I don't often do this, but I'm very happy to tell you that Global Times from China, a newspaper written in English, has published an article I wrote after Ecuador defeated Argentina.
It's a basic match report and you can find it on Global Times online version.
Please, feel free to write your thoughts on the comments' box you'll see next to the headline.
Self-publicity is over now. Thank you all!
Argentina is finished!
ReplyDeleteSomebody put a muzzle on this Anonymous asshole !
ReplyDeleteHey Seba, self publicize all you like ! Congrats !
Mind you there is always Tango you guys can watch on TV or in San Telmo.... LOL....
ReplyDeleteNo Hand of God this time.... LOL...
ReplyDeleteYou can ignore me all you like but one thing you can't ignore is that Argentina will not qualify for next years world cup...
ReplyDeleteSorry Mohd, I deleted your comment because of foul language.
ReplyDeleteAs long as "anonymous" here doesn't use foul language himself, I'll leave their comments up. He is entitled to his opinions, as long as he doesn't uses foul language (like he did in the previous comments I deleted).
Get rid of Diego he is killing your team! He is not good as a manager can't you see? If Brasil wins in Buenos Aires and Argentina loses in Paraguay then that will be it. But as you guys can see there is no chance for Argentina to win against Brasil so get the Sony plastation ready for the next summer... LOL...
ReplyDeleteSeba -- You sound so bitter in the podcast. These things happen. If you don't take your chances, you lose. Stop looking for excuses. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteIf Paulina uses that word "sheesh" again, I will try to control myself, but I fear I may fall in love with her. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteJust listened to the podacst. Nice work again, guys! I am already feeling very nervous when you talk about the Brazil game....I can not see us beating Brazil with the team we have now, and that's so sad. Brazil's counter attacks will kill us, I fear. Hope to get more positive thoughts into my head during the summer holidays coming up.
ReplyDeleteAnother rumour: Palcio to Deportivo. A good move in my opinion. It's not a very big club, and he will get to play a lot.
Now I am going to be happy that Argentina is not at the Conf Cup. Imagine playing 2 WC Qualif then going to South Africa to play what can be 5 games. A lot of games. Messi and Argentina can get a well deserved rest. Because some of these players have played forever. So let them get their legs back and be ready in September.
ReplyDeleteHere is something I have been thinking about over the past few days, and another BIG reason why I think the NT is struggling. It appears there are no natural LEADERS on the squad. For anyone who closely follows sports, and team play, it is well known that without strong leaders among the players, teams usually are not successful. I don't see leaders on the NT. Mascherano, the captain, initially turned down that role when offerred by Diego. Clearly, it is not a role for which he has much comfort. There just doesn't seem to be one, or two, players who command sufficient respect. You just can't designate a player as the leader. He is, or he isn't.
ReplyDeleteAn observation on my part. Any comments ?
agree. and that is the main reason messi will never be maradona (the player, because the coach sucks!). maradona had the leadership and charisma while messi - until now -sadly lacks these attributes. i hope he gets better because then he can lead Arg to greatness.
ReplyDeletei know most of you will disagree, but the player i feel have the personality to be a true leader is Zarate...i see that everytime i watch Lazio.
Zarate? A Leader???? Hmm, i would like but i dont think so unfortunately...
ReplyDeletemsi2
i dont know about u guys but im not worry one bit... we will be in SA next year, you can count on that! also think about it going to the world cup as a under dog is the best thing for us. look at other teams that have gone, not in form and won the whole thing. doesnt matter how you get there, all you want is to play your best futball for those 2- 3weeks.
ReplyDeletealso with the up caming games. brazil wont beat us at home!!!!!!!
so people relax VAMOS....
Lucas
Lucas, that is the way i still convince myself of what is happenning.
ReplyDeletebut on reality the situation is soo bad. we are not playing well and we have weaknesses all around. our defence is shaky, our midfield cannot control a game and our attack has a thing for missing chances. the worst of all is that we have a coach who is making the NT a friends gathering.
plus the remaining matches are sooo difficult. anyway we have to wait for brazil match and hope that this time maradona will call better players who can play better football.
Hey Boys & Girls,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you all keeping this blog alive. Thanks for the compliment for our last podcast.
Now back to our debate.
I can truly understand some of your feeling about the current state of our National Team. Let me tell you that I too share the same sympathy for what is happening. It is true that we haven’t been at our very best and now even the non-supporters are taking a jibe against us and having a good time doing it as well.
But lets not start to think about the worst thing can happen because as some of you have mentioned about the pool of talent that we possessed. There is absolutely no way that a team like Argentina can miss the WC. I’m thinking that most likely we might just squeeze through to SA with the remaining games that we have.
Now is any of you are a big fan of Jack BLACK’s movie called School of Rock. Remember these words, “One Great Rock Show can Change the World”.
Maybe for Diego, all he needs is one great game and then maybe everything will fall into place. and what better game can that be other than Brazil.
What are you talking about that Argentina can not miss a World Cup just becouse it's a big footballing nation with plenty of talant? Did you forgot what has happened to England in the last years European Champiniship? ENGLAND DID NOT QUALIFY! Argentina is on it's way of not qualifying for the next world cup....
ReplyDeleteSeba and team,
ReplyDeleteI have one suggestion. Kindly make it mandatory for those who wanted put their valuable comments then they should write their name and location below or after the comments.
You have taken so many efforts to create this wonderful blog. There should be some rules and regulation. So that that excessive verbose ( some comments from anonymous ) should not be tolerated.
