It's been a good long while since I last posted here, but after so many years waiting to write that headline I had to write something. Argentina ended a 28-year wait for a trophy at full international level on Saturday night, and did it in the manner every Argentine fan had dreamed of: in the... Continue Reading →
Messi back as Lionel Scaloni names Argentina squad to face Venezuela and Morocco
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni announced his latest squad on Thursday, ahead of two friendlies which act as warm ups for the Copa América in Brazil in a few months' time. The headline news is that Lionel Messi's break from international football is coming to an end: some outlets had reported earlier in the week that... Continue Reading →
Did we learn anything from Argentina v Haiti?
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 →
Argentina squad announced for WCQs v Chile and Bolivia
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 →
Argentina squad v Brazil & Colombia: Messi and Agüero injured, Higuaín back in
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 →
The HEGS 2014 Premier League summer transfer window roundup
That's the northern hemisphere summer, of course. Or the boreal summer transfer window, as La Nación's sports site put it on Monday. I noted last week that the number of Argentines moving to English Premier League clubs this year seems to have been quite an increase on previous windows (there are ten in all), so decided... Continue Reading →
Argentina World Cup squad: preliminary list confirmed
After an interminable television build-up which saw singing presenters, a chef handing Alejandro Sabella and AFA officials finger food and an awful lot of comments about how TV Pública will show 'the whole World Cup to the whole of this beautiful country' (don't mention that they've only got 32 of the games live, with the... Continue Reading →
Hand Of Pod 97: Argentina edge closer to a World Cup place, and back to domestic matters
In the ninety-seventh episode of Hand Of Pod, Sam, English Dan and Joel are joined (eventually) by Daniel Schweimler, another Englishman in Buenos Aires, who runs the Hand Of Dan blog looking at Argentine society through the prism of life on the terraces of Argentinos Juniors. We discuss Argentina's impressive World Cup qualifying results (a... Continue Reading →
World Cup qualifying Brazil 2014: Argentina 3 – 0 Uruguay (video)
On Friday night, Argentina hosted Uruguay in Mendoza, in the first of the two clásicos rioplatense of this World Cup qualifying edition. The South American champions played poorly in the last qualifying matches a month ago, and although they put up a spirited resistance during the first half, they were blown away in the second with... Continue Reading →
International friendly: Argentina beat Germany 3-1; match report from the game & goal video
Wednesday afternoon in Argentina brought the chance to sit down in front of the TV for a couple of hours and catch an international friendly; one last bit of international sporting competition to enjoy before the post-Olympic world kicks in and the European club football season returns to our screens in earnest this weekend. Argentina... Continue Reading →
Hasta El Gol Siempre 