still think Basile coulda gone farther than the 2nd round and had no execuse losing to Romania).

By the way, befor judging me or going against me, you will have to read everything I wrote.

Vamos Argentina, we are all behind you!!

Asil Thank You for the help.

Good to hear that Burdisso seems to be okay – I was very worried, and if it rattled me, who was just watching, I can imagine how it affected the players, many of whom play in Spain and must have the Puerta incident clear on their minds.

I usually hate it when teams make excuses for an average (I don’t think we were that horrible, more on which later) performance, but in this case, I think Basile and Masche’s concerns were relevant.

The problem with comparing our performances to a club team’s is this: club teams train together everyday and play together every week. Basile has had this group of players together for barely a week, during which they had to play 2 games. It’s ridiculous – no wonder there’s not as much attacking fluidity.

I have to confess, I’m not too happy when people say that we’d be stuffed by Brazil if we played like this against them.

1) Did you see Brazil against Columbia? They didn’t even pick up the points, let alone play well.

2) Being defeatist, especially about our great rival, really doesn’t sit well with me.

3) The whole point is that having secured the points against a limited opponent in a difficult away game under quite bad conditions, it was wise for the team to simply control the game for the second half. If we’d attacked and got hit on the break and dropped points, then I’d be complaining loudly, believe me.

Lastly:

Vamos Argentina, we are all behind you!!
Well said, ortega85. We are indeed.

What will You say when Brasil beat Ecuador like e.g 5-0?

The thing is Linda if Venezuela had had any sort of good offense we would have been well and truly stuffed. They played better than us. We had very little possession in the first half, we kept giving the ball away. Apart from one moment of brilliance from Messi he wasn’t even in the first half, and Tevez was pretty non-existent the whole match.
The thing with Brazil is in the last third of the pitch their strikers are lethal and when they play us they always raise their game. If we play this same system versus either Uruguay or Brazil we will lose quite badly.
Burdisso got injured with about 15-20 minutes to go, and after that we created a lot of chances which we didn’t bother to put away. So, upto that point what is the excuse for playing badly?
The heat is no excuse, because that’s why you have a subs bench, if the players were tired then why did Basile not use his subs earlier, after all we were 2-0 up after the first half.
If Basile continues to use Messi and Tevez up front then i don’t think we’ll get past the last 16 stage of the World cup 2010. His strategy seems to be play the players u like and then pray that it works. Very disappointing game, we won, but we played crap. The only good thing was that our defense looks a lot better. We really missed Maxi in the midfield, and does anyone know why Aguero was not on the bench?

Linda, in both times Basile lost 3-0 to Brazil, we were the favourites and ha the better team on paper. In both games, we expected Argentina to not only beat Brazil but also crash them. what happened? we lost both games 3-0.

Actually, the only coach I felt confident with that Argentina could beat any big team in the world was Bielsa. He beat Germany and Italy, drew with England and Holland (Arg deserved to win this one). All away games. He beat Brazil couple of times too. After Bielsa, we did really bad against big teams, well except France. Argentina had bad luck in 2002 and the division in the team also affected. Bielsa is the best coach in the after Billardo-Maradona era.

ortega85 i strongly disagree, i think peckerman did a great job yes he made some bad substitutional decisions against geramany but he showed the world the beautiful argentina football, Peckerman had the team playing round the best play maker in the world which bielsa did not want to do, tevez and messi will work it just needs time and the pints are so far in the bag so relax

points* lol

I know Pekerman did a great job, but what big team did he beat (except brazil at home in the qualifiers). He drew with Germany 3 times, humiliatingly lost to Brazil 1-4, lost to England, drew with Holland. He did bad against big team and that was my point when i compared the coaches in the post-billardo era.

given the players we can have a very strong and balanced team which can hurt any one. to me if basile can be wise enough to field a 4-2-1-2-1, I believe that things can be much more simpler for us. we will have the possibiliy to attack in mass as well defense in mass which is a key to nowaday football success. we can attack from the centre as well as down the flank. this can suit to our strikers, just look at the way ManU and Barca play, so many variation and interchange, interplay in their respective attack line always confuse opposition. Messi as well as tevez shine when used in such a tactical setting. they both tend to move alot in the flank

I Agree that our game is essentially built on rklm, the problem is when tevez and messi are used as our two main strikers, this has proven uneffective, neither of them are out-to-out strikers though they have scoring abilities. in a 4-2-1-2-1, RKLM can still be used as an enganche with freedom to conduct the flow of the game.

pato
zanetti demichelis milito heinze
maxi, lucho or gago mascherano or cambiasso

rklm
messi tevez or maxi

Aguero

u can clearly see that rklm will still be the enganche, tevez, messi and aguero will have the possibility to shift and we will defend in mass. lavezzi will in the future a good back up solution for tevez and messi.

jean-jacques, what u said is exactly what I said regarding the formation. I even put barca and man-u as my examples. I hope Basile does play or AT LEAST try it in one of the friendlies so he can compare between both 4-3-1-2 and 4-3-3 (4-2-1-2-1).

I have no problem with the current team but I would like to bring sorin back to the team, during the world cup he was the best lwb in the world and after his move to hamburg he just dissapered, sorins inclusion could give basile a chance to experiemnet also maybe

——————Pato————–
—–Demichieles–Milito—–Heinze–
zanneti——masch—-gago——–sorin
——————riquo—————
———messi————tevez——–

Ok everyone i watched the game as well and here are my thoughts.
1. We won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. We won and away game in a qualifier against a decent team.
3. Messi is the bomg he is so humble he wants somebody else upfront to step up and score and messi should have scored two more goals.
4. it is time for tevez to come in as a Sub. Aguero is the man upfront and should play with messi the next two games. I have no doubt that he wouild have socred two goals in this game. he has more sppeed than carlos and is a better finisher.
5. The line up was way to defensive as i mentioned before the game we only had three really creative palyers on the field.
6. Before the qualifiers my biggest fears were defense number one and then a number 9. The defense looks very good and i still think Aguero is the answer and i wish basile would give him a start!!!!!
7. We have six points from two games and are well on are way to qualifying. Great job Basile!!!
8. if we are mad how should venezuela feel. We coudl have won 5 or 6 to nothing ? There team quitt in the last 20 minutes when they should have been pressing . Did are passing game finally make them give up in the heat? Yes it did.
9. I love this blog !!!! Keep those posts coming.

