Wednesday, March 12, 2008

COCO with a plan to survive fixture congestion

It's a situation that really puzzles me and many Albiceleste supporters. As much as we love to watch Argentina play, the tour of the USA, schedule for June, will come just a few days before the double WC Qualifiers' fixtures with Ecuador and (non other than) Brazil and we are caught between our desire to watch our team play and the rational fear of getting our players tired (or even injured) just days before facing the old enemy.

The agenda looks like this:

Mexico (June 4 in San Diego, USA)

USA (June 8 in New York, USA)

Ecuador (June 14 in Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Brazil (June 17 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil)

So what's COCO's plan, then?

He'll take between 24-26 players to the USA Tour and he said he'll use completely different starting XI in both matches.

He said he'd never would have schedule a tour to the USA so close to those crucial WCQ matches, but he has to respect what the AFA tells him to do.

One really important thing to consider is that of those 24-26 players that will tour the USA, non will come from the domestic league. All of them will be European-based because at that time, the Torneo Clausura will be coming to the final stages and he won't weaken no Argentine club.


EVERYBODY IS KUN-FU FIGHTING!

In other news, Sergio AGÜERO is the center of many critics these days in Spain. After a curious stat revealed that Kun is the player who received more fouls than anybody in La Liga this season (73, two more than fellow Argentine Diego MILITO), the former Independiente striker complained about the treatment he is receiving and since then, he is being harshly criticized by managers, players and members of the press.

The best of those comments came from PAREDES (Real Zaragoza defender) who said: "Being Kun, everything he says takes center stage. But I think I didn't kick him too much. If he doesn't get it, I'll swap my salary for his and I'll gladly take three times as many kicks"

Classic quote! I loved it! hahaha!

The other focus of this AGÜERO-gate has to do with the comments Kun made after Roma knocked out Real Madrid from the Champions League (AGÜERO said: "Every Atletico Madrid fan is happy. So am I!").

Real Madrid defender, PEPE, said: "It was a sad thing what he said. We know Real Madrid rivals gave their everything, but it's not pretty when somebody is happy when we lose, to see a colleague talking like that...but we should use this to get extra motivation". And then he said: "Every player receive fouls here and there. It happened to us with ROBBEN and we never complained".

TOP OF THE WORLD, MAMMA!

In another edition of the FIFA World Ranking and Argentina are top again...

Here's the Top20:

1º Argentina - 1.556 points
2º Brazil - 1.514
3º Italy - 1.505
4º Spain - 1.355
5º Germany - 1.294
6º Czech Republic - 1.253
7º France - 1.234
8º Portugal - 1.206
9º Holland - 1.179
10º Greece - 1.160
11º England - 1.142
12º Croatia - 1.101
13º Romania - 1.060
14º Scotland - 1.020
15º Ghana - 1.003
16º Mexico - 990
17º Cameroon - 967
18º Turkey - 924
19º Bulgaria - 922
20º Colombia - 909

4 comments:

johnny said...

I guess dating Maradona's daughter and being a "scoring machine" can get to your head.:) Good luck to KUN though. He's just young and full of himself.

Halley Anne said...

Vamos Argentina!.. =)

Anonymous said...

I agree with the fixtures. When I looked@ it I was like dont they have some games to play in a close span. 4 games in span of 2 weeks or so?? Ok first they are playing San Diego( I might go to that game, i live about 2hours away) then take a 5 hour flight or so to NY, then prob fly to Argentina which will take another day, depending how many times they will stop. Then have a few days to get there legs back to play a pesky Ecuador side@ home then after that a few days later they play Brasil. I am not holding my breath vs the Brasil game, because it seems to me only time Argentina can beat them is@ home. Far too many games. It would of been smarter to play US first then play Mexico, why are they going to criss/cross actors the globe. Europe-NYC is just a few hour flight. The more games the better but not around wc qualifers. I just hope Argentina does not go all out vs the Mexicans and the US. I can NOT stand the Mexican side and I know it will be very hectic if or when I go to the game. I am not sure if the full squad will be there, they make play Messi/Riquelme for a half or so, they have NOTHING and I mean NOTHING to prove vs the Mexicans and Americans, but they do vs the Brasilians. I want to get a tie in Brasil, then again seems like they beat them 3-1 in the last qualifers. Lets wait and see.

As for Kun, I love the kid and people are finally talking about him. This is why I tell people to watch Argentina's league more often, seem up and comming talent. He does get a lot of bad calls against him.

Jack!

John said...

About Kun, you're spot on!!! I must have lost count but in recent times he has seen the red too often. That's not good.

The last thing we need is another Vinnie JONES.

About the fixtures, I'm just stunned over here. Okay maybe I'll get to Argentina more but I'm not sure whether this is the best way to prepare against our eternal rival.

I just hope Coco will be wise when rotating our line up.