In July I wrote a piece about Bruno Demichelis, a sports psychologist Ancelotti brought with him from Milan. Judging from his experience in setting up the venerated MilanLab, it seemed he had moved to London to help extend the careers of Chelsea's older players. The latest from Cobham suggests that he's turning to an unlikely source – meditation – to take the science much further.

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In July I wrote a piece about Bruno Demichelis, a sports psychologist Ancelotti brought with him from Milan. Judging from his experience in setting up the venerated MilanLab, it seemed he had moved to London to help extend the careers of Chelsea's older players. The latest from Cobham suggests that he's turning to an unlikely source – meditation – to take the science much further.

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Fueron dos años que parecieron bastante más. Hoy, uno desde que renucnió Basile. Se lo llama "proceso", "calvario" o sencillamente "eliminatorias". Este es el derrotero argentino en su arduo camino a Sudáfrica 2010, cuando finalmente parece haberse encontrado un arquero (Romero), un reemplazante de Ayala (Demichelis) y un marcador central (Otamendi). Click to continue reading...

After 17 WC qualifying games it all comes down to tonight.

Argentina vs Uruguay. In Montevideo.

In the legendary Centenario stadium.

With both teams needing a good result to qualify to the World Cup.

On the surface it seems that the pressure is really on Uruguay, as they need the win to qualify directly and are playing at home.

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Maradona no le encuentra la vuelta a la conducción de la Selección, prueba (¿prueba?), arma y desarma, convoca y desafecta bajo un concepto difícil de establecer.

Venezuela (4-0): Juan Pablo Carrizo; Javier Zanetti, Marcos Angeleri, Gabriel Heinze; Maxi Rodríguez (m.

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Maradona had the lineup below in today's practice session.

Barring any last minute changes the starting lineup against Uruguay will be:

GK Sergio Romero
D Nicolás Otamendi
D Rolando Schiavi
D Martín Demichelis
D Gabriel Heinze
M Jonás Gutiérrez
M Javier Mascherano
M Juan Sebastián Verón
M Angel Di María
F Gonzalo Higuaín
F Lionel Messi

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Here's a report by TELEFE on the possible starting lineup against Uruguay.

Veron is in. Palermo will be on the bench and Messi will be in the starting lineup no matter what as long as Maradona is the manager.

Demichelis is in. Insua is out.

Maradona will go with 4 central defenders (Demichelis, Schiavi, Otamendi, Heinze) against Uruguay.

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It appears that Pipita Higuain will be in the starting lineup against Peru.

A Messi-Higuain partnership is exciting and with the help of Aimar and Di Maria, Argentina's attack will get a boost. There is goal scoring potential with those players on the field.

Hopefully, the national team will get back to scoring goals and winning on Saturday.

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Miércoles 29/07 – Audi Cup – SemifinalesBayern Munich (Muller x 2, Schweinsteiger y Saer Sene) 4-1 Milan (Pirlo)- Once inicialEntre paréntesis los cambios realizados, donde la mayoría de los jugadores actuaron en gran parte de la segunda mitad con excepción del delantero Saer Sene, quien ingresó a los 80 minutos. Click to continue reading...

I'm back ladies and gentlefolk. There have been some cock-ups over the past few days with Aamir's posts and I have been unable to correct anything because I've had no access. Apologies for that.

By the way, thanks Aamir for filling in over the past few days.

Now, onto the main story this week; we scored another three goals to secure our passage through to the Champions League group stages Eduardo has become somewhat of a hate figure in the press (see the headline) for diving to win a penalty.

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Rusia 2 - Argentina 3
La selección jugó en Moscú contra el combinado local un amistoso previo al clásico con Brasil, Maradona hablo de caos en la previa, pero después del partido parece que la cosa pinta diferente.
Por las lesiones el panorama no es el más alentador de cara a las eliminatorias, Demichelis se pierde el partido por una lesión ene le tobillo, Gago está en duda, Tevez se recupera una dolencia en la rodilla y para completar este panorama Messi y Burdisso se lesionaron en Rusia, se cree que salvo Micho el resto llega al 5 de septiembre sin problemas. Click to continue reading...

The 2009 Audi Cup final took place on Thursday with German side Bayern Munich taking on English team Manchester United. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Bayern Munich defeats Manchester United 0-0 (7-6 on penalties) Video Highlights

Bayern Munich won the 2009 Audi Cup with a 7-6 win on penalty kicks against Manchester United.