Right now, I feel really crazy, coz still unable to watch Arg-Ven game. Here’s my thought during holidays:

- The best move by Basile, is bringing in Demichelis. When he wasn’t select for WC 06, he said he has lost the will to live. Welcome back, Micho. Bayern must’ve done somthing good
- Can we say, Milito & Demichelis have been the most durable CBs? If yes, then we may have a very consistent defense in the future
- Right now, our problem becomes opposite. Last time we’ve trouble with the defense. Now, forwards
- Tevez is trying too hard
- Riquelme won, Bielsa & Pellegrini LOST
- Can we experiment other player rather than Zanetti & Mascherano at right midfield?
- Can we play double 5s with Gago & Mascherano?

G. Denis was looking pretty good as a “punta” for the few minutes he played. I think he’s going to do just fine.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Messi is a GOD

There’s some serious problem with our left back Since Maxi’s form isn’t ideal, Zanetti becomes an option for right wing, so he’s not there to take care the left back substitute job.

Burdisso didn’t look good on the left. THe head injury he suffered looked very serious. He was unconscious when carried out, with a neck bracer. I hope he’s ok because he’s an important option for CB.

Milito can compete for the LCB position but he’s also useless at left edge. Out of the 3 Heinze probably has the most experience playing fullback, but he’s far from ideal. We really need a wingback, or 2.

Gago looked good. Tevez not at his best, Denis blew his chance. Demichelis very solid. Cambia

my website is:http://albicelestesforever.blogspot.com/

Aimar and D’Allesandro almost come to blows in a training session. There’s probably a reason why D’Allesandro has been ignored by coaches after Bielsa.

http://www.goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=449630

I watched the first half of the game in sopcast yesterday. Will watch the whole game tomorrow in gol tv. Overall, I am happy. Off course I could have been happier. But here are some points.

1. I longed for a game where we do not play a game to our full potential, but still win comfortably. So this was a match like that. Its not a match which we could have lost. We are “not” lucky to win, we deserved to win, but we did not play quite well. This can happen in any profession. But the key is, based on the skill and experience one could excel even it is not the best day in office. This was needed in my opinion.

2. This is for both the matches we played so far. There is a concept called percentage football. If you are winning 2-0, it is not necessary to go and kill your opponent. Since it is a long race, and considering the number of matches our players play, I think it was good. Save your resources when your are running a marathon.

3. I have posted earlier also, our main problems are our full backs. That continues to be the case. I do not know, but someone close to the Argentine league can tell us if we have any hope in the future.

4. Demichelis is always good for Bayern. I do not remember him playing an aweful game. Milito was so impressive in Zaragoza and also in Barca. So I always wondered. Its will be great if he can get those form for the NT.

5. Mascherano as a right winger is something I do not want to see. I wrote a few days back about developing his attacking game in the lines of Xabi Alonso etc. But this is not something I wished. Imagine the part of the game when our 2 wingers are Masherano and Cambiasso.

6. I always thought Messi is best when he comes down deep near the center circle. so is Tevez. I would prefer a diamond with Messi and Tevez in the right and left, and Riquelme in the middle. That also gives us the option to play like a 4-2-3-1. The one being someone like Crespo.

7. Best thing that is happening is the emergence of Messi. What I have noticed and must be you guys too, is that our game is not entirely Riquelme dependent now. This gives us a good chance. If you see the games again, there are many attacks that did not involve Riquelme or his contribution was minimal. This is great considering Riquelme can have a bad day once in a while. Remember, just like us, our opponents also know that Riquelme can have a bad day, question is which day? how long do we take till we decide, today is a bad day for Riquelme? Most of the times it is past the half with a hope always that this guy can have just 2 passes or a free kick and all could change. So for our opponents, he will mostly take out all of the game before our opponent decides – ‘we are not going to be worrying about him today’. This leaves plenty of room for Messi. That is what started happening slowly. This is the most hopeful part for me. Ending in a positive note guys .

this game had a messi-tevez combination and it was pretty good
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3538701062167918524&q=gay+world+cup&total=132&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9

At their arrival in Buenos Aires, Coco Basile was very brief with the media.
“During the first half Venezuela put a lot of pressure on us and we felt that intense humid heat. We were so slow to react.
In the second half we dominated and deserved a couple more goals.
After the first goal we tried some different things with Messi but they didn’t work too well.”
“Gago is a fantastic player and made the difference when he was on the pitch.”
When asked about Maxi Rodriguez, he simply answered:”He knows very well why he didn’t play”
About German Denis he said “we all wanted German to score a goal, but that will come in time. The “Tank” is a real tank in the box.

Great comment, Debasish. Exactly my thoughts.

We’re not entitled to beat every team 5-0 anymore. I can’t believe I have to say this, but it seems to bear repeating: every team can win and lose on their day. We’re going to drop points in these qualifiers, and that’s going to send everyone into a feeding frenzy, calling for the head of every person involved with the NT, but good qualifiers do not necessarily lead a good tournament, and vice versa. This tendency to exaggerate any problems into a crisis – particularly by the media – helps nobody.

I’d like to know what’s going on with Maxi. And the Zaragoza almost-brawl is very concerning. D’Alessandro is a player I admire, but in the past he’s made many inconsiderate comments about not being selected for the national team that I felt were disrespectful towards those who were. Aimar I think should remain an option.

There is no magic key, not one formation that will work against every team.
To think that la selección should somehow get to a point when they win all the games by 4 or 5 goals is simply not sane. Not in today’s football.
But our guys sure have plenty of room for improvement. And given the small amount of days they can work together, the tests are going to have to take place while playing for the marbles.
I hope Basile tries something different against Bolivia.
I always wonder, what if Riquelme gets hurt?
There is no other player who can do what he does.

I’d love to see a 4-3-3. Just for a change.
It should be without Riquelme because he is too slow for that system.
But that would be precisely the point. To have an alternative. A radical alternative.
The playing should be a bit more vertical a bit more speedy. Like in the times of Batistuta.
This is a tricky system because the 3 mid-fielders have to both attack and defend.
But there’s no need for a play-maker because there are 3 forwards moving around the field, making it easier to connect both lines.
Longer passes, lots of crosses and 3 mid-fielders who can both retrieve and create opportunities.

