MARADONA confirms VERON won't face S. Korea

Unfortunately, I missed the press conference MARADONA gave earlier today. It was too early for me here in Buenos Aires.

There is and there always will be a press conference from Diego the day before each match we play in this World Cup.

As for yesterday's press conference from TEVEZ and GARCE, I was also unable to take notes and didn't find the time to translate some of their quotes for you. I apologise if you really wanted to hear what they said.

I can't give you a full transcript as you always find here on Mundo, but here are some of Diego's quotes from today. Oh...wait...I found it! Full transcript here:

Diego MARADONA

On VERON:

"Yes. It was tough leaving Sebastian out of our team for tomorrow. Especially because he really wants to play. No player will ever want to miss out on a World Cup match. But I think the bigger problem is to risk him aggravating his injury and miss him for the rest of the competition. And I don't want that. I need him to be fit. I explained it to him and he understood this is the best thing for the team".

"He gave me another lesson of professionalism, of being a man and of being a leader. I'm very happy with how he reacted and how the other players reacted. We all know that if tomorrow we lose VERON for the rest of the tournament, this group of players won't be the same. Maxi RODRIGUEZ will do a great job for us."

On what kind of match he expects against Korea:

"We won't change our team that much. We know they are really quick and they are good at set-pieces. We need to be clinical in midfield and we need to keep the ball and prevent them from hitting us on the break"

"I think the main difference between Nigeria and South Korea is the physical strength. Every time we collided with a Nigerian player it was like hitting a wall. Whereas against Korea we won't suffer that much from that. We will be more equal with them in that regard".

On MESSI:

"I want to say one thing about Lio. I see him so calm. So mature. I feel great. He needed a match like the one he had v. Nigeria. Showing leadership, playing well with his team-mates. Especially when the match was close in the second half. That's when we saw the best version of MESSI. He was never shy. He kept on trying to play. Him, together with TEVEZ, took away Nigeria's confidence in the second half".

On MILITO:

"I'm not ruling out to play him together with HIGUAIN. As I'm not ruling out to play PALERMO or AGÜERO. I'm telling you that the team we saw yesterday in practice (Note: The substitutes) almost had no difference with what you see from the team that faced Nigeria. AGÜERO scored, MILITO scored, PASTORE scored. So don't rule no player out for me".

On PELE and PLATINI:

"I would tell PELE to go back to the museum. I'm not surprised by what PLATINI said (NOTE: Basically, Michel PLATINI said: "What do I think about MARADONA as a manager? I think he was a great player") . I always had a distant relationship with him. It's "Hello, goodbye" and that's it. We all know how the French are like and PLATINI is French and he thinks he is better than the rest of the world. I don't pay attention to what he says".

On Jonas and TEVEZ:

"I confirm him on the team because I thought he played a great game. If Carlitos played more on the right for some moments was because VERON was very much playing through the middle. Carlitos won't only play on the right. If we need him to play as a left-back, as a centre-back and he would also play as goalkeeper if it was up to him and if he considers he is helping the team. We are really proud to have Carlitos on our team".

On what he saw of the tournament so far and Argentina's chances:

"I always said we were going to put up a fight against anybody. Wins will give you confidence. I know because I played in previous World Cups. Players who think they have no chance, start playing as stars. Having seen these first round matches so far...France, Uruguay, Mexico, Italy, Paraguay, Ivory Coast, even Brazil yesterday, gives you more confidence. Because I know what I have here in our team will put up a fight against anybody".

On whether this World Cup is more boring than previous editions:

"To be honest, I'm having a great time here! I'm not worried because we are seeing fewer goals. They will come. Teams study each other a lot and that's why they are more levelled. I don't want to speak about the ball, but it's hard to play with it. I have asked PELE and PLATINI many many times to study the ball before the tournaments. To test it. I think that's a more important thing for them to do than to talk rubbish about me".

On whether he fears South Korea will commit many tactical fouls on MESSI:

"Tactical fouls are punished by the referees. Tactical fouls are a resource every team have, but according to what he sees, the referee has the authority to stop play, show cards. I think it's clear. Lio has to stay calm. Play his game and have no fear of fouls".

This is all I got from a clip I found online. I think there were more answers after the ones above, but I don't have them yet.

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