More fútbol argentino than you can shake a mullet at
After months of speculation, Jorge Sampaoli announced Argentina's final 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup at lunchtime on Monday. As expected, there was no place for Mauro Icardi, who Sampaoli is said to feel struggled to integrate with the rest of the group, and who was disappointing when called up for Argentina last year.... Continue Reading →
Diego Maradona's been keeping everyone second-guessing for the last few days. It looked a day or two ago like there would only be a couple of changes to the Argentina side that beat Nigeria 1-0 in their first match of the World Cup, but as of Saturday afternoon things were looking a bit different. Maradona... Continue Reading →
Lionel Messi will turn 23 years old on Thursday. He's managed quite a lot already in his club career (indeed, if he keeps scoring for Barcelona at his current rate he'll be their all-time highest scorer six months before he turns 26), but until this World Cup he's often been accused of failing to turn... Continue Reading →
Argentina will almost certainly secure their qualification for the second round of the 2010 World Cup on Tuesday when they take on Greece. They can afford to lose by five goals against Greece, and even then they might not go out, depending on the result of South Korea vs Nigeria of course. With qualification already... Continue Reading →
A quick note to say that those who are interested can now see a map of the birthplaces of all of the Argentina squad for the 2010 World Cup, provided to me by Bill's Sports Maps, on the new 'Squad map' page. Either hover your mouse over 'Map' above and click the drop-down menu, or... Continue Reading →
As the selección engaged in a game of attack vs defence which supposedly revealed Diego Maradona's first-choice eleven for Saturday's World Cup debut against Nigeria, funny goings-on were underway on Tuesday morning back in Buenos Aires. The barra bravas deported from South Africa are planning legal recourse to return to watch the tournament, whilst another... Continue Reading →
Diego Maradona broke the Argentine national side's self-imposed media blackout (bar Sergio Agüero's infuriatingly over-exposed Twitter account) on Tuesday with a press conference two days before he'd been expected to call one. Javier Mascherano sat alongside him, mute for the most part, as perhaps a small part of the genius of having Maradona as manager... Continue Reading →
The Argentine national team arrived in South Africa at around 8am Buenos Aires time this morning, but before they left Ezeiza yesterday a few late changes were made to the list of squad numbers published a few days ago. Sergio Romero will now use the number 22, Mariano Andújar 21, Ariel Garcé will take Romero's... Continue Reading →
With the World Cup squad set to fly out to South Africa from Ezeiza airport on Friday, I thought I'd revisit the questionnaire I set two weeks ago today asking who HEGS readers felt should have been included (but weren't) and who shouldn't have been included (but were). I'm delighted to say that in the... Continue Reading →
If simply knowing which players are in the squad isn't enough, Argentina-watchers can rejoice today: the full list of which players will use which shirt numbers during the 2010 World Cup has been released. Lionel Messi takes the number 10, of course, whilst other notable choices see Javier Mascherano stick with his preferred 14, first-choice... Continue Reading →
Hasta El Gol Siempre 