————Abbondancieri—————
Zanetti-Demichelis-Milito-Heinze
——Maxi——Gago——Cambiasso
Messi———Denis———Agüero

Di María is someone else I’d like to see in a formation like this.

To Riquelme the blogger:
Our slow magician at work, a “majestyrial” hit by the artist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psI9w4rE4FY

I know this is belated. But as with every work of masterpiece,
it is never outdated.

Well my Ecuador went down as predicted to Brazil. I have to say – Kaka scored an absolutely amazing goal from far out. It was in open play but it curled and hit the top corner like a free kick. Absolutely flawless. I’m so glad Arg has Messi in the future and Riquelme in the now, because some Brazilian players are just incredible.

What was that weird statement made by Basile about Maxi?

About Arg — Basile really needs to call Aimar up next time. He was sorely missed.

excellent riquelme clip!

Albo, no problem with variations, coz so far our defense has been solid. Maxi was impressive with just 1 game. However, 2 outside mids need time together due to massive tasks they have to carry. I would like to see more different players playing at Maxi & Cambiasso’s positions. As of right now, it seems like more offensive at the right side with Maxi, Zanetti & Messi. Probably we need a little bit attacking threats at the left side.

Cheers

Asil: >>>Bayern must’ve done somthing good>>>
Yup, like pairing him with Lucio, for example…

Dear Alexa, I don’t think anybody expected Ecuador to get over the loss to Venezuela while flying to Brazil to play the verdeamarelha at Maracaná.
It just wouldn’t be realistic.
Los Ecuatorianos start the qualifiers giving some advantage but this road is long and there’s enough time to bounce back.

Question, sorry if it was already covered in a previous post, but as far as our problem with having 2 small strikers and the fact that Crespo, as good as he still is, is getting *old,* why don’t we start playing Higuaín? He is the same size as Crespo but even younger than Messi, and will only get better. From what I’ve seen he has that *poacher* instinct we are looking for, but as a sub for real madrid, didn’t get as much starting time behind Ruud van Nistelrooy and Raul. After seeing Diego Milito try out the position, as good as he is for real zaragoza, we all saw it wasn’t very impressive. I think atleast giving Higuain a chance would be an alright idea?

I am of the view that a 4-3-1-2 with rklm as the diamond will never suit to our players coz messi and tevez are not out-and-out strikers and beside maxi or lucho, we do not have midfielders who can attack down the flank and defend as well and beside zanetti or ibarra none of our defenders possess the skills to attack from the wing. I firmly believe that if basile fields such a formation Argentina will shine and just march on. we can defend and attack in mass. and in a case RKLM has an off day, the team can attack from the flank, lucho or maxi can as well direct the flow of the game.

pato
zanetti demichelis milito heinze
maxi, lucho or gago mascherano or cambiasso

rklm
messi tevez or maxi

Aguero

Hi guys! I did not see the game, but from what I read it seems like we won on a bad day. That is a good thing. I am happy with the 6 points, and we must not be surprised by the fact that this team can not always play great games. I guess they will be a little more motivated against top teams. Tevez-Messi combination….we all know that this is not the future, so I hope Coco will use either Aguero, Crespo or Denis together with Messi in the next games.

albo,

I do totaly agree that there is no tactic which can work against every team but a coach must set up an appropriate strategy which must serve as an identity. it is simply means that a team must have a game approach though with variations accordingly to the opposition. the game approach must be built around players characteristics. I was the first person to blast pekerman for the mistake he made against germany, I admit that to a certain extent he had a game plan which suited his players in a diamond formation with JRK as the diamond. Now things have changed, messi and aguero have emerged, basile must set up a tactical approach which take full advantages of our strength as well as our weakness.

Thanks for those nice kind words Albo! Yesterday sucked.. but not as bad as it did for those guys on the British Isles…

Please someone find out why Basile said that about Maxi? Was he just tired?

Toddutah, Basile doesn’t make those things public, but I imagine it might be that Maxi is not in good shape and carries an exta pound or two.

Headline of Ole today Quote from Basile: TEVEZ IS MY NUMBER 9!!!

I dont agree with basile on this one.

Thanks Ken for the awesome clip.

What is your view on the two games? I guess we haven’t heard from you yet.

I think Basile needs to play Crespo. Crespo is still one of the best poachers in the world. What do you guys think?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
some thoughts

Torrent for the Venezuela match.

Let’s start from the back line.

Left back position is obviously the weakest link of the entire formation (lack of #9 sits right behind that). Heinze is not only not very good on the offensives, he has also been prone to injuries since his misfortune before 06′WC. So from both productivity and reliability stand points, Heinze is not an idea left back for the NT.

Some people think Burdisso could play all defender positions. That’s not true, and clearly demonstrated in Venezuela match. He doesn’t position very well as fullback, and he’s not natural to the left side. Several times our beautiful possessions ended on Burdisso. Not only that, he also allowed several dangerous openings. Nicolas Burdisso is a terrific center back or right back (for the left hammer right anvil way we play), but not the solution to our left back problem.
He’s ok from the injury. He was unconscious for a few seconds though.

Milito has decent header and can defend in the box very well. His problem is the lack of speed, which means the area he could cover is limited. He’s actually quite aggressive/offensive, but unfortunately too slow to be a good leftback. Not to mention, we need a wingback…

Daniel Diaz did not impress me. He’s also 28 years old so not a real future possibility. He was not really tested since Venezuela didn’t go right after Burdisso’s injury, but like Burdisso, Diaz did not provide the necessary width on the left.

Now, right back. Zanetti is becoming irreplaceable. He’s now also taking care of the right wing due to Maxi’s problems. Zanetti is OLD AS SHIT! We cannot keep relying on him, let alone making him shoulder more responsibilities.

Ibarra was pretty good at right back. He’s very experienced and he makes the correct decisions. He’s pass to Tevez was brilliant, and he made quite a few good defensive moves. The yellow card was a necessary fault too. It’s too bad Ibarra is 33 years old.

Demichelis is a welcome addon to the CB lineup. He plays LCB for Bayern so we know he can do both sides. This guy is solid, and we still have Burdisso, Milito and soon Gonzalo Rodriguez in the lineup. The CB position is pretty filled up. Few others might deserve a try but it’s not necessary.

If we could find 2 good fullbacks, this defense can win the world cup.

