More fútbol argentino than you can shake a mullet at
On Tuesday, Argentina continued their recent trend of bidding a pre-World Cup farewell to their fans with a friendly against opponents who, with no disrespect to Haiti, or to Canada in 2010 or Trinidad and Tobago in 2014, are not quite on the level of the opponents they'll face in the tournament. Did we learn... Continue Reading →
In April, I headed up from Buenos Aires to Rosario, Lionel Messi's hometown, for a feature for ESPNFC ahead of the Copa América Centenario. Whilst there, I talked to Ernesto Vecchio, the youth coach who oversaw Lionel Messi's childhood development for longer than anyone before Messi moved to Barcelona, and to Nicolás Canessa, an occasional team-mate of... Continue Reading →
The AFA have released Gerardo Martino's squad list for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers away to Chile and at home to Bolivia later this month, and the headline exclusion for the local media is Carlos Tevez, who admits himself he's been poor so far in 2016. There's a return for Javier Pinola of Rosario Central,... Continue Reading →
The Fútbol Para Todos video of all the goals from the round just gone is still not in HD, for some reason. But fingers crossed this time they don't decide to lock it after a few hours. It includes all five from Newell's Old Boys' thrashing of Racing - including a brace by former Liverpool man Maxi... Continue Reading →
During the new Argentine Primera División season, I'll have an article each Friday lunchtime on The Bubble looking forward to the highlights and lowlights from the coming weekend of football - in short, which matches you should try to set aside the time to watch (and try to get along to, if you're in Buenos Aires)... Continue Reading →
In my latest weekly opinion piece for The Bubble, I predictably took a look at Lionel Messi, who won the Ballon d'Or for the World Player of the Year for the fifth time on Monday. Individual awards are a bit daft in a team sport though, in my opinion, so rather than the achievement of winning the... Continue Reading →
2015 has just hours left to run (in Argentina that is; happy new year if it's already gone where you are), and the folk at The Bubble have asked me to take a look back on the last twelve months in Argentine football, as part of their Year In Review series. Here are my key moments... Continue Reading →
Gerardo Martino has announced Argentina's squad list for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers at home to Brazil (Thurs 12th November) and away to Colombia (Tues 17th), from which his side desperately need some good results after a disappointing start in which they lost at home to Ecuador and drew away to Paraguay. Lionel Messi won't... Continue Reading →
As you've probably heard, shortly before Argentina's Copa América quarter-final against Colombia on Friday, Boca Juniors announced the return to the club of Carlos Tevez. I've written a piece for ESPNFC on how Tevez's return both fits with a trend of Argentine players coming back to their roots and, at the same time, bucks that trend... Continue Reading →
