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 →
Gerardo Martino names preliminary 30-player list for Copa América
On Monday, Argentina manager Gerardo Martino named his 30-player preliminary squad list for the Copa América in Chile; from this list, 23 players will be selected who will form Argentina's squad for the tournament. The biggest surprise is that Newell's Old Boys full back Milton Casco, who's not previously been involved with the squad under... Continue Reading →
A little bit of history: Omar Sívori
Last Saturday was the anniversary of an historic debut in Argentina; on the 4th April 1954, Omar Sívori made his first appearance, at the age of 18, for River Plate against Lanús. Replacing River's all-time highest goalscorer, Ángel Labruna, Sívori scored River's fifth goal in a 5-2 win - at least, that's the way most... 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 →
The Argentine FA are giving everyone headaches again
Last Wednesday, AFA president and FIFA vice-president Julio Grondona died. I wrote about it here, for ESPNFC. Everyone knew that the organisation was in for a few changes, and it will be a while before we really get a handle on who has control at the new-look AFA. For the moment, though, Argentinos Juniors president Luis... Continue Reading →
Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina: a couple of World Cup previews
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 →
The World Cup starts today! So apropos of nothing, here’s the whole of the 1986 final
For no other reason than I found it on YouTube a couple of nights ago and thought it would be fun to share for those who want to fill some time whilst waiting for Thursday's opening ceremony and Brazil v Croatia, here's the final of the Mexico '86 World Cup, played between Argentina and West... Continue Reading →
Where to find me during the World Cup
Hello. You might have heard there's a football tournament being played during the next month. You'll also have noticed, if you're a frequent visitor to HEGS, that I'm crap at updating it, even with links to articles. So, here's the idea: I'm going to try and post links to pieces I write during the World Cup,... Continue Reading →
Tevez’s exclusion, and why Argentina won’t miss him at the World Cup
With the World Cup just around the corner, ESPNFC are ramping up coverage of each of the national teams, and you'll find their homepage for all 32 blogs here. I'm playing my part in writing for their Argentina team blog, of course, and following Tuesday's 30-man longlist announcement, I've written a piece for them on why... 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 →
Hasta El Gol Siempre 