Venezuela took the initiatives on several occasions. They pulled out some high class offensives but were ineffective in top 1/3 of the field. On defense, Argentina went into a 4-3-3, alot of midfield disruption ensured the ball was rarely carried by opponents to striking distances. However, this also has to do with the way Venezuela was setup. They played a 4-5-1 with just Maldonado up front. We have 2 solid CB marking him, making it impossible for Maldonado to open himself up.

Against Venezuela, Basile pulled out practically 3 defensive midfielders. Even when he switched Ibarra off, it was Gago that came on so there remained to be 3 DMs. It looked good on defense, but they are not offensively minded players, so they don’t provide enough support when attacking.

Gago is probably the most offensive of these DMs. He doesn’t have the touch and control of Riquelme, but he’s definitely a playmaker option. We have other offensive winger options even Maxi couldn’t adjust himself to suit this team, D’Alessandro for example.
However, I do think Gago can provide a better balance on the right, especially if we use a more aggressive fullback than Zanetti. He has better distribution than either Mascherano or Cambiasso, and he’s better than Cambiasso in defense. What Gago needs to do is to be a little more conservative, he makes some dangerous choices.

Riquelme is the best enganche we’ve got. It’s simple as that. There’s no one else can cope with Messi better. Some of the works between those 2 were from another world.

But Roman did not make the same kind of passes to Tevez.
Technically, Tevez and Messi are similar so one should hit them the same way too. AKA. low and tight. IMO the reason Tevez doesn’t get the balls like Messi is because he plays on the left more. Our offense lean left, so he’s more vertically inline with Roman most of the time than Messi. This means there will be more defenders between him and Roman, making direct ground passes more difficult.
The solution to that is still width on the left. Provide indirect routes to reach Tevez.

Even if Tevez did get the right passes, he still wouldn’t of been very effective from where he played. He didn’t have a target to cross to.
We didn’t have a target person, so the middle of the box was empty. Over and over, the ball reached Tevez high up on the wing, then he had no target to hit, ended up sending the ball back. That’s frustrating to watch, and as much as I’ve supported the 2 shorties experiments, I believe we’re still better off with a real target player.

Denis offered that option to certain extends. Once he came on, there was clearly a person to hit in the middle. His positioning was also very nice so he got a few very good chances within the 10 minutes he played. Haven said that, Denis’ finish was EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. Everybody is nervous the first time playing on NT, but a professional player like Denis should of known opportunities like that don’t come very often. He had 2 beautiful breakaways, one of which there was no excuse for not hitting the goal and he managed to shoot it wide…

Speaking of which. I get more impressed by Messi every time. He went out of his way again and again to set his teammates up. It’s true he didn’t take the chances, but scoring at that point would do nothing more than humiliating the host. Instead, he choose to move on after reaching scoring position, and forced his way to set up both Tevez and Denis (did the same for Aguero against Chile too). That IMO is more difficult to do than shooting, and it shows the big heart and unbelievable unselfishness from Messi.

Another player satisfying to watch was Mascherano. Mascherano accomplishes his defensive duties like no other, but even more impressive was his ability to produce runs and draw fouls. He’s done that many times for Liverpool, and now he’s done that on the NT as well. He also scored a goal when playing for River from the same concept. That’s one of his specialties, make no doubt.
Mascher was send down the wing late against Chile. It was a stupid move by Basile. Can’t believe it takes trials and error for our NT coach to see that…

Last I want to mention Cambiasso. Cuchu has his qualities. He works hard, and knows when to push and when to defend. Problem is, he does neither very well. On teams like Inter, there are plenty garbageman to pick up trash he left off, but on our NT that’s not the case. The ball must be processed precisely inside the box for us to score because we don’t have a #9 right now (unless Crespo comes back but how long would that last). Cambiasso is a difficult to utilize element even though he had done ok at that position in the past.

There are plenty choices for outside midfielders. D’alessandro, Almiron, Zabelata, Ledesma, etc. We need to try them out, and focus on finding fullbacks and target players.
my website is:http://albicelestesforever.blogspot.com/
Posted by Rio at 2:52 PM 1 comments

It’s funny how 2 weeks ago everybody was begging for Basile to play Messi and Aguero together or Messi and Tevez, and now everybody is looking for a #9.
We all learn. It’s just that some of us talk before learning.

I still think Aguero is the answer !!

We just need a little more support from the midfielders. Does anyone really beleive that Aguero wont be one of the best finishers in the world? The mistake is to keep using tevez but I am all for trying Aguero there the next two games.

Basile has a soft spot for everything Boca. Hence his bias towards Tevez and Gago.

Riquelme remains unquestioned – because there’s hasn’t been anyone to fill his spot.

“riquelme remains unquestioned – because there’s hasnt been anyone to fill his spot”

I dont know if I completely agree. I am still on AIMAR. it kills me to see argentina play without AIMAR. it just saddens me that a talent like that and a gifted player like that is being over looked.

If I was basile i would try to somehow play both AIMAR and riquelme in a game and seee what happens.

bring on crespo! that’s our answer!!

Crespo is old and wont be around for the 2010 world cup. We are going to quialify so why not use this time to find your next numnber 9 or a team that can socre either way will work. Crespo is not the answer. Maybe Crespo can be a guy off the bench for the last 20 minutes now that is something realistic for 2010. As i have said before Aimar should be on this team !!

some sour grapes….

Una dura crítica lanzó hoy el argentino Cristian Ledesma contra el técnico Alfio Basile al afirmar que no logra entender por qué jamás lo tuvo siquiera en cuenta para convocarlo al seleccionado que inició las eliminatorias mundialistas.

“Llama a gente que no juega siquiera en sus clubes y esto me duele, porque desde hace cuatro o cinco años tengo un alto nivel que no puedo demostrar nunca en el ámbito internacional porque Basile me ignora” , afirmó el mediocampista de Lazio.

