Thursday, September 24, 2009

ORTEGA back in the national team at 35

It really is getting desperately horrible now at Ezeiza.

MARADONA spent 11 days in a clinic in Italy, where he hardly did any work (I'm thinking if you don't have the players around you to work with them, at the very least you could be watching some videos, meeting your coaching staff...I don't know. Doing some of the things you are supposed to be doing and you're getting paid for).

When he comes back, Argentina have a completely meaningless friendly match against Ghana. A 'C' side from Ghana, with no ESSIEN, MUNTARI or any of the other established international stars they have. They'll bring a squad fully formed by players from their domestic league (ranked 64th in the world, by the way), so it comes as no surprise that we are fielding a 'C' team too.

Ariel ORTEGA (35), Martín PALERMO (36), Rolando SCHIAVI (36), Esteban FUERTES (36) all made the squad for the match in Córdoba.

Then...it's just a bunch of players that are either too young to capture the eyes of the European clubs or simply not good enough. They'll do OK against a C team from Ghana, but none of the players he called up are likely to have a decisive role in the World Cup Qualifiers, let alone the World Cup.

The list is below, but first, a statement from MARADONA.

"The last thing I'd stand is to be imposed of something from somebody. I won't even accept a suggestion to call up a player. I never got imposed of something. Not when I was 15, let alone now that I'm 48. There is nobody around me who can decide on a player call-up other than me. GRONDONA can't decide on the players I choose. BILARDO can't either. Not even MANCUSO or LEMME. And I take full responsibility of any possible outcome and of anything that could go wrong".

MARADONA said he's got the list for the double round of WCQ v. Perú and Uruguay ready and he will announce it tomorrow (Friday).

Rumour has it, Gonzalo HIGUAIN will finally feature.

The list for Ghana? (there are a couple of River Plate players, by the way and it's worth to mention that no Velez Sarsfield, Lanús or San Lorenzo's players were eligible because of their Copa Sudamericana fixtures. Hence why no PAPA, OTAMENDI, DOMINGUEZ, SALVIO, BLANCO or LEDESMA, to name a few, are nowhere near this list).

Goalkeepers:
Diego POZO (Colón de Santa Fe)
Cristian CAMPESTRINI (Arsenal de Sarandí)

Defenders:
Matías CARUZZO (Argentinos Juniors)
Ignacio CANUTO (Argentinos Juniors)
Rolando SCHIAVI (Newell´s)
Juan Manuel INSAURRALDE (Newell´s)
Cristian VILLAGRA (River)
Fabián MONZÓN (Boca)

Midfielders:
Rodrigo BRAÑA (Estudiantes LP)
Enzo PÉREZ (Estudiantes LP)
Leonel VANGIONI (Newell´s)
Federico INSÚA (Boca)
Jesús MÉNDEZ (Rosario Central)
Mario BOLATTI (Huracán)

Forwards:

Gabriel HAUCHE (Argentinos)
Martín PALERMO (Boca)
Ariel ORTEGA (River)
Luis RODRÍGUEZ (Atlético Tucumán)
Esteban FUERTES (Colón de Santa Fe)

A couple of Estudiantes midfielders but no VERON. That doesn't mean MARADONA doesn't like VERON. Maybe he does and he doesn't need to see how he does against Ghana C and thinks it's best to have him rested and prevent the risk of injury.

You'll find a million explanations on the media on how great the call-ups of PALERMO and ORTEGA are for Argentina (of course, they are the darlings of Boca Juniors and River Plate supporters and therefore the media will always praise them in order to keep the majority of their readers happy and loyal to them). The truth is that if Argentina goes to a World Cup relying on those two to provide the goods, we'll be bound for disaster. And the fact that they are instant ticket-sellers is perhaps a better way to explain what these two are doing wearing the Albiceleste in 2009.

I'm in panic now. What if the two of them have a great game v. Ghana? Will MARADONA realise it's not the same to play in Córdoba against a bunch of players from the domestic league from Ghana that wouldn't probably care that much? Will he think that if they perform against Ghana they will surely have an impact against Perú and Uruguay?

I don't want to think about it too much because I'll go crazy and because I fear the manager will misjudge that and will blame the lack of results on an apparent lack of determination from our players, when clearly, what's lacking is a gameplan. An idea of how a team should play. The continuity that some players need to grow in confidence and the proper utilization of the footballers that are rocking the world every week, rather than those who will score against weak and inexperienced defensive units in the Argentine domestic league.

Until MARADONA realises of that, we'll continue to live in danger.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess this will be a game I am not going to watch. And lets hope Ortega and Palermo do not have good games. If either one make the team for Peru and Uruguay, then I will tell myself what else is new. Just something new to add onto to the strange options done by Diego. But hey I am getting used to it. Just wondering does the list for the Peru and Uruguay come out on Friday or later on?

