It's often said that England considers itself special in the world of football, as the founders of the organised game. For once, on October 23rd 1963, this attitude was actually appropriate, as England celebrated the centenary of the Football Association (the world's first, of course) by taking on a team organised by FIFA representing the rest of the world.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup less than 100 days away, its time to breakdown the nations that will be participating in The Great Tournament. Next up are the teams in Group B, beginning with South American giants, Argentina.
Official Name: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino
Nickname: La Albiceleste
FIFA Confederation: CONMEBOL (South America)
FIFA Code: ARG
How They Qualified: Finished 4th in CONMEBOL qualifying
World Cup Appearances (Including 2010): 15
Best WC Finish: Champions, Argentina 1978 & México 1986
World Cup Record (MP: Wins - Draws - Losses): 65: 33W - 13D - 19L
Head Coach: Diego Maradona
Most Capped Player (# of caps): Javier Zanetti (136)
All-Time Goal Scoring Leader (# of goals): Gabriel Batistuta (56)
Brief Footballing History:
Argentina is one of the great footballing nations in history.

A mediocre and bad-tempered final often gives a false impression of the quality of a tournament as a whole. And the grim spectacle of South Africa 2010's showpiece should not detract from the fact that the event featured plenty of good football.
The knockout stage of the 2006 World Cup was frankly a complete turn-off.

What, no Carlton Palmer?? 10) Valentino Mazzola Although this is the player on the list that many will never have heard of, Valentino Mazzola was one of the true greats of the game. Mazzola played for Torino for seven years from 1942, scoring 118 in 195 games. He was revered by the Italian public as [.

In a week when Manchester United begin another Champions League campaign, we should remember one of the most blinkered decisions ever taken in the history of English football. When Chelsea won their...
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FC Barcelona Vice President Jordi Cardone has formally announced the decison to slam the club's door on new aspiring members from November 1st. From November 1st, only people that meet the following requirements will be able to become club members: to be a member of a first or second relation to a current member, to be under 14 or to have been a a member previously.

adidas miCoach lanza su herramienta gratuita de entrenamiento para equipos, clubes y entrenadores personales

José Mourinho elogia la primer herramienta para monitorear de manera remota el entrenamiento para equipos que tratan de ponerse en forma este invierno
Madrid, 17 de diciembre, 2010 – José Mourinho y miCoach, el sistema de entrenamiento personal, presentaron a medios de comunicación "miCoach Coaching Circles" en el terreno de entrenamiento del Real Madrid Alfredo di Stefano.

The Munich air crash in 1958 en route home from a European Cup quarter final success in Belgrade became a defining feature of United's identity. The improbable Champions League finale 41 years later...
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Time for the second instalment of the TFT World Cup Quiz - answers to the first batch of questions can be found in the comments to this post.
Up next:
The Strikers
1. In the eyes of many, the select club for World Cup strikers contains those who have reached double figures at the tournament.

MegaMessi, Messidona, Semidios esos y otros calificativos tiene el jugador argentino Lionel Messi, quien es sin lugar a dudas el numero uno del mundo el día de hoy.

Clarín: Por primera vez hizo 4 goles en un partido, sólo un argentino (Alfredo Di Stéfano) lo logró en un partido de Copa de Campeones.

From an 11-1 shellacking to Johan Cruyff's high point in a Barcelona shirt, via the Alfredo di Stefano affair.

Almost 50 years ago Real Madrid took on Eintracht Frankfurt, looking for their fifth successive European Cup Final triumph, and boy did they manage it. Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas handed their German opponents something of a footballing lesson in a game widely considered the best match of all time.

FIFA.com takes a journey from Alfredo Di Stefano through George Best to George Weah to look at the best players never to play at a FIFA World Cup.

There is a lot of hyperbole spoken about the Brazilian football team. Probably more than is spoken about any club or national side on the planet. It's almost a mythology. Admittedly, it's a mythology based on a handful of the most gifted players that have ever lived (see, even I buy into it, to a degree): Pele, Garrincha, Rivelinho, Zico.

Alfredo di Stefano is not only a legendary former footballer of Real Madrid, but he may be the most famous European Cup player in it's history.

In fact in 1955, when the Cup debuted, Di Stefano led Los Blancos to the first ever title and five straight European Cups titles over the first five tournaments.

How Argentinian is Lionel Messi? Sure, he was born in Argentina, but left for Barelona when he was 13. So is he more "Argentinian" (as a soccer player, of course" or more Spanish (or Catalan, if you like)? Messi isn't the only one about whom you could raise this question. Nicklas Bendtner went to Arsenal when he was 16.

What, no Carlton Palmer?? 10) Valentino Mazzola Although this is the player on the list that many will never have heard of, Valentino Mazzola was one of the true greats of the game. Mazzola played for Torino for seven years from 1942, scoring 118 in 195 games. He was revered by the Italian public as [.

According to Sir Alex Ferguson, the reason that Dimitar Berbatov struggled to settle into Old Trafford in his first two seasons was purely because of the size of his club record transfer fee. "When...
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Dual Nationality XI A tale of two countries is a post from: Just Football

New Contributors Week continues now with a post from Ryan Keaney, of the football blog Rambling without a cause. When whispers emerged that Mikel Arteta might play for England everbody laughed, then thought "Hmmm.

Yesterday we looked at the years 1946-56, today we will look at the years between 1957 and 1966, '66 was a great year for Soccer in England find out below why?

1957: Leeds striker John Charles becomes the first British player to transfer to foreign club when he joins Juventus who also break the record transfer fee for River Plate forward Omar Sivori for £93,000.

'Hugol' Sanchez's goal scoring record in Spain stands up to very close scrutiny. 234 goals in 347 appearances makes him the second highest goal scorer in La Liga history. Post war, only Alfredo di Stefano has a better goals to game ratio in the Spanish top flight. 29 goals in 58 appearances for Mexico cements his standing as one the greatest goalscorers of his, or any era.