A # 9 player, also known as poacher, striker, 9 de área, “punta” or (like in the past), centre-forward, is a type of player who has evolved through the years according to the evolution of the full backs rather than being just a tactical option.
Because of his position on the field, the striker spends most of the game turned around, looking at his own guys, waiting for a pass, with one or two big defenders on his back, either grabbing his shirt or pushing him, depending on what the situation is, offside or onside?
The reason why central defenders are tall guys is obvious, given the amount of crosses and corner kicks there are per game.
The striker has to be strong enough to hold his position before he receives the pass, and once with the ball, has to create a scoring play. He’s the finisher.
Explosive first step, power, precision, low gravity center are a must.
Total control of the ball with both feet, if possible.
Not having a player like that, is in my opinion an advantage we give the opponent.
It is simple logic, no tactics here.
A small guy has the speed but can’t be waiting for pass with his back to the goal because he gets muscled out by the full backs. If that was possible in any way, we would have Messi as our # 9, hands down!!!.
Even on a 4-3-1-2 diamond, one of the 2 forwards is a striker and the other one is a floater.
Messi will find his way to the goal line no matter what, but adding a striker to our team will keep the opponent CDs busy and will open opportunities for other of our players to create chances of scoring.
In my view, Basile should work with Germán Denis. This player has the idea and besides, as inferior argie football could be to the european leagues, a player who has scored 15 times in the last 13 matches deserves attention.
I like the way Crespo reacts to the touch and go from Messi, but how long Crespo will be a factor?
I love all our little forwards, Tevez has the strength but it has been hard for him to score. Agüero has all the moves but always facing the goal line.
A pure striker is needed. Saludos.

Whoever our #9 are, they need be introduced sooner rather later to gel with the rest of the group. As you can see, some of the chances we created were just a simple and easy tap goal for our strikers. But our strikers, simply want to dazzle around the box, not inside. Like Albo said, a true striker is needed. We’ve seen the glimpse of what Denis & Aguero can do, but not enough time. Need to introduce earlier…

Like to share with you quotes from Bilardo, from Ruggeri’s interview. NO, this got nothing to do with coaching philosophies but I really pumped up when I read these – what it means to be a World Cup Champions! This is what it means when we start qualifying round – the BIG picture! World Cup Champions! You can read the rest,

http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/winners/code=68/player=44585/interview.html

bookmark it until 2010!

- Bilardo always used to say that “when a team goes to a World Cup, it should never end up watching the Final on television”.

- After we lost our opening game against Cameroon [in 1990], we went to a team meeting in our hotel. There he was, just standing there in front of the blackboard, not writing anything and nearly crying, and he turned to us and said: “To be honest, if we’re going to get knocked out playing like that, I hope the plane crashes on our way home.”

Alexa, there are 2 Cristian Ledesma, actually there are 3, but the third one is Paraguayan.
This one you mentioned above is not the Cristian Ledesma who played for River Plate.
This guy played in the juniors for Boca and moved to Italy without ever playing in our major league. I think he went to Lecce. Now he plays for Lacio.
May be he’s right, may be Basile doesn’t even consider him argentinean.
Anyway, after what he said, you can bet he’s not getting a call from el Coco…

Albo,

I agree fully with your analysis. We need that tall powerful striker with an instinct for goal. But you who know Basile well, how do you figure why he is not trying more such options up front? We can see that the Messi-Tevez combo has not been all that satisfactory so far. Why does he not give Crespo more playing time? And why does he not use Ibarra more regularly?

And by the way, I disagree with those who argue that we should not field old players because they will not be around in 2010. We need to use the best players we have today. Our younger players -those who could be there in 2010- would gain from working with these older players. Otherwise, following the logic of fielding only young players, Basile should use only the Under-17s keeping in mind the 2014 WC.

As I read somewhere in the net, Crespo didnt return 20 calls from Basile, according to Basile himself. That’s surprising given that Crespo has said several times that he will always wait for a call to play for the aalbiceleste. He said wont quit as long as he is playing and showed how much of an honor it is to wear the light blue and white shirt. So him not returning Basile’s calls does place some questions. Could there be a fall out between him and Basile or has Crespo realized that he cant be there in 2010 so he would like to give a chance to younger players?

Albo, maybe you know something we dont know about this matter given that you follow news closely from home.

hey guys, this might be random, or bringing back old discussions but, i thought it was interesting. I saw an interview with La Valope today. And he was talking about how he would approach the argentina national team, and he believes the only thing wrong with Argentina is, NOT PLAYING RIQUELME and AIMAR together.

He believes AIMAR and RIQUELME should play together. which i always was up for this option what do you guys thing?

sorry i meant to say “what do you guys think”?

I think that Aimar should b eon the team and playing. I think that basile is still feeling the affects of the Brasil loss an dfielding team that are very defensive. We need to have fouir or maybe five guys that can attack and I for one woul dlove to see this line up .

Utsari
Zanetti Milito Demichillis Heinze
Mascerano

Aimar Maxi
Roman
Messi

Aguero

Ortega85, I had heard that Basile tried to contact Crespo several times to no avail. But honestly, I don’t know about any personal problems between any of them at the present time.

Younger Tevez Signs For Manchester United

http://goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=451338

Nikhil, I agree with you. The players who can take us all the way to the world cup today, have to be the best we can find now, no matter what their age is.

I dont agree!! if they are close to equal you take the younger guy and i am only speakin gof those that will not be around for 2010 forget about 2014.

…and the plot thickens.

Pellegrini: I Feel Like A Terrorist Over Riquelme
http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=451596

If Pellegrini is truly magnanimous, he should let bygone be bygone, shut the **** UP and field the slow magician. Here is Pellegrini’s latest rant of feelings like an international terrorist with regards to the Riquleme’s on going saga as the press ups the ante on Pellegrini. I have believed that people are not fair but life is always fair. What comes around goes around. Sooner or later Pellegrini will bear the full brunt of his action.

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=451597

hes some interesting views
http://community.goal.com/en/forums/thread/44247.aspx

Pellegrini didn’t do anything wrong.
He is an honest man who feels the pressure of the arg. media and fans.
But he is totally right regarding Riquelme’s issue.
Some of us here are “blinded” by our fanatism.
Let’s get the facts before judging people like if we were God.

Pellegrini has POWER over Riquelme. That is why Riquelme
is not playing. No one is acting like God. The press
is right about this one specially after Riquelme’s
performance in his last two games after being shut out
for over 8 games now at club level. There is no fanaticism here.
This is all about facts and abuse of power by the coach Pellegrini.
Perhaps Pellegrini did not realize that scoring in “concerto” fashion
in free kicks can be learnt in isolation. The artist has mastered the technique. He repeated it TWICE!

