Argentine football - Most popular for 2007
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Yes, the Apertura's only just finished (well, if you're an Arsenal or Gimnasia fan, it hasn't even
finished yet), but already the fixtures for the 2008 Torneo Clausura have been released, so here
they are for your interest and enjoyment. The dates given for each weekend, as ever, are all
Sundays - fixtures will be [.
Not an awful lot has happened really. The selección landed in Bogotá on Sunday and Carlos Tevez
gave a press conference alongside Juan Román Riquelme on Monday, in which he stated, among other
things, that 'It will be a very difficult match, as it always is when Argentina visit Colombia in
the qualifiers...
Two transfer stories have dominated the Argentine headlines more than any others today. Andrés
D'Alessandro, following four-and-a-half years in Europe for Wolfsburg, Portsmouth and Real
Zaragoza, may soon be on his way back to River Plate, whilst a young Argentine who's never played
professionally in his homeland is making a move from Chile to Chelsea.
Fourteen years ago, Colombia travelled to Buenos Aires to take on an Argentina who'd been in three
of the previous four World Cup finals (winning two) and were given no chance whatsoever of getting
a result. Inspired by Carlos Valerrama and with Faustino Asprilla hitting a hat-trick, they blew
the hosts away, 5-0. Tuesday night [...]
The traditional start to Argentina's footballing year, the Torneo de Verano ('Summer Tournament')
celebrates its 40th year in 2008, and the AFA have announced the fixture list for the mini-league,
which features the 'Big Five', on Friday. The tournament will run from the 11th January to the 2nd
February and matches will take place in [.
Good news for Independiente fans: the club's first transfer target is on the verge of signing, and
the deal should go through at some point on Friday. Freddy Grisales, the Colombian international,
will move from Colón de Santa Fe to the Avellaneda side. River Plate's hopes of keeping Fernando
Belluschi, meanwhile, are still uncertain.
When a small club do well in Argentina, there's a pattern which is generally followed in terms of
what happens next to their players: they move to River or Boca, and from there, if they continue to
shine, on to Europe. This year though, Lanús have impressed so much that an exception may be
about to [.
The draw for the 2008 Copa Libertadores - with Santander taking over from Toyota as title sponsor
- took place in Asunción on Wednesday, and Argentina will have six representatives in the
tournament - River Plate, Boca Juniors, San Lorenzo and Estudiantes all qualify automatically from
the 2006-2007 season, whilst Lanús and Arsenal de Sarandí go [.
The man who many suspect of having been behind the murder of Gonzalo Acro broke his silence on
Thursday to speak out yet again about his innocence in the affair from his hideaway. Alan
Schlenker, the capo of Los Borrachos del Tablón, River Plate's hooligan gang, insisted - not for
the first time - that [.
Surprising revelations in Colombia on Wednesday, as a close associate of the Cali drug cartel
revealed his organisation's apparent involvement in one of the most infamous football matches in
World Cup history - Argentina's 6-0 thrashing of Peru to reach the final of the 1978 event, which
they went on to win.
So, it turned out on Sunday that the 18 names Alfio Basile gave us a few weeks ago weren't in fact
the only ones to be included in Argentina's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against
Chile (in the Monumental) and Ecuador (in Quito). I'd like to emphasise that there was no hint of
[...]
Apologies for the lateness of the posting, I've been without internet for most of the weekend. Juan
Román Riquelme inspired Argentina to a 3-0 brushing aside of Bolivia in the Monumental on Saturday
evening, netting twice himself in the second half after Sergio Agüero had opened the scoring
before the break.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto is a very popular man in Argentina right now. Eight months ago, he left
Boca Juniors, where he'd become one of the most succesful players in the club's history, to move to
Columbus Crew of the MLS in the United States. On Tuesday it emerged that his boyhood club Gimnasia
La Plata [.
Several of River Plate's most notorious barra bravas have spent Christmas this year in jail, and
now they're to be joined for the new year by their boss, Alan Schlenker, after a senior judge
ordered the capo of Los Borrachos del Tablón to do time in a preventative institute for his
suspected 'intellectual' part in [.
It's been delayed by a week, but Argentines finally get to see the albiceleste lift a prestigious
international trophy today. The adults might have screwed up their chance of the Copa América, but
the juniors successfully defended their World Under 20 title, with a thrilling 2-1 win over a
tough-as-nails Czech Republic side in Toronto [...]
It was a very nervy match in Racing's stadium, as Arsenal's players showed the pressure of playing
the biggest match in the history of their club - but they dug deep when it most mattered, and came
away with the trophy thanks to Martín Andrizzi's late strike. Despite a 2-1 loss in front of their
[.
A disappointing Apertura is almost behind them, but Arsenal de Sarandí have an opportunity to make
history on Wednesday night all the same. They carry a 3-2 aggregate lead into the second leg of the
Copa Sudamericana final against América de Mexico, after Friday night's astonishing win the
Azteca.
Following training on Tuesday, Miguel Russo announced his starting XI for Boca Juniors' Club World
Cup semi-final with the African champions, Tunisian side Etoile Sahel. Boca's eleven is more or
less as expected in the defence and attack, but Russo's raised a few eyebrows with his midfield
selection, which sees a bit of a change from [.
Diego Simeone's management career thus far has been marked by one particular trait: all his teams
have included one midfielder around whom the side's play is based, who operates from deep and pulls
the strings. At Estudiantes, it was Juan Sebastián Verón. At River Plate, if El Cholo gets his
wish, it could soon be [.
