MARADONA completely losing the plot!

I know a lot of you still believe we can win the World Cup and I respect that opinion/belief. Even more so, I wish I could share that and feel the same.

With the countdown clock to South Africa 2010 ticking at 126 days, 19 hours and 47 minutes as I write this, MARADONA just reached a milestone and has called-up more than 100 players for the national team.

I wish that was the only bad news I had to share with you, but there's more. Believe me. Keep writing...

For the friendly against Jamaica (10 February in Mar del Plata, Argentina), Diego announced a list today that included four players from Estudiantes de La Plata (Clemente RODRIGUEZ, Enzo PEREZ, José SOSA and Mauro BOSELLI -no VERON who has already been pointed by MARADONA as one of the three players with a spot in the World Cup squad guaranteed (the other two being Lionel MESSI and Javier MASCHERANO)-), but then, AFTER he submitted the list and made it public, he realized Estudiantes have to play for the Copa Libertadores around the same date Argentina will face Jamaica so he had to delete those four names from the list.

A few minutes later, he came up with the replacements and now we know the 18 players that will be available for the friendly against the Reggae Boys.

With players from Newell's (SCHIAVI, for example), Velez (Maxi MORALEZ? OTAMENDI, DOMINGUEZ, CUBERO?), Colón (Diego POZO, Esteban FUERTES), Banfield (ERVITI) and Lanús (Sebastián BLANCO) also in action for their clubs in the Libertadores and not available, MARADONA choose the following footballers from our local league:

Goalkeepers:

Nelson IBAÑEZ (Godoy Cruz)
Cristian CAMPESTRINI (Arsenal)

Defenders:
Matías CARUZZO (Argentinos Juniors)
Mariano ECHEVERRIA (Chacarita Juniors)*
Gabriel MERCADO (Racing Club)*
Ignacio CANUTO (Argentinos Juniors)
Leonel GALEANO (Independiente)*
Lucas LICHT (Racing Club)*

Midfielders:
Juan MERCIER (Argentinos Juniors)
Jesús MÉNDEZ (Boca Juniors)
Walter ACEVEDO (Independiente)*
Patricio TORANZO (Huracán)*
Federico INSUA (Boca Juniors)

Forwards:
Martín PALERMO (Boca Juniors)
Nicolás GAITÁN (Boca Juniors)
Gabriel HAUCHE (Racing Club)
Juan Pablo PEREYRA (Atlético Tucumán)*
Franco JARA (Arsenal)

* = First call up.

With the seven new 'international' players on this list, the tally now goes up to 101 in a little more than one year.

But do you want to hear something even 'funnier' ('pathetic' would be the most appropriate word): Juan Pablo PEREYRA (no disrespect to him but this if the first time I hear his name and I'd like to believe I'm a keen football fan) from Atlético Tucumán IS CURRENTLY INJURED! He's got a broken nose and he is expected to be back in action for his club on 14 February (four days after Argentina v. Jamaica).

Not to mention that one of the players MARADONA used for the friendly against Costa Rica (Carlos MATHEU of Independiente) suffered a serious knee injury after only two minutes into that game and you can imagine Américo GALLEGO, Independiente manager, not being in a very good mood after that. Think about this now: only a week after that episode, Diego strikes back and calls up two (key) Independiente players that, if nothing else, will risk having an injury in another meaningless game, considering that both have very slim chances of making it into the World Cup squad.

This is an absolute nightmare. To know that this man will be in charge of leading a vastly talented generation of Argentine players into a very demanding World Cup just makes me sad and I already feel disappointed.

I do believe luck is important in every big tournament, but every day that goes by it seems we are going to rely on luck more than all the other teams that are going through a proper preparation.

End of rant. Over to you, amigos!