Good Player Guide #14 Javier Pastore is a post from: Just Football

Javier Pastore
(Palermo / Argentina)

He has been described as "a phenomenon" by Javier Zanetti and "somebody who will one day win the Golden Ball" by his president at Palermo, and offers are already trickling in from the world's elite clubs.

An ad by Young and Rubicam brings to the fore the passion and love Argentines feel for the beautiful game. As the World Cup approaches Argentinians comes together as one. It is out of this world. People in other parts of the world look on in awe and reverence. When they lose they suffer, do not go the cinema or theater.

There have been, over the last eighty years or so, several questionable decisions made regarding the hosting of World Cup tournaments. None, however, have been met with quite the fury that met the hosting of the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina. The decision made to award the 1978 finals to Argentina was made in July of 1966, but after a military coup in March 1976 left the country in the hands of a military dictatorship, there were calls for the tournament to be moved elsewhere in a clash of ideologies that pitted the liberal left of popular opinion in Western Europe against the more right-wing politics of FIFA.

Finally, the funny and wierdest era of Argentinian football is over. Maradona is not the coach anymore. A statement on the AFA website read: "Mr Julio Grondona made the members of the executive...
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This week's main report is all about football in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. To help you understand the piece a little better there is a vocabulary list containing the words in bold at the foot of this post.

Alianza Lima 4-1 Estudiantes
Copa Libertadores 2010 (Group 3)
Goals: Sosa 1', Aguirre 18' 34' 74', Fernandez 84'
Talk about a beating. As the home team left the field to a rapturous reception, Alianza Lima's players and supporters grinning from ear to ear, and as the photographers and journalists sprinted to get a word in with hat-trick hero Wilmer Aguirre, a camera panned round and focussed momentarily on Juan Sebastien Veron.

I recently spotted a press report suggesting a group of "Argentinian football hooligans" are plotting to attack England fans during the World Cup. How likely is a meeting between fans of the two teams and when could one take place?
Let's look at the article first. It's from the Daily Mail, a UK paper which specialises in scaring its readers with apocalyptic headlines.

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano has revealed he would like to return to his native Argentina towards the end of his career.
The 25-year-old, who is currently in negotiations over a new contract at Anfield, admits he wants to go back to South America for a number of seasons for his swansong.

Sometimes in football, the things that we think are desperately important promotion, relegation, league titles, cups, tribalistic rivalries are all snapped quickly and easily into perspective in an instant. 26th December 2009, when one of the most promising youngsters in world football was involved in a fatal car crash in Argentina, was one such instant.

These people are crazy in Argentinian league, a wonderful goal for Gimnasia La Plata against Boca Juniors. What is interesting is the great passion for skills in Argentinian football, two players...
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Loew Will Hope His Side Can Defeat Argentina And Advance Into The Semi-finals.

Germany march into the quarter-final of the 2010 World Cup against Argentina, one of the favourites to win the tournament. Joachim Loew's side was dismissed at the beginning of the tournament after captain Michael Ballack was ruled out with an injury, and was overlooked because of the fact that many of Loew's squad are under the age of 25.

Just who was Uruguay's no.10 who took the 2010 World Cup by storm? Is it not Diego Forlan, the forward who failed to cut it at Manchester United? Is it not the player, who, fascinatingly took a mammoth 27 games to end a goal-drought spanning eight months while at the club? Is it not the player once dubbed 'Diego Forlorn' by the British media?

Argie Bargy
What's a blog called European Football Weekends doing in a country like this? Well, we're a lot more global here at EFW these days but with staff too lazy to change the name. Argentina is going to be the setting for a month long football sojourn for me soon when I set off to celebrate my 40th birthday.

Argie Bargy
What's a blog called European Football Weekends doing in a country like this? Well, we're a lot more global here at EFW these days but with staff too lazy to change the name. Argentina is going to be the setting for a month long football sojourn for me soon when I set off to celebrate my 40th birthday.

So, as soon as we at Soccer Jones found out on Monday that Diego Maradona was no longer going to remain as the Argentina national team coach, we knew it was only a matter of days until there was a media fiasco. Maradona is now making claims that he was "lied to" and "betrayed" by the AFA.

Seven teams tasted victory on the opening weekend of the 2010-11 Argentinian football season which took place this weekend. Amongst the winners on Matchday 1 of the new Torneo Apertura (Opening Tournament) were River Plate, who have suffered in the last two years and who need a really good season this time around if they are to avoid relegation which is determined on a three-yearly average points system.

Scout Report Erik Lamela is a post from: Just Football

Introducing a new feature on Just Football, the Scout Report. The Scout Report will be a new regular feature on the site, brought to you by our effortlessly knowledgeable columnist Tom Shaw.

Estudiantes and Velez Sarsfield: Argentina's new big dogs Apertura 2010 Review is a post from: Just Football

Boca Juniors? River Plate? Forget them. Making his debut for Just Football, Dan Colasimone is hear to explain who the big boys in Argentina really are.

Estudiantes de La Plata is a small club.