On the 14th November Diego Maradona's Argentina will face Spain in Atlético de Madrid's Estadio
Vicente Calderón in a friendly as the first part of their preparation for the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa. On Friday, Maradona named his squad for the match, which will consist solely of
players playing for clubs outside Argentina, [.
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On Saturday one group of Argentines abroad got off to a very good start in a new campaign José
Luis Brown's national Under 17 team beat Honduras 1-0 in the first match of their age group World
Cup in Nigeria. Sergio Araujo scored the only goal of the game. Around the world in the [...]
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It's been a qualifying campaign no-one who followed it from start to finish will ever quite manage
to forget, but eventually, somehow, in spite of their manager, their opponents and let's face it
their own often atrocious performances, Argentina have qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa.
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The moment of truth arrives tonight. At 8pm local time (7pm in Argentina; 11pm British Summer Time)
Argentina will take to the pitch in the Estadio Centenario, the site of the first ever World Cup
final back in 1930. They need a result against their oldest rivals to secure qualification for
South Africa 2010.
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Not I. Oh, heavens no. The heavens opened over the Estadio Monumental on Saturday night and, in a
frantic finish, a substitute chosen by D10s himself scored the winning goal to keep Argentina just
on track for qualification to South Africa 2010. Martín Palermo has waited ten years for the
chance to atone [.
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Argentina's starting XI for the crucial World Cup qualifier against Peru kicks off at 7pm on
Saturday (11pm UK time), and the starting eleven is exactly the same as the one manager Diego
Maradona has used in training for most of the week. Newcastle winger Jonás Gutiérrez is at right
back due to the injury [.
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Argentina's practice session on Wednesday produced a possibly glimpse into the mind of Diego
Maradona. Although a frightening place in which Jonás Gutiérrez is worthy of a place in the team
at right back, there were also one or two more lucid thoughts flitting about. In a kickabout
against Sergio Batista's Under 17 side, this [.
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Diego Maradona has announced a list of just eighteen Europe-based players for Argentina's final two
World Cup qualifying matches at home to Peru and away to Uruguay. There are numerous big-name
casualties of Diego's refusal to consider that any part of the defeats to Brazil and Paraguay might
have been his fault.
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After last week's midweek cup finals in Spain and Italy, the gongs are starting to be handed out
for the competitions people actually care about now, and already we've got three more league
champion sides in Europe with Argentine representation to add to AZ in the Netherlands and Porto in
Portugal. The Spanish, Italian and [.
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An anniversary was marked in fitting fashion by one of our foreign contingent in the weekend just
gone, whilst another won a league title and two claimed a Brazilian state trophy - to find out
which ones, you'll have to read on. The winners in Brazil were Andrés D'Alessandro and Pablo
Guiñazú, who helped Internacional do [.
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There's no headline to describe it, really. Diego Maradona's first competitive match in charge of
Argentina went like a dream, but his second was the kind of nightmare in which you realise partway
through that all is not as it seems, but you just can't wake yourself up, and it brought the worst
defeat in [.
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There's no headline to describe it, really. Diego Maradona's first competitive match in charge of
Argentina went like a dream, but his second was the kind of nightmare in which you realise partway
through that all is not as it seems, but you just can't wake yourself up, and it brought the worst
defeat in [.
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Diego Maradona's side have arrived in Bolivia for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier in La Paz and,
although the boss is keeping his cards close to his chest, it looks like there'll be one or two
changes, the most notable of which are Lucho González replacing Newcastle's Jonás Gutiérrez, and
Sergio Agüero starting on the bench.
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The latest double-header of qualifying matches for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is upon us
this weekend, so with my head now sufficiently back on track after two weeks back home, it seems as
good a time as any to have a look at what our boys abroad have been doing this weekend. [...]
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In amongst the flurry of goals served up for us by Gimnasia de Jujuy and Rosario Central on Friday
night, the fact got obscured (on HEGS at least - sorry) that Diego Maradona had named his first
competitive squad as Argentina manager, in preparation for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers at
home to Venezuela and [.
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Tuesday saw Diego Maradona name his second Argentina squad, in preparation for the friendly against
France in Marseilles on the 11th of February. For the first time Lionel Messi was called up by
El Diego - as was my mate Carlos Tevez - who, clearly motivated by my words of encouragement
on Saturday night, scored for Manchester [.
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The squad as expected by the Argentine press (and subsequently here) prior to Diego Maradona's
first press conference as Argentina boss yesterday turned out to be not quite accurate, so here's
the list as announced by the man himself in that press conference, along with a bit of opinion (my
own and others') on it.
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The AFA will hold their press conference in a few hours' time to allow Diego Armando Maradona to
announce his first Argentina squad (read on to see who's made it), and already there's controversy
surrounding the nature of the appointment (not to mention the exclusions of three key players).
Maradona declared on Radio La Red [.
