Road to World Cup 2010

sauce said:
Arteta was never called by Spain?

Common lazyFroken Argentine's attack is probably the best of this World Cup I even rate Palermo highly.
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probably the best on "paper" but on the pitch Argentine havent shown anything...I wish the best for the team but you cant win a world cup cause you have good strikers...
 
Maradona is a disgrace of a coach.

He could have selected one of the two best squad's in the WC alongside Spain but of course not.

These are some of the omissions:
Lisandro Lopez French player of the year for Palermo. Boselli should be ahead of Palermo.

He managed to lose Barrios to Paraguay by not calling him up earlier as well.

Midfield is where the biggest losses are. Cambiasso of course but Banega who is a great passer can defend and attack link box to box.

Lucho Gonsalez Championat winner with Marseille. Even players like Aimar as an enganche.

Defence Zanetti and Ansaldi as natural full backs .Angeleri is still not fully fit I think. Perotti was marginal with his injury.

Leandro Galeano is a better younger defender than Otamendi. Garay and Gabi Milito not even considered.

Diego's ego knows no bounds. I am certain he is punishing certain players esp. for the 6-1 defeat against Bolivia which was his own fault.

On the basis of a friendly he calls up Ariel Garce and Sebastian Blanco though at least the younger player has real potential. And players like Bolatti who has barely featured for Fiorentina and rubbish like Datolo .Leto has been better than him.

Even Gago has come to form over the last month and is fresh having only played some of the season but is overlooked for Mercier ??

The defence and midfield look thin if injuries and suspensions strike and no quality replacements.

I hope he is sacked after the WC and stop's wasting this 'golden' generation though there are plenty of young kids breaking through like Galeano, G.Burdisso , Salvio, Araujo, the Zuculini brothers etc etc.

Veron is awful was poor against Germany in terms of completed passes forward and can barely last an hour. Messi will be isolated and have to drop deep and di Maria and Higuain will be starved of posession.

There appears to be no plan B and instead of focusing on the strengths of the team ie posession and creativity prefers to go to a counter attacking strategy which the players cannot perform.

In such a system you need attacking fullbacks. Heinze can to a limited extent but Otamendi ??

We were lucky against Peru when the tactical genius withdrew Perez who should not have even played anyway like some of the other rubbush he has selected ie Schiavi and Seba Dominguez and it nearly cost the game and qualification.

Apparently a 1-0 win over Germany is enough to settle on this system which also seems to be Bilardo's invention ignoring the 4-2 loss against Catalonia.

I tell you we will be lucky to make the second round and beyond. It's a crime against football.

Maradona makes Domenech look competent. After this WC the target should be 2014 under a proper coach ie Pellegrini/Cappa and an assistant like Tocalli and someone like Simeone with the u20.

He Diego has taken away that great thing that unites football followers around the globe...hope of sucess.

He is a petty man scheming against Basile to get the job. He and Grondona deserve each other. Grondona and his sons also need to be removed from the AFA and the AFA run as a proper professional body not some person's private club.

I will support the players to the last second and bleed blue and white but he has ruined what might have been.
 
Nick Cave said:
I'd be very surprised if they don't get to the quarters or semi's though...
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On paper the first XI looks reasonable and one can bring on Aguero and Tevez even as an attacking midfielder (there are still doubts whether he may still take Palermo over Diego Milito) and cut the real creative talent left in the midfield Pastore.

But there are too many deficiencies and there is no fluency in the system.

Brazil have prepared this system for years and have the players with the physical attributes to carry it out.

We do not. It's inviting pressure on two decent centrebacks Samuel and Burdisso and no defence down the flanks.

At least there is no burden of expectation. Anything will be a bonus. Perhaps the biggest might be the expulsion of the fool who masquerades as a coach.

Zanetti. To be insulted once is bad enough in 2006. But again ??

Oh for people like Juampi Sorin, Il Capitano , Batigol and Redondo in the AFA.

-------------------------Romero-----------------------------
Otamendi------Burdisso/Dimichelis----Samuel--------Heinze
-------------------Mascherano-------------------------------
---Gutierrez--------------------Veron-----------------------
-Messi---------------------------------------------di Maria-
-------------------------Higuain----------------------------

Subs:
Aguero
Tevez
Dimichelis/Burdisso
Maxi Rodriguez
Andujar
Pastore though to provide cover it would have to be the awful Bolatti not Banega or Cuchu. Sad.
 
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The 15 oldest players in this WC:
1.- David Benjamin James, England. 39
2.- Sander Boschker, Netherlands. 39
3.- Lee Woon Jae, South Korea. 37
4.- Cuauhtémoc Blanco, México. 37
5.- Fabio Cannavaro, Italia. 36
6.- Carlos Pavón, Honduras. 36
7.- Martín Palermo, Argentina. 36
8.- Souleymanou Hamidou, Cameroon. 36
9.- Kostas Chalkias, Greece. 36
10.- Hans Jörg Butt, Germany. 36
11.- Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, Netherlands. 35
12.- Rafik Saïfi, Argelia. 35
13.- Juan Sebastián Verón, Argentina. 35
14.- Simon John Elliott, NewZealand. 35
15.- Denis Caniza, Paraguay. 35
 
Michael Essien joins Mourad Meghni and New Zealand's (barring a miracle recovery)Tim Brown who suffered a fractured shoulder in their friendly against Australia as missing out on the WC.

Christian Trasch is another of the unfortunates.
 
Jo'burg yesterday morning, the show near to begin

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Nice photographs stofegad. Hope you're enjoying yourself. Stay safe. ;)

Drogba doubt for WC with fractured elbow picked up in 2-0 friendly win over Japan in Switzerland.
 
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This year world cup has been very boring to be honest, the play is physical and alot of technical mistakes, player blame the ball but really coaches has opted for a defensive physical game but I think we will have to wait till every teams has played but so far im not impressed.
 
Mexico played some nice passing football and Argentina sparked at times yesterday.

The USA-England game whilst not great technically was an exciting game but the other games have been poor.

It's too early yet to write the tournament off. The ball ?

It does bounce more. Many times on the wing a player is about to control a long crossfield pass and it bounces over their foot. Kingson and Chaouchi today misanticipated the bounce of the ball. One led to a howler of a goal the other was luckier.

Why FIFA feel it necessary to introduce a new ball each tournament is beyond me. Stick with the Teamgeist.

FIFA seems more interested in making money than the best interest's of the game at large.

Did you know that the global audience for the WC had actually declined over the last two tournaments ?
 
well the new ball is not helping...players dont seem to be at their top shape, hope once every teams have played things will go for the better, the ball really affect the technical area of the game...
 
lazyForken said:
well the new ball is not helping...players dont seem to be at their top shape, hope once every teams have played things will go for the better, the ball really affect the technical area of the game...
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This ball has been used in the Bundesliga this season and Argentina Clausura and MLS. Perhaps it is too easy to blame the ball ?

Maybe the teams need more time to knit and some may be tired....


Excuses ? It's not been great so far. Maybe when teams need to attack it will change.
 
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