What is truly sad in this sitaution is that I as a non-argentinean
has to defend a truly gifted argentinean football player while
his own countryman goes out of the way to treat Pellegrini, a Chilean
as a “honest man”. What a shame?

Now that’s deep…
Deep cheap nationalism coming from a blogger who doesn’t exist anymore.
He has left us with a door slam 6 or 7 times already.
Now he comes back (once again) to give us a lesson on how should we act as argie football fans. Unbelievable.
It looks to me like we’ll never be free of this crap.

Albo, for god’s sake, please shut up now !!

I dont think Riquelme’s Villareal Case is a matter of who has power over whom? The fact Pellegrini isnt using Riquelme is because they are doing well enough at this stage without Riquelme. Even if I were Pellegrini, I would think twice before using him at this stage. Riquelme is not a normal player, and a coach cant simply take that risk now.

However, if Villareal goes upside down from here, I am sure they will use Pellegrini as an option. Its just Riquelme’s badluck that they are winning.

Riquelme, are you asking me to “shut up now”?
On what basis?
And who the heck are you to get personal with me?
I stand by my opinion which I expressed properly.
Who are you to order me to shut up?

Whoever you are, you don’t have the right to get personal. I have seen enough of this.
Werent you getting personal with someone with this statement of yours?

“Deep cheap nationalism coming from a blogger who doesn’t exist anymore.”

In fact, I like reading your opinions Albo, but why do you guys attack Ken everytime he shows up?

El ex estelar argentino Diego Maradona afirmó este viernes que la selección argentina lo aburre y criticó la actitud del volante Juan Román Riquelme, Villarreal, España, por haber descartado jugar con Boca Juniors en el Mundial de Clubes en Japón, en declaraciones a la televisión.

“Argentina no me dejó conforme. Me hubiera gustado que después de los goles a Chile el equipo se arme. La verdad es que me aburrió”, dijo Maradona durante una entrevista al programa Mañanas Informales.

El mayor ídolo deportivo argentino se mostró disconforme con el juego del plantel de Alfio Basile en sus dos victorias ante Chile y Venezuela (ambas 2-0), en los recientes partidos de eliminatorias sudamericanas al Mundial de Sudáfrica-2010.

El ex capitán de la selección argentina atacó el desempeño en la cancha de los delanteros Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, España) y Carlos Tévez (Manchester United, Inglaterra).

“Me encantan los bajitos pero con coordinación”, se quejó Maradona, de 46 años, aludiendo a los dos futbolistas.

“Que Messi encare y después tenga que dar un pase de 40 metros para atrás para Martín Demichelis, (Gabriel) Heinze, (Gabriel) Milito, no me gusta”, sentenció el ex deportista.

“Tenemos que prepararnos para el Mundial de Sudáfrica, no para ganarle a Venezuela”, agregó, criticando el desempeño del equipo de Alfio ‘Coco’ Basile ante la selección ‘vinotinto’.

“El partido contra Venezuela lo pudimos utilizar para meter variantes, para crecer como equipo. El resultado estaba puesto”, se quejó el ex ídolo del Nápoli de Italia.

A pesar de mostrarse disconforme con el equipo, Maradona no incluyó en el blanco de sus críticas a Basile “porque primero se lo diría a él y a su cuerpo técnico”.

El ex deportista afirmó que a los hinchas de Boca les dolió la actitud de Riquelme -que no está jugando en el español Villareal por decisión del técnico Manuel Pellegrini- de descartar su presencia en el equipo que disputará el próximo Mundial de Clubes en Japón.

“Nos dolió a todos los hinchas de Boca que Riquelme haya dicho que iba a ver los partidos de Boca en Japón por televisión. El tiene que saber que está en el aire y puede pasar cualquier cosa”, dijo Maradona.

Boca intentó retener a Riquelme, que había jugado en el club a préstamo en el primer semestre, pero no llegó a un acuerdo con el Villarreal.

Oh I see…
So that’s the problem actually.
So who are “us guys”
I can’t stand Ken’s guts. But I don’t know anybody else who feels the same and I couldn’t care less.
Pellegrini is a gentleman I have seen his work for a longest time and I hate it when an ignorant like Ken runs his mouth against people he doesn’t know.
You don’t like it????
DON’T READ IT!!!!!!!

i think we all respect each other on this blog, so please let’s not quibble over stuff we only know bits and pieces of. it’s obvious there’s more to what both riquelme and pellegrini are saying. all we can hope for is they can reconcile their differences so we can enjoy seeing riquelme do his thing every week.

Linda and Bob Killet,

I believe that we need your intervention because
one blogger is getting too personal here!

The world press has recognized that a player
of the caliber of Riquelme should not be in the
stands; as a creative genius, he should be on the
field helping Villareal leading La ligua which they
are not doing right now!

Pellegrini cannot be called a gentleman because he refused
to sell Riquelme to Boca Juniors in the preceding transfer
market, thus making Villareal losing out on a potential sale
which would have benefited the club. Is Pellegrini thinking
in the best interests of Villareal or his own vindictive interests?
Pellegrini has preferrred not to sell the player while still freezing out
the player out of club games. If this is not vindictiveness, what is it then? Clearly, because of such kind of actions we cannot call Pellegrini
a gentleman.

Finally, one does not need to know Pellegrini to condemn him. Only his actions as a COACH that matters here. As I reiterated above, instead of letting bygones be bygones, Pellegrini is letting Roman rot in the stands. Now even the world press has caught up with Pellegrini’s actions given the recent performance of the slow magician at the NT level.

By the way I want to take this opportunity to thank linda for the great job she has done so far. Since she came on board she has brought a lot of civility, mutual respect,and positive feedback on this blog despite her busy schedule. Unfortunately, the behavior of one blogger is simply beyond her control.

u guys might love this
it’s a video of Carlitos dancing

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZSrPIcnZbAg

>>>By Ken | October 11th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

Linda,
Because you believe that I went out of line, I will
NEVER write one single line again. May God bless
you all.
Farewell to you all
Ken
Posted from United States>>>

So here we go again….7 times and counting….

for whatever it counts I have to say that my experiences with “albo” have been rather difficult. “albo” has shown a repeated tendency to get personal and offensive with anyone who disagrees with him and that includes me. we are here to exchange opinions, ideas, thoughts and when it comes to it none of us truly know what is happening in the lives of those we discuss about such as riquelme and pellegrini. riquelme is a great player but he has gotten himself in bad situation with the coach and the team. why don’t they just release him? who truly knows.

in any event I have to say that I am far from sad to see “albo” leave although I doubt it will be for long but somehow if and when he returns I do hope that he will be kept in order whenever he crosses the line into personal attacks.

