More fútbol argentino than you can shake a mullet at
How can I sum all that up? First, as a World Cup fan: Qatar 2022 is finally over, but I hope (and believe) that the unpeeling of all the layers of the onion of human rights abuses that have surrounded it aren't done yet. I doubt the bidding process for 2026 was any less iffy... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
The 2015 Copa América in Chile is just hours away, and here, as the title of this post suggests, are two previews. First, a link to a piece I wrote for ESPNFC examining whether Lionel Messi needs to win this tournament in order to secure his legacy, and secondly, episode 188 of Hand Of Pod, which looks... Continue Reading →
The day is finally upon us. I type at 4am on Sunday, 15th June 2014 - although I have yet to go to bed, for a significant portion of my readership Argentina's World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the new Maracanã is already 'today'. So, ahead of this first test, what are the key points,... Continue Reading →
Hasta El Gol Siempre 