Jack!

Anonymous said...

NM I see it is on Friday.

Jack!

Dave P said...

yup agree with everything seba...just waiting for the list for the real NT tomorrow...will be interesting non the less. heres hoping for some new faces that we all want to see...

Anonymous said...

I was dreaming for riquelme to come back.i know he is in a bad form, but at least he can take corners and free kicks.

Anonymous said...

This is a joke and its getting out of hand.... i dnt think i can even watch the next two games how much its doing my head in...
seba any info on who going to be in the team for the next two WCQ any new names???
Lucas

All About FC Barcelona said...

http://www.allaboutfcbarcelona.com/2009/09/solving-argenitinian-qualification.html

Have a look at this and comment

Roy said...

I'd love to see MONZON get the full 90 minutes, I haven't seen how he's been doing ever since he left Spain, but from what I remember, he was very good.

ORTEGA, wow. Umm, I'm speechless. BOLATTI will get some minutes(seems Diego really likes him). PALERMO will no doubt start. With who, no clue. I hope and PRAY that they both(ORTEGA and PALERMO) have bad games so we don't see them in the Qualifiers.

Roy said...

Forgot to ask, how good are POZO and CAMPESTRINI? I've seen nothing from them at all, is atleast one of them worthy of a shot at being our #1(since ROMERO is injured and doubtful for the Qualifiers)? I know we have ANDUJAR, I'm just curious at our goalkeeping situation.

ORTEGA, I'm still in shock. I take it Diego will play him as the playmaker and not as an out and out striker with PALERMO(hey, with Diego, you never know. We could possibly get ORTEGA-PALERMO up front).

John said...

Well, it's good things some of the guys from 2002 have long retired (BATISTUTA, SIMEONE, SORIN etc). Probably Diego might have called them up as well.

Best thing to do right now is to be patient and wait for the WC qualifier list to come out. That's where the real discussion will start for me.

johnny said...

Roy- as for Monzon, he has been playing some with Boca, but not always starting. That may change soon due to all Boca's injuries. Honestly, he hasn't been anything special.

John said...

That's really sad because I felt he was our best prospect to play at LB after seeing his performance in Beijing plus a few matches with Real Betis. Let's hope he rediscovers his best form again.

Joe said...

The team for the qualifiers for peru and uruguay

Fabricio Coloccini, Rolando Schiavi, Nicolás Otamendi, Emiliano Papa, Martín Demichelis, Gabriel Heinze y Emiliano Insúa. El capitán de Vélez, Fabián Cubero, tendrá que esperar. Los mediocampistas serían Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastián Verón, Rodrigo Braña, Jonás Gutiérrez, Jesús Dátolo, Angel Di María, Mario Bolatti y Lucho González. Battaglia, esta vez, no. Y los delanteros: Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Sergio Agüero, Martín Palermo, Diego Milito y Ezequiel Lavezzi.

I will give my opinion later...

Sebastian said...

Thanks for your message Joe. I'd like to point out, though, that the list Joe just posted is by no means official.

He obviously got it from a Spanish-speaking media that probably have some inside info, but we shouldn't consider this as the official list, which will be announced later today and duly posted here on Mundo Albiceleste as soon as we can.

Unknown said...

Maradona is saying that a lot "Not when I was 15, not now when I'm 48," -- he thinks that he's back in "the game", like he's still a player. But he can't back anything he says up because, of course, he can't play anymore, and that was the only way that he could shut his critics up.

I seriously think that someone is going to either go mad or die out of this. Seriously. This is becoming operatic.

Seba -- what's up with Basile? Is he depressed? Going senile? I heard an interview with Riquelme on OLE and it sounded like R was trying to dance around Basile's weird behavior.

Sebastian said...

Hola Paulina.

Regarding BASILE...well...he used to be my favourite manager. You know, as a Racing supporter, he brought us back to the First Division in 1985 when we got relegated. We won the Supercopa Sudamericana in 1988 also with him and he had us playing the best football I've ever seen at Racing.

Then...USA 94, some of the best football I've seen from Argentina and from then and the MARADONA 'efedrina-gate' everything went bananas and even though he won everything with Boca, he was never the same.

Senile? Defo a possibility! haha!

I think he should quit managing and change his career or retire altogether and frankly, since when he joined Boca he said a few bad things about Racing, I couldn't care less if he fails soundly at Boca. In fact, I'd be delighted! ;)

johnny said...

Take that back Seba !!!:) I'm still a big fan of Coco, and I don't think any coach in the world could do a whole lot better with the mess that is Boca right now. Maybe Coco has lost it, but with the dissension and injuries at Boca its impossible to know.