Mane,
I am from Argentina. I believe it is best
not to entertain any discussion
with my fellow country man as he
has been quite disrepectful to
me, Riquelme, yourself and certainly
to Ken who somehow has managed to rise
above that. Let us hope Pellegrini allows
Riquelme soon back in the game starting with the Barcelona
one.

What happened in Villarreal reflects badly on both Riquelme and Pellegrini, and it should. But we really DON’T KNOW what happened. We can’t judge that Pellegrini was a gentleman in this situation because we have no evidence to the fact. We can’t judge that Riquelme was just a misunderstood genius because we weren’t there.

As a fan, I hate Pellegrini for what he has done. That’s my personal opinion. We only have our opinions.

Congrats to the Pumas for a third place finish! Beating France one more time…

Let’s put our differences aside and remember that we all support ARGENTINA. I am from Argentina, too. It’s OK to disagree, but let’s not get personal about it. Let bygones be bygones.

Anyway, my question to all:

Based on current performances, who do you think deserves a call-up? I’m talking about players who haven’t received a call-up, or at least not in a long time.

How has Lazio’s Ledesma been playing this season? All I know is that Lazio haven’t been doing so well. Also, how’s Napoli’s Lavezzi playing? Worthy of a call-up in the future?

Alexa,
With all due respect to you,I concur with you in part and dissent in part. It is true that we “can’t judge”, but we can evaluate based on facts and the current action of Pellegrini forbidding Riqueleme to step on the pitch simply because Pellegrini has the power to do so. If Riquelme did not want to play, he would not be training right now at Villareal. Every week he is checking the players list and every time he is not on it. Yet players like Pires have come forward to express his wish to play with such an elegant player like Riquelme.

Assuming that both Riquelme and Pellegrini were wrong in the first place, if Pellegrini could just let go of the past, the artist will be on the pitch in the upcoming weekend against Barca. Even Barca players have stated that it is an advantage to their team if Riquelme is not on. How can Pellegrini not see that?

Given that a football player has only a short working time career, Pellegrini is hurting Riquelme’s career. This problem is compounded in the case of the artist because he is a dying breed according to world analysts.

In conclusion it is Riquelme that should get the benefit of the doubt because he is at the mercy of Pellegrini who is not even budging an inch in the face of the critical world press.

Alexa, thanks for sharing your opinion. I appreciate it.

A,

Aimar is badly needed in the team. So is Sorin. Riquelme has proved that even
if a player is not playing for his local team, he can still perform for Argentina. It appears that somehow once a player puts on that Argentina jersey, he gives his best. Thanks
ken

This is ridiculous.
Here’s the statement that started the riot:

>>>Pellegrini didn’t do anything wrong.
He is an honest man who feels the pressure of the arg. media and fans.
But he is totally right regarding Riquelme’s issue.
Some of us here are “blinded” by our fanatism.
Let’s get the facts before judging people like if we were God.>>>

I don’t see anything wrong with it. And I didn’t name any bloggers!!
But it provoked Ken and Riquelme’s reaction.
The latter wrote:

Albo, for god’s sake, please shut up now !!

I think there’s a big mistake here.
And it is always the same problem.
When Ken is present, there are problems.
When Ken leaves (for ever), we all talk football.

Also, it is simply not true that I don’t accept other opinions.
Toddutah, to name one, can tell you guys, how many times we have disagreed and we never had personal discussions

It is true that judgment of people by people bothers me.
Pellegrini doesn’t deserve this treatment.
I love Riquelme, always did, since he was playing for Boca.
But after WC06 he quit our NT and played for Villarreal for the check and nothing else.
Riquelme couldn’t commit to anything, that’s how he was feeling.
Basile stayed cool (fortunately) but Pellegrini told him, you either commit to our team or you don’t play.
Riquelme started to ignore Pellegrini.
Now what would be my purpose saying these things, if I’m a fan of Riquelme’s and I want him in my team.
The answer to the above is that it is simply the truth. The media love to generate all kinds of situations to sell more. But let’s not be blind. Let’s avoid hypocrisy whenever possible.

Río, I really don’t know who you are.
You say above I was disrespectful to you. When? Who are you?
Every time you start a statement you announce the world that you are an argentinean.
I’m starting to believe it’s all B.S., otherwise why advertise it so much?
And what difference does it make the fact that you are argentinean (actually something I always tried to avoid in this blog, that is to make a difference for being argentinean).
I help this blog almost every night translating comments I pick up on arg. web-sites.
And when I make a comment of my own I make sure it’s clear to see it only an opinion.
I have gotten personal with Ken because he crossed the line with me.
I can cut and paste once again but I’ve already done that and nothing changed.
Other than Ken I have nothing against anybody here. Let it be known.

For the LAST time, irrespective what happened in the past between Riquelme
and Pellegrini, if ONLY Pellegrini can pledge that let BYGONES be BYGONES, the artist would be on the pitch instead of rotting in the stands.

Is that too much to ask from Pellegrini given that Villareal is paying
Riquelme about 6.0 million euros to be on the pitch?

In the end though the artist will prevail. On the other hand it would
interesting Villareal does not make it to CL without Riquelme!

I give up! Here’s a Riquelme-centered question:

What do you think will happen in January? Will he stay at Villarreal? Will he leave for another club (providing Villarreal accept the bid and h Riquelme wants it)? If so, where do you think he’ll end up?

Chime in!

A,
I hope he goes to EPL at Man city so that he can get
a taste of the physical game. But I believe he
will end up in either Italy or another club in Spain.
For sure though, Villareal will not let Pellegrini
has his way by not selling Riquelme and keeping him in the
stands. This will NOT happen again in January 2008. The Board
will step in and think in the best interest of Villareal.
thanks for your comments A. Cheers.
Ken

Thanks, man.

Wouldn’t that displace Elano though? I think the only thing that would deter Riquelme from a move to the Prem would be the language barrier, no? I think he’d stay in Spain or maybe a move to Juve. Haven’t they been struggling a bit so far this season?