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Two pieces of news regarding Argentine selecciones today, both of which took place on Sunday whilst
the league action was going on. In the Brazil 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup, Argentina drew 2-2
against Ukraine in a frantic end to a highly entertaining match which saw all the goals come in
the closing minutes (in spite [.
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Two bits of news for Tuesday: Boca Juniors' quest to find a replacement for Martín Palermo
during his long-term injury layoff has come to an end with the signing on loan (with a US$1.5
million fee should Boca wish to make the signing permanent) of former Central and River Plate
striker Luciano Figueroa from Genoa.
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The new season is now a few weeks old in Europe, so I thought it was about time we had a look at
the contributions of some of Argentina's foreign legion in the European leagues. So far Sergio
Agüero and Gonzalo Higuaín have enjoyed great starts for the two Madrid sides in Spain,
whilst in [...]
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Esteban Cambiasso had the goal and, without actually impressing anyone, Argentina were putting to
bed the run of six matches without a win that's seen them slip from first to fourth in the South
American qualification table for South Africa 2010. A poor performance but the result was still as
expected.
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It was second versus first in the Estadio Monumental on Saturday afternoon, as Argentina hosted
leaders Paraguay in the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup. The selección didn't
look particularly hot in front of their own fans, falling a goal down early on after dominating the
opening exchanges before going a man down [.
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The Argentina squad for the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers against Paraguay in Buenos Aires, and Peru in
Lima, has been almost finalised prior to the weekend's domestic action in Argentina, after which
three Boca Juniors players will be added to the list. Alfio Basile has called up Getafe defender
Daniel Díaz to replace Nicolás Burdisso, [.
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Four years ago it was Carlos Tevez, on Saturday Benfica's Angel Di María secured his place in
Argentine football history by becoming the second man to score a gold medal-winning goal for his
country in the Olympic Football Tournament. In a final played in scorching heat in the Bird's Nest
Stadium in Beijing, Argentina rode [.
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In a couple of hours' time, Argentina will be going for a second gold medal of the Beijing 2008
Olympic Games when the men's football team take on Nigeria, their conquerors in Atlanta 1996, in
the OFT final. Argentina are seeking to defend their title, having demolished arch-rivals Brazil
3-0 in the semi, with Liverpool [.
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The Olympic Football Tournament is the one international tournament Brazil have never won (of the
ones they compete in of course, because obviously they've never been crowned champions of Europe or
what have you), and it will have to remain as such for at least the next four years. On Tuesday the
selecção met the [.
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Argentina advanced to the semi-finals of the Olympic Football Tournament in China on Saturday,
after beating the Netherlands 2-1 after extra time in Shanghai. Barcelona star Lionel Messi was the
key man for an Argentine side who found it hard, at times, to get out of first gear, but who still
created more good chances [.
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So you've read the Argentina squad profile for the Olympic Games that I wrote for Soccerlens, and
still want more? You're in luck, because I was very busy this weekend. Another one has now gone up
on new Australian online magazine The 84th Minute, edited by ocassional HEGS commentor Neil
Zimmerman, who wanted to me [.
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The Olympic Football Tournament kicks off on Thursday (yes, that is before the official start of
the Games, which is on Friday), and Argentina, as the defending gold medalists from four years ago
in Athens, will be red-hot favourites to retain the title, thanks in large part to an attacking
lineup that would terrify most [.
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HEGS is back, but it feels, I must say, a bit like I hadn't really been away. When I left for
Havana, Sergio Batista had named Lionel Messi in the squad for the Olympic Football Tournament, and
Barcelona president Joan Laporta was making some decidedly 'we'll have to see about that'-type
noises. The novel seems [.
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The final squad for Argentina's defence of their gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Football
Tournament has been announced by Under 23 coach Sergio Batista. Following Bayern München's
refusal to allow Martín Demichelis to join the squad, and Real Madrid doing likewise with
Gonzalo Higuaín, the side looks slightly different to that originally named [.
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Another season is drawing to a close in Europe, and the time arrives for the first reprise in Hasta
El Gol Siempre's brief existence. Ladies and gentlemen, the second annual Hasta El Gol Siempre
Award for Best Argentine Footballer in a Foreign League is upon us! Voting for the 2008 award opens
as soon as [.
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Trophies are being handed out in some of the European nations already, whilst others could be
drawing much closer in the next few days. Four Argentines have won the Greek championship (court
ruling permitting); Lucho and Lisandro's Porto - who won the Portugese title a little while
ago, apologies for missing that one - beat Angel [.
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Carlos Tevez couldn't help Manchester United through to the FA Cup semi-final, whilst Julio Arca's
Middlesbrough were also victims of an odd weekend in England, losing to Cardiff City. There were
also Argentines in action in some of Europe's 'smaller' leagues this weekend. Fernando Cavenaghi's
Bordeaux, second in Ligue Un, played first-placed defending champions Lyon and, [.
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