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Bolatti, un romántico del fútbol.
Arqueros
Juan Pablo Carrizo (Zaragoza –España)
Mariano Andujar (Catania – Italia)
Defensores
Javier Zanetti (Inter – Italia)
Emiliano Papa (Vélez – Argentina)
Gabriel Heinze (Real Madrid – España)
Daniel Díaz (Getafe – España)
Nicolás Burdisso (Inter – Italia)
Nicolás Otamendi (Vélez - Argentina)
Martín Demichelis (Bayern Munich – Alemania)
Volantes
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool – Inglaterra)
Fernando Gago (Real Madrid – España)
Sebastian Battaglia (Boca)
Mario Bolatti (Huracán – Argentina)
Maximiliano Rodríguez (Atlético de Madrid – España)
Jonás Gutiérrez (Newcastle – Inglatera)
Jesús Dátolo (Nápoli – Italia)
Juan Sebastián Verón (Estudiantes de La Plata - Argentina)
Delanteros
Lionel Messi (Barcelona – España)
Sergio Agüero (Atlético de Madrid – España)
Carlos Tevez (Manchester City – Inglaterra)
Lisandro López (Olympique Lyon – Francia)
Diego Milito (Inter – Italia)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Nápoli – Italia)
Dátolo mostrando la camiseta que iba a usar (para ir al banco). Click to continue reading...

It appears Maradona will play the wonder trio of Messi, Tevez & Aguero against Colombia this Saturday. For one, they were seen playing together in today's practice session at their Ezieza airport training center in Buenos Aires. Another clue is Messi stating to the media that he loves to play along side Aguero & Tevez. Click to continue reading...

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 [. Click to continue reading...

Bayern eventually overcome Klinsmann's bad karma with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Leverkusen and with referee Thorsten Kinhöfer still confused about what constitutes a penalty nowadays following the Champions League semis.

Had Klinsmann been still in charge, Bayern would have played poorly and van Buyten and Demichelis would have conceded a penalty each.

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(highlights di Bayern Monaco-Barcellona 1-1)
BAYERN (4-4-2): Butt; Lell, Lucio, Demichelis, Lahm; Ottl, Van Bommel, Ze Roberto (Hamit Haltintop), Ribery; Toni, Sosa (Borowski). All.: Klinsmann.
BARCELLONA (4-3-3): Valdes; Daniel Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal; Xavi, Touré, Iniesta (Hleb); Messi, Eto'o, Keita. Click to continue reading...

It's been a relatively quiet week for Argentines in Europe, with most of those who represented the selección during the week still recuperating from their journey home. In the wake of Alfio Basile's resignation as Argentina boss though, this weekend was a chance for certain other hopefuls to prove to the next man that they [. Click to continue reading...

Highlights
0 - 1 M.Demichelis (Autogol) 35'
1 - 1 Zé Roberto 52'
DISCLAIMER: Calcioplus non hosta alcun video pubblicato su di esso. Tutti i video pubblicati sono caricati da amanti di calcio su siti di video hosting come Youtube e Dailymotion ed ubicati dunque su siti esterni a Calcioplus. Click to continue reading...

Okay, so a draw isn't exactly a win. But it's also not a 5-2 loss of the type that Bayern Munich saw against Werder Bremen a couple of weeks ago, or a 1-0 loss like they suffered to Hannover last weekend. And given that Lyon's Champions League goal today was actually a Demichelis [...] Click to continue reading...

Allez Lyon!!!

Lyon:

Lloris
Reveillere - Cris - Bodmer - Kallstrom
Juninho - Toulalan - Makoun
Govou - Fred - Benzema

Bench: Vercoutre, Boumsong, Kallstrom, Ederson, Piquionne, Mounier

Bayern:

Rensing
Oddo - Breno - Lucio - Lahm
Schweinsteiger - Demichelis - Ze Roberto - Ribery
Klose - Toni

Bench: Butt, Van Buyten, Podolski, Ottl, Van Bommel, Sosa, Borowski

Feel free to post commentary, frustrations, and thoughts here during and after the game.

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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 [. Click to continue reading...

Nachdem es im November letzten Jahres Oliver Kahn erwischte, ist nun Martin Demichelis an der Reihe. Weil er sich darüber ärgerte, dass ihn Ottmar Hitzfeld nach überstandenem Muskelfaserriss nicht auf die Innenverteidigerposition zurückkehren lassen wollte, sondern im defensiven Mittelfeld einplante, muss der Argentinier nun das Spiel gegen Cottbus als Zuschauer bestreiten. Click to continue reading...

Sergio Batista named the 15 under-23 players to represent Argentina at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday, but what with putting up three other stories last night, I thought I'd leave it until now to publish the list. One of those players, River Plate forward Marco Rubén, has now become Villarreal forward Marco Rubén, in what [. Click to continue reading...

The three players who will be Argentina's 'over age' inclusions in their squad for the Olympic Games in Beijing in September have been named. Sergio Batista, the 1986 World Cup winner, will be the manager. Don't worry - Alfio Basile's not lost his job. The AFA just want to give things a bit of variety [. Click to continue reading...

Thanks Jack for reminding us of the list.
Goalkeeper: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Getafe, ESP).
Defenders: Gabriel Heinze (Real Madrid, ESP), Javier Zanetti y Nicolás Burdisso (Inter, ITA), Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo La Coruña, ESP), Gabriel Milito (Barcelona, ESP) y Martín Demichelis (Bayern Munich, GER). Click to continue reading...