Friday, March 09, 2007

Argentina to gamble in Las Vegas without their ace?

I don´t know if you people are aware but there are talks between San Antonio Spurs and Manu GINOBILI and the team have asked him to stay out of the basketball Olympic Qualifying tournament that will be played in Las Vegas later this year.

Apparently, MANU will listen to the club and take that time to rest.

It´s been a long time since MANU last took a few days off and his body needs some rest. Especially when he had a season with some very annoying injuries. That could give him the chance to heal completely and re-charge the batteries.

I, for one, think it could be beneficial for Argentina. Wait...wait...I´m not saying I don´t want to see MANU leading our team on its way to Beijing to defend the gold medal. I´ll be a great loss in itself. But at the same time, it will start preparing a bunch of players for the big time. MANU won´t play for Argentina much longer after the next Olympics. That´s a fact. So now Carlos DELFINO, to name one, will have to step up and take control of our perimeter while others like SCOLA, OBERTO, NOCIONI (if he plays in Las Vegas) will going to have to lead by example and help the newcomers with all their experience.

I still think Argentina certainly have the potential to qualify for Beijing. In my opinion, we will be one step behind USA and we could have a very strong rival in Brazil (if they play full strenght with the best of their NBA talent: Anderson VAREJÃO, Leandrinho BARBOSA, Nené HILARIO, Rafael ARAUJO and Marcus VINICIUS). Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Canada will all be tough teams to beat as well.

What do you feel about all this?

4 comments:

Linda said...

I'm sorry, guys, this is totally off topic, but: Vamos Messi!

Ronaldinho who?

Anonymous said...

Messi's performance was a thing of brilliance. Wow. I'm still in awe.

-argentinafan

Anonymous said...

Hi There Everyone,

Firstly Seba, I believe that FIBA has allocated 3 spot for the Americas zone in the Olympics, which means I still believe our team stand a great chance to qualify. The quality of our entire team is very much on par with “So Called Dream Team” USA and Brazil, so my bet is the three of us to make it to Beijing next year. But still I must say that MANU will definitely be missed during his absence. However on a long-term basis, this also has to be good for the team, especially come next year when the real excitement begins.

I can’t say the same for Puerto Rico and Venezuela, as they will depend so much on Carlos AROYYO and Oscar TORRES respectively. Canada’s strength will depend on how much can 2 times MVP Steve NASH provide the much needed inspiration. Now don’t get me wrong here, I have a tremendous respect for NASH but in Canada he doesn’t have the luxury of a STOUDEMIRE, BARBOSA, DIAW, BELL or even a MARION.

Albicelestes in Europe…

There can be no doubt that the star on the weekend was Lionel MESSI. All three of his goals were simply classics and the best part was for once RONALDHINO should go home and ask himself a very important question, which is “AM I HAS BEEN?”

Linda, being a huge BARCA fans, I guess it wasn’t the result that you’ve expected. But from a neutral point of view, it was an exciting game overall.

Julio CRUZ was on target as INTER continues its dominance in SERIE A by beating city rivals AC MILAN 2-1. Amazingly enough Nicolas BURDISSO was on the starting line up!!! (I guess his nose must have recovered in time after that METSALA fracas). By the way I have a question here, when was the last time INTER got the better of MILAN on both home and away? It has to be quite some time ago.

John
Malaysia

Linda said...

To answer your question, John, it's 1981. :-)

Cruz is having a brilliant season. He should get far more plaudits than he does.

But then so is Diego Milito, just behind Kanoute and Ronaldinho in the Spanish goalscoring charts.

I'm actually fairly happy with the result of El Clasico, considering the state of the defence and us playing the entire second half with only 10 men. To come back and grab a draw was pretty good going.

And besides, I'm too busy being happy for Leo. Only 19!