Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Updated calendar

Here's the updated calendar with the scheduled activity for Argentina in the next few months:

OCTOBER

11th.
ARGENTINA vs. SPAIN
Venue: Nueva Condomina Stadium, Murcia (Spain)

16th-22th
SIX NATIONS TOURNAMENT - FUTSAL (indoor football)
Venue: Brazil (several venues)

22th-29th
UNDER 20 SOUTH AMERICAN TOURNAMENT - FUTSAL (indoor football)
Venue: San Cristóbal (Venezuela)

NOVEMBER
2nd-12th.
BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP
Venue: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

6th-19th
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL SOUTH AMERICAN TOURNAMENT (Qualifier for China 2007)
Venue: Mar del Plata (Argentina)

14th-19th
ODESUR GAMES (South American Games)- FUTSAL (indoor football)
Venue: Mar del Plata (Argentina)

SOURCE: AFA official website: www.afa.org.ar

We've got a record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats against Spain. Our last match against them was 2-0 victory for Argentina with Kily GONZALEZ and Mauricio POCHETTINO as scorers. It was November 17th. 1999.

BASILE's team will also play against France in Paris in February 2007 and a friendly against Italy is also being scheduled.

The friendly against Turkey in Germany has been cancelled and it looks like the World Champions could be our rivals on November 15th. The venue looks to be the Italian southern city of Bari.

It's been a long time since I remember a list of friendly matches as impressive as this one: Brazil, Spain, Italy and France!

It's obvious that the contract signed with the Russians is delivering the goods in this sense. I'm thrilled with the opportunity to face top teams (with great rivalry in some cases) and with the exposure our national team will get from those fixtures. The fact of facing the World Champions and the World Cup finalists is something that can't be beaten. And only good things could come out of such encounters.

NOW BRING ENGLAND! hahaha!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Seba,

By looking at the fixture coming ahead of us, I must say wow!!! I'm extremely thrill and very much excited about this. Can't wait for these great matches.

Just to let you know back in 2003 the Argentine Futsal came down to Malaysia for a mini tournament. We played Brazil in the final and won 3-2 in one hell of an exciting match. It was the first time that the names of Gimenez, Gracias, Planas & Co. came to my ear. Another fact is that victory over Brazil was the first time in our futsal history. So I guess I must be one real lucky bastard to be there.

Anyway, I was browsing through wikipedia and found out an interesting sport called Rink Hockey also known as Roller Hockey. I did find out that we've been world champions for several occasions. Do you have any idea about this?

VAMOS ARGENTINA

John
Malaysia

Seba said...

Yes! "Hockey sobre patines" as it's known in Spanish is huge in Argentina. To be honest, is huge in the province of San Juan where all the best players were born.

I remember it was an exhibition sport in Barcelona 92 and Argentina won gold! Too bad the IOC decided not to continue having the sport in the Olympic Games.

Argentina is amongst the best countries in Hockey sobre patines. Other powerhouses are Spain, Italy and Portugal. We have won some world championships too.

One of the best players these days is Argentine (Pancho VELAZQUEZ) and he plays for FC Barcelona which is the best club in the World in this sport.

I must admit that Hockey sobre patines is waaaaaaaaaaaay behind Field Hockey in the rest of the country (except San Juan, of course) and it is not amongst the Top 10 sports in terms of popularity.

As for the Futsal, I remember that game. Is it possible that it was the game in which the Brazilian goalkeeper made a silly mistake? I can't bring back the exact image of that play and I'm sure you will have it very clear in your mind.

Anonymous said...

Seba,

Spot On!!! That was the game that I'm talking about. Can't really recall the keeper's name but I remember the shot was taken by Sanchez.

Correct if I'm wrong as I believe that was turning point for us in futsal. Since then we've improved tremendously.

Thanks for the info on Hockey sobre patines. I'll be sure to dig more info about our beloved Argies in sports and share them with everyone.

VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!

John
Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Hi Seba,

Me and my argentina buddies were there at the FUTSAL game, we made a Banner for Argentina that said "Gracias Por Venir" to the team. It was a great experience for us all.

Would like to ask you, about our recent games against England. Does Argentina have jitters when playing England? Is there something that comes into these players heads when the they play the English? So far our record over the recent years have not been good against the english from whom a victory against them would be very very savouring to me.

Cheers,
Alwin
Malaysia

Linda said...

Ah, but I think Argentina would thrash England easily. :-)

A question here from a regular reader and a big Argentina fan - do you know anything about the football qualifiers for the Olympics?

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda,

I believe the Olympic Qualifiers will only take place either late next year or early 2008. Anyway nice to meet.

John
Malaysia

Seba said...

Hi Linda and welcome to our blog!

Hello also to argtowin! Nice to see newcomers!

I've got no information regarding the Olympic Qualifiers but John is spot on. I think it'll be late next year but there is nothing going on regarding players selection or preparations for it.

Too early, I guess.

As for Argentina playing against England...well I think it's a matter of our players letting all the rivalry get into their heads.

Not only after the Hand of God incident and the Islas Malvinas war. It all began before, when the English (our teachers in the beautiful game) started to come to Argentina to play and they allways defeated us.

Ever since those early days, playing against England was something else for any regular Argentinian.

But our recent defeats were also a matter of not playing against them the way we should have played.

In Korea/Japan 2002 we kept on crossing the ball and making life easy for Sol CAMPBELL and co., instead of trying to dribble through the middle of their defense with AIMAR or our several skilled players we had that day.

They were rock-solid at the back and they made us pay with a well-taken penalty by BECKHAM (after a dubious foul on OWEN).

Then we had that friendly match in Switzerland just before the World Cup and it was a great match. AYALA was replaced and our whole defense suffered from it in the last few minutes. We also had a penalty appeal turned out (foul by GERRARD on Julio CRUZ) and on the counter attack they punished us.

I believe England and Argentina are two very levelled sides and anybody can win in their day. However, I would like Argentina to perform the way we should so we can get a win next time we face them.

Linda said...

Thanks for the answer - I'm eager to keep an eye on it as Argentina have been so successful at youth level in the last decade. It would be great to see some of the stars of the World Youth Championship playing together again.

In my humble opinion had Argentina met England at the World Cup we would have won, but then that's also due to how poor the England team were at the time. Player by player Argentina clearly have technical superiority in almost every position, as long as the defence doesn't leak cheap goals.

Another question: who do you think will be the new playmaker to face Spain? The news I've heard says it will be Insua?

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone,

Seba & Linda, the player that should enherald the playmaker role is D'Allesandro. Lets not forget ever since he made his move to Wolfsburg, his club career has always been dodgy. So I'm pretty sure that he has a lot of hunger and desire to prove what his capability of when he plays for the Albicelestes. Furthermore he's still young (24 years I believe??) and Coco has a lot time to work on him.

Anyway Seba, our Davis Cup match against Australia is just over the weekend. Would suggest you out an article on the players and building up to the game, something like that. Bring on the Aussie!!!

VAMOS ARGENTINA

John
Malaysia

Linda said...

As someone who primarily follows La Liga (as well as the Albicelestes of course) I really like what both D'Alessandro and Aimar are doing at Zaragoza. They're proving that 1) both of them are regaining their best form and 2) they can play well together, so I'd like to see either of them get a chance.

(And how about Diego Milito, who can put 3 past Real Madrid or Barcelona?)

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