Whatever the case, it’s clear things aren’t working out for him at Villarreal, so he needs to explore options come January.

Barcelona Plot Mascherano Bid?

The Mail on Sunday has speculated that Barcelona are looking to move for Javier Mascherano of Liverpool in the future…

zoom – galleria Despite mere days having elapsed since Javier Mascherano publicly stated his intention to remain at Liverpool for the long term, sources in the English media have claimed that Barcelona could make a move for the midfielder.

Spanish sports daily Marca went on to claim that the Argentine player’s agent, one Walter Tamer, recently met with the Barcelona hierarchy, who are eager to at least keep the lines of communication open.

But it is not so much with Liverpool that the blaugrana must negotiate, but rather Media Sports Investments (MSI), who seem to own the bulk of Javier’s contract.

Just as was the case when Carlos Tevez moved from West Ham United to Manchester United, it is the third party that could at once prove the facilitator and the stumbling block: MSI are set to demand around 28 million euros for the Argentina international, with Liverpool’s role in proceedings being as yet unknown.

Barcelona are thought to be unwilling to pay such a figure but both they and Liverpool are watching the transfer market regulations closely to see if MSI’s hand may be forced by increased third-party regulation.

In any case, Mascherano, still just 23, is currently happy at Liverpool, where he is fast becoming a key player.

to albo i enjoy reading your posts, and yes you contribute alot to this blog. but for some reason you seem to not get along with other fellow bloggers. i think this can be avoided. in the case with rio you were a bit harsh on him. he made a post some time ago in which he abreveated w.t.f. and you quick to cricise him. if you ever visited rio’s website you would see that he uses explitives all the time but in a comical way. it was not meant to be offensive. i think rio’s site is very entertaing and i visit it from time to time. as for ken i think you both go to far. please guys lets just stick to football, with out words of hatred or disrespect. keep the posts coming.

I love you all please be nice!! Thank you.

My opion is that no matter what happened in the past if Pelligrini and Villareal were not going to play Riquelme in the fall campaign they should have loaned him Back to Boca until the end of the year. The fact that they would not do the loan and then dont play him is from any fair minded vantage point vindictive. IT IS IS NOT RIGHT OR FAIR!!! I really hope that he goes to Athlectioco Madrid that would be the perfect fit for him but I know they passed once already. If not there than of course Inter would be awsome!! Bye for now

Aimar10,
Thanks for your comments. I have not read from you for a while. Please let me reiterate that I do NOT have hatred or disrespect for anyone. If someone hates the position I stand for, that is too bad as there is nothing I can do about that. This is because I truly believe in what I write. It is not an exercise of futility for me. What is your take about the Riquelme saga?
Don’t you think Aimar should be part of the NT?

A-man,
I think Riquelme will fit well in Man city because Sven
has created a league of nations over there. I do not think Elano
will be displaced. But then as you stated because of language and culture I do not see Riquelme taking that risk.

Riquelme the blogger,
I only watched the Chile game. I am a bit confused because I saw Basile trying a few things that I do not understand. For example Why did Mascherano switch to right wing at some point? In the second half why did
Zanetti stop his usual overlap? Is that part of an instruction from Basile or did he do that on his own? Please do not take that other blogger seriously. We are here for Argentina and we should focus only on that.
Cheers and thanks for all your comments.

Albo, how many times must it be told -ignore Ken! It is not worth the trouble…you’re doing just fine without the fuss he brings about. Cheers.

well my experiences with albo have not been nice. he comes across in a strong manner, condescending and offensive. if he refrains from this then great, but if he doesn’t we will be back in this same discussion again.

now back to riquelme,
I read that milan could be making an offer for riquelme. that is what was said -amongst other things- by somebody from milan.

mane.

Looks like Ken is back with his friends.

1. Mane/manolo – It is rather funny that he is accusing others of being condescending and offensive. Iirc, he was particularly skilled in pretending to be neutral while only serving to subtly imply Brazil’s and Europe’s superiority over anything Argentina (including club, nt, country, culture).

2. Riquelme the blogger – The one who blamed Argentina’s losses to the country’s sorry culture and also the one who openly declared that he would like Argentina to lose if Riquelme was not selected.

About Ken himself, the less said the better – in short, he is the PhD (dont remember in what – optometry, egotism, physics) and the paragon of virtue who who likes attention better then his degrees. Either throws tantrums when not paid his due attn or says offensive things just to disrupt & divert the discussion to involve himself.

> I give up! Here’s a Riquelme-centered question:
> What do you think will happen in January?

Transferred.

> Will he stay at Villarreal?

No.

> Will he leave for another club (providing Villarreal accept the bid and h Riquelme wants it)? If so, where do you think he’ll end up?

Boca.

maradona I have never denied that I am a fan of brazilian soccer but it so happens that I am also a fan of argentina. I am not argentinian nor brazilian so why is such premise anathema? I have not however, proclaimed any superiority for the europeans heck no. I might have said that the european leagues are more competitive and do attract the best talent around but that is a function of economics. as far as the perennial comparisons between brazil and argentina’s soccer well, those seem to be omnipresent in the mind of argentinians more than that of brazilians and that is just my perspective from the outside. brazil has -for whatever reason- a larger pool of players, very skilled players, but history shows that having the talent is only half the race. having the heart is the other half and in that light I still cherish the wonderful argentina in 1978.

in the last cup I was disgusted at both teams and ended up supporting the great heart shown by portugal.

now as for the current team I have to agree that basile is a liability.

for the rest of your attributions towards me well, not mine sir. sorry.

Congratulations to all Argentine supporters. Your continued support to this blog is astonishing. Your blind faith in believing your team can win the next world cup (or next or next or next) is admirable.

The cockiness of the Brazilians Germans and Italians will inevitably be proven right.

Great to see such passion from fans who still remember a coked up Maradonna who cheated his way to his countries 2nd? yes I think it’s still 2nd World Cup.

Good Luck. In 2010. I think you might really have a chance this time. Sorry that was wrong of me to joke about.

[...] D wrote an interesting post today on Argentina v Venezuela: preview and match threadHere’s a quick [...]

maradona

Ken is the following:

Herman
manolo
AL
ali
and all the other ones who ty to mess this up.

Ken is one of those people who live in a fanasty world. Crazy as hell ken claims that he has a great football mind but he is really stupid and is ruining this blog because no one would talk to him in real life.