At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday (Argentine time), Boca Juniors will take on A.C. Milan of Italy in
Tokyo for the final of the Club World Cup 2007. The right to be crowned champions of the world will
once again be played out between the champions of Europe and South America, in the third [...]
South America's grip on the Club World Cup tournament was broken in the revamped competition's
third edition on Sunday, with European champions A.C. Milan running out 4-2 winners over Boca in
easily the most entertaining final since the tournament was re-launched in 2005.
On Monday night, two men were walking down a street in Buenos Aires and were stopped by three
others. Without saying a word, the three pulled out guns and opened fire, seeming to aim at one of
the pair in particular. Now, that man is lying brain dead in a Buenos Aires hospital. His name is
[...]
In front of 100,000 home fans, América took an early lead in the Copa Sudamericana final first
leg, and it all looked like the dream of an upset was ending before it had really begun. But they
reckoned without an Arsenal side playing with extraordinary solidarity and purpose, and as a
result, Wednesday night's second leg in [.
Another Argentine is set to move to Europe - but for a change this won't affect the domestic game
unduly. César 'Chelito' Delgado, formerly of Rosario Central, has for the last four years been
impressive for Mexico's Cruz Azul, and now looks set for the move across the Atlantic, probably to
Benfica of Portugal.
Well, not quite in full, because there's little point in retyping the first weekend all over again.
But step right this way for a full list of who will be playing who on which weekend during the
Primera A Apertura.
It's not been the best of weeks for Diego Simeone, in charge of Estudiantes. He saw his side
comfortably beat Banfield on the opening day last weekend, but fall in midweek to Lanús in the
first leg of the Copa Sudamericana qualifiers. On top of all this, Juan Sebastián Verón picked up
a knock in [...]
Alfio Basile has named his squad for Argentina's opening two World Cup 2010 qualifiers, at home to
Chile and away to Venezuela on the 13th and 16th of October. Juan Román Riquelme, despite being
stuck in limbo after failing to find his way to another club before the European transfer window
closed, is included, and [...]
Alfio Basile has named the five domestic-based players who are called up to the Argentina squad for
the two upcoming World Cup Qualifiers at home to Bolivia on Saturday and away to Colombia three
days later. The final squad of 22 players will meet for training on Monday morning in Ezeiza, and
will consist of [...]
Having seen Tigre claim a stunning victory over Boca just before their own match against Gimnasia
got underway, Lanús's players knew they wouldn't be celebrating their club's first ever Argentine
championship on Wednesday whatever happened. But they also knew they could get a lot closer to it
with the right result.
Tuesday night saw Argentina's second match in the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Canada, and following
the promising performance but disappointing scoreline against the Czech Republic in the opener, the
junior selección finally started taking their chances against Panama.
Dunga's Brazil starting XI against Argentina in tonight's Copa América final has been announced.
Having played some painfully ordinary football reminscient of their manager's playing career,
Brazil have managed to get to the final without exciting anyone in their homeland with anything
apart from the 6-1 quarter-final dismembering of Chile. In spite of being the [.
The rhetoric surrounding the murder of Gonzalo Acro continued on Monday. With the Apertura now two
rounds of matches old and River still yet to play a match, the barra brava ringleaders are taking
it upon themselves to provide some form of distraction for the fans. At the end of last week,
Adrián Rousseau, the [...]
Argentina's dream of winning a first Under 17 World Cup will have to wait another two years, after
they fell to Nigeria by 2-0 on Saturday in Cheonan. Argentina started the stronger but Nigeria took
the lead through a penalty in the 33rd minute after Lukman Haruna was felled in the box by Fernando
Meza, [...]
The selección took most of the headlines this weekend, of course, but a few other things were
happening. Boca manager Miguel Russo talked of his 'optimism' going into the final rounds of the
Apertura, River Plate have lost one of their forwards to injury on international duty, and
Almirante Brown have announced their intentions to [...]
It's now three-and-a-half months since the murder of Gonzalo Acro by rival members of River Plate's
barra brava in Villa Urquiza. On Friday, the judge presiding over the investigation into the murder
allowed Ubaldo Matera, the man who was accompanying Acro at the time and who was also hit, to walk
free due to 'lack [.
It's been a mixed pre-Christmas weekend for Argentine footballers in Europe. On the good side, we
had Gabriel Heinze and Fernando Gago included in the Real Madrid side who beat Barcelona 1-0 in the
Camp Nou, and the irony of two ex-River Plate players, Julio Cruz and Esteban Cambiasso, scoring to
down the side who [.
Hugo Tocalli has been a world champion for just over 24 hours, but already he's on a collission
course with a very powerful enemy. The Argentina Under 20 manager's contract runs until September,
and he'll probably begin discussions over a new one soon, but Tocalli is unhappy with comments AFA
Big Cheese Julio Grondona made [...]
Pre-season continues with the returns of two touring sides - River and the national Under 20s - but
fortunately more interesting things have been happening to write about. San Lorenzo are losing
central midfielder Cristián Ledesma to Olympiakos of Athens for US$1.7 million (the club will get
US$1.2m, with the rest going to the agents [...]
The video of all the goals from the ninth round of the 2007 Torneo Apertura is online now, and can
be found here thanks to TN. As usual, read on for the full running order of that video, and my
personal favourite strikes from the weekend (dominated this week by Señores Denis and Belluschi),
courtesy [...]
All 29 of the goals from the sixteenth round of the Apertura can be seen right now thanks to TN by
clicking here. Read on as ever for the running order of this video for those who don't know which
kit is whose, as well as my personal favourite strikes of the week - including not [...]
