In international news, Brazil beat Argentina at home in the Rosario stadium 1-3, Argentina dominated the game for 20 minutes but soon after Luisao headed it into the back of the net with a beautiful free kick by Elano. Several minutes later Luis Fabiano scores, making it 0-2 for Brazil. Napoli's winger Datolo scores for Argentina in the 65' minute, but Luis Fabiano put the game away three minutes later, making the score 1-3.
Here are the South American qualifying stage table
Brazil 30
Chile 27
Paraguay 27
Argentina 22
Colombia 20
Ecuador 20
Uruguay 18
Venezuela 18
Bolivia 12
Peru 10
The first four qualify automatically, and the 5th plays against a Concacaf team to qualify, with this loss, and only three more games to go, Brazil has qualified mathematically, and Argentina might not even be able to get the 5th spot. Many Argentinean sport magazines and newspapers say that Argentina will not qualify.
What do you think, do you think Argentina will qualify? And if they don't, would the 2010 World Cup be the same without Messi, Aguero, and Tevez? Have your say in our poll, and leave comments below!
Nice blog. I don't know what Argentina were expecting when they appointed Maradona as coach. It's very rare that gifted players, to whom the game came naturally, end up being skilled tacticians.
ReplyDeleteI personally think Argentina still have enough in them to qualify for the world cup. As things currently stand, they will qualify as they are in fourth position. Colombia and Ecuador both need to win all their remaining games and Argentina need to slip up once for them to miss out. It's in their hands - I really don't think they will mess up too badly.
ReplyDeleteOne area of concern, though, is that two of their remaining three matches are away from home. And throughout this qualifying campaign, they've only won once away from home - their first away match. This is something they have to address.
Like you mentioned in the article, some top quality players will be missing the tournament if they fail to qualify. Portugal and Ronaldo also look in danger of missing South Africa, so that means two of the top players in the world could be missing. It'll be a real pity if the best players are not in South Africa next summer.
By the way, I like your blog too. It's got some good work.
For more football articles, please visit: http://footballexchange.blogspot.com/
I think that Argentina will qualify, but they will really have to get rid of some players like Tevez. Tevez isn't a bad player, but for Argentina he has 51 appearances, and only 8 goals, not that good for a striker. If they can bring in Diego Milito, he could play in front of Messi with Veron acting as a playmaker behind, but Maradona doesn't put trust in Milito.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is Argentina's defence, they were never able to replace their great defender, Ayala. Argentina use old players such as Heinze that should be given room for younger, more skilled players. they are also missing a world class goalie, Italy has Buffon, Spain has Casillas, Brazil has Julio Cesar, and who does Argentina have? They don't have a great goalkeeper, and they don't have a great defender like Lucio, Cannavaro or Terry, Argentina are missing crucial players and need to find some good youngsters fast.
Argentina is powerful in the midfield with Veron, and Datolo, but in both penalty areas they are weak, for me they just need a player like Hernan Crespo, a striker that can bang in goals given any opportunity. Right now Argentina mainly play in the style of, "lets give the ball to Messi, and see what he does." but Messi can only do so much, and if Argentina continue like this, they could be in trouble