Argentina have some of football’s biggest names doing duty at this year’s World Cup. Enough to cause sleepless nights to players and coaches of every team likely to play against them, in South Africa.
But the last year has been anything but smooth. For many Argentinians, Maradona is God. They even have a Church of Maradona, with over 100,000 registered followers. Once you accept the premise that God can do no wrong, the results can be mixed, to understate things a bit.
One result was 88 players turning out in the space of a year. The fall out was absence of rhythm and an abject showing in the qualifiers, where a match against Peru went into injury time, and Argentina was only just bailed out by Palermo. The scene was repeated against Uruguay, the rescuer on the occasion Bolatti, and not a moment too soon, with just six minutes of regulation time to go.
Another was a public falling out of Maradona and Rikelme, with the coach airing his grievance against the star player, on national television. Argentina will surely miss Riquelme.
Maradona’s love-hate relationship with journalists shows no sign of abating, especially after his team selection, which is perceived as being top heavy, with its accent on attack, at the expense of midfield comfort.
Take a look at the in-form forward line. Between them, Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Diego Milito, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, and Martin Palermo have scored 163 times in 250 club appearances, this year.
Even the Spanish Armada of David Villa, Fernando Llorente, Pedro Rodriguez and Fernando Torres pales before this sextet.
But this philosophy of attack at any cost has an expensive prize tag – a ragged midfield. Only 7 midfielders, Juan Sebastian Veron, Javier Mascherano, Jonas Gutierrez, Angel Di Maria, Maximiliano Rodriguez, Javier Pastore, and Mario Bolatti, could find a place. The lopsided selection could make the team vulnerable in the event of injuries, owing to the absence of midfielder back-ups.
The team will surely keep the scoreboard busy in their group B matches against Nigeria, South Korea and Greece.
This is especially so as there is no other team in the group that is likely to test the Argentine defence, but the story could alter greatly, in the round of 16 and beyond.
Argentinian fans must pray (preferably, in the Church of Maradona) that Plan A succeeds. Because there’s no Plan B.
Camisetas de fútbol Equipamiento, ropa y calzado deportivo . Compra online ahora con los mejores descuentos. Un jugador muere por un golpe en un partido de fútbol. EFE. Javier Tebas acompaña la cena de Nochebuena de Cruz Blanca Huesca.