More fútbol argentino than you can shake a mullet at
One Argentine at least is in the running to win something at the South Africa 2010 World Cup. FIFA's ten-man shortlist for the Golden Ball, awarded to the tournament's best player, has been announced, and although he didn't score the governing body's technical team have included Lionel Messi in the list, along with his Barcelona... Continue Reading →
With two days still to go before Argentina take on Germany in perhaps the most evenly-matches quarter-final of the South Africa 2010 World Cup, there's not a lot interesting to report - Diego Maradona won't be changing the formation, though one or two players might come in or be dropped. You can read about those... Continue Reading →
In under seven hours' time, Argentina will be playing their second match in the 2010 World Cup, looking to all but assure qualification by trying to beat South Korea, for whom Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung, a good friend of Carlos Tevez, will be the principle threat. For Argentina, Jonás Gutiérrez will once again start at... 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 →
UK readers may remember that a month or so ago I was writing in When Saturday Comes about the Argentine government's under-the-radar plans to try and finance a large group of barra bravas to travel to the World Cup in South Africa come June. A couple of weeks ago there were some further developments, and... Continue Reading →
If you're an eagle-eyed regular reader of HEGS, you may recall at some point during the last week a comment being made about dodgy Argentine NGOs trying to help secure funding for certain barra brava gangs to travel to the World Cup in South Africa to support the national side in June. Now, if you... Continue Reading →
As ever, Coco Basile won't be revealing his starting XI until very shortly before kick off in Santiago, but with Juan Román Riquelme having rejoined the Boca Juniors squad to prepare for Sunday's superclásico following his suspension and with Carlos Tevez also ruled out, it's thought after the team's final training session at Ezeiza on... Continue Reading →
With Messers Tevez and Riquelme suspended, and Sergio Agüero injured, Barcelona's Lionel Messi will be the only one of Argentina's 'fantastic four' (the phrase is Olé's and not, I would like to impress upon you, my own) who will feature against Chile in Santiago on Wednesday night. Agüero, who only picked up a minor knock... Continue Reading →
In my absence, Argentina finally returned to winning ways after six matches of forgetting what it felt like. In the Monumental, in the clásico against their ancient cross-river rivals Uruguay, Alfio Basile's side finally looked like a team again. It took seven minutes of the first half - between the fifth, when Lionel Messi opened... Continue Reading →
Two bits of news for Tuesday: Boca Juniors' quest to find a replacement for Martín Palermo during his long-term injury layoff has come to an end with the signing on loan (with a US$1.5 million fee should Boca wish to make the signing permanent) of former Central and River Plate striker Luciano Figueroa from Genoa.... Continue Reading →
Hasta El Gol Siempre 