Presently Argentina is going through some bad situation but it not still over. Argentina will qualify for 2010 world cup. We have that much faith on our team.
Readers kindly note that this blog for those who admire Argentina soccer, those who is true fan of Argentina, those who doesn’t like this blog please serch some oth blog,
Thanks
Johnny:
ReplyDeleteI agree. There are no leaders in the team. This is what I have been thinking of after the last game. We need leaders to have any shot at winning the world cup.
Interesting debate here. Allow me to slightly disagree with those saying we have no leaders.
ReplyDeleteBefore this recent double round of WCQ, our captain, Javier MASCHERANO, suggested the players should stay in the AFA headquarters from the Wednesday prior the Colombia match and onwards.
All the other players followed Masche in that and they stayed.
I know it could sound like a very minor detail, but I don't think it is. It speaks of MASCHERANO leading by example and doing whatever it is at his disposal to try and build up some of the much needed team spirit.
When he was first offered the captaincy by MARADONA, MASCHERANO initially said "no" and said he felt there were more experienced players in the squad that deserved the arm-band. That's what he said in the press.
However, he did accepted it when he met MARADONA and El Diego asked him to be his captain.
MASCHERANO is still young and I'm sure his leadership will improve with time.
Masch is a future lion. He is the reason that Arg will have a real chance to win the world cup.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it's fair just yet to judge Messi on whether or not he is a leader. He is playing for a club team that depends on the team - there are no real ROy keane style leaders there. Messi is still very young, but he strikes me as a guy with absolute confidence and faith in himself. I guess the only divide - and i do think that it's real -- is that some people might question his national loyalties. ( I think that;s BS, but I do get the sense that there is a bit of distance between Messi and his Arg teammates compared to Messi and his Barca teammates, who absolutely adore him)
Anyway, SEBA, sorry I was so tough on you earlier. I'm really impressed with your football knowlegde. Keep up the good work, guys.
No need to apologize Paulina! Thank you for your compliments!
ReplyDeleteThere is something I wanted to ask you. Are you the Paulina they mentioned on World Soccer Daily (the podcast show from the US with Steven and Kenny)?
I don't listen to that show everyday, but I do think they said something like: "We should be hearing from Paulina after Ecuador defeated Argentina" or something like that.
Is that you? You don't have a very common name and you're from Ecuador, and you like football...it has to be you!
If you can, let me know so I can take the doubt out of my head.
I'm on the same page as you when it comes to MESSI and this whole argument about him being one at Barcelona and another with Argentina.
All he needs is time.
Regarding the Roy KEANE type of leaders...well...I prefer a team with a lot of players feeling they are equal to their team-mates rather than having one big boss in the team.
I look at the best team in the world right now and I can't think of a leader in that mould. Who would that strong leader be? PUYOL? CASILLAS? XAVI? I don't think Spain have a Roy KEANE kind of leader. Or a RUGGERI or even a MARADONA.
And whilst I think it could be beneficial at times, I don't think having a character like that in the squad is a must for you to be able to achieve something in football.
By the way, Paulina, I agree with you: I WAS BITTER WHEN I RECORDED THE PODCAST! Of course I was! hahaha! I promise to be sweeter next time. Sheesh! (don't hit on me, Johnny. I'm married, you know!)
Ha Ha ! Not to worry Seba !
ReplyDeleteI do think the "leader" issue is an important one. Maybe someone will eventually emerge as a visible leader for the NT. And yes, we often tend to forget how young many of the players are.
So, it is a long time until September. Let's hope whatever is ailing the NT gets fixed by then.
Seba-what's your take on D'Alessandro ? I have been very impressed by his play with Internacional. It's clear his club values him highly, he seems to get along with everyone there(unlike the experience at Real Zaragoza), and the club has been successfull since Andres' arrival there. I think his style of play would fit extremely well with the NT. He is capable of creating alot of havoc, breaking down defenses, passing and scoring himself. I hope Diego is not avoiding Andres because 1. He's playing in Brazil or 2. He's ex-River. Whaddaya say ?!
hey Seba and John,
ReplyDeletei sent you guys a long team analysis by email to argentina.correspondent@gmail.com but i dont know if you got it coz i didnt get any reply. I wanted to post it here but it's too long (there's a maximum word count). However i'd love to share it with you guys here and see what you fellow Argie fans think. What should i do?
Seba -
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the leader issue. I've always thought that a team required a warrior, but that person is not necessarily a leader in the classical sense, just someone who can lead by example. For Barca, that person is Puyol, but he's never shouting at everyone or anything like that.
Mascherano will be the leader in the future. He to me is the future legend of the team (when I mean legend, I mean the soul of the team. Messi is going to be the genius that takes all the accolades, but masch will be the glue).
Anyway -- yes -- that "Paulina" from World Soccer Daily was me. I made the mistake of using my google account to email them, and they said my name. I've sent them countless deranged emails abusing them for preferring Cristiano Ronaldo to Lionel Messi, and sometimes they respond and tell me to calm down :) (I just sent them one last night, again about the issue, again completely insulting them).
D'Allesandro is really talented. I don't see why he wouldn't be on the radar. Maradona has tons of midfielders to choose from.
Sebastian,
ReplyDeleteI am new on this website. i was just wondering how i can get in contact with you. i have a picture that i want to send to you for the website.
Hi Mike,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Mundo Albiceleste. I'm the co-writer of this blog. You may contact him through our official e-mail address which is argentina.correspondent@gmail.com
Once again, welcome and glad that you can be here with us.