Congratulations to Slovenia, a pair of bad managers, strange cures and daylight robbery all feature in this week's good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

It's been a good week for Uruguay, Algeria, Portugal, Greece, France, New Zealand and Slovenia as they all booked their places in next year's World Cup finals with play-off victories over the past few days.

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I'll update this story a little later in the evening when there's more detail. For now, though, the headline at the top of Olé is announcing that Ramón Díaz, the former River Plate, Oxford United, San Lorenzo and Club América de México manager, has been involved in a car crash near Urdinarrain, Provincia de Entre [. Click to continue reading...

HEGS has lost a little of its news value lately due to diminishing spare time on my part, so as of today I'm going to try and remedy that slightly. As Thursday turns into Friday at the start of each round from now on, I'll be giving a quick rundown of some of the main [...] Click to continue reading...

It's been a funny old year for Ángel Cappa and Huracán. After a storming Torneo Clausura in which they were robbed of the title only on the last day by some appalling officiating, they've fallen away drastically in the second half of the year. Cappa tried to resign last week, but the players talked him [. Click to continue reading...

In probably the most unexpected development of the domestic league's fourteenth round, River Plate played with spirit and intelligence to overturn a deficit and actually win a football match on Sunday afternoon. 1-0 down after only two-and-a-half minutes at home to Atlético Tucumán, it looked like the same old story for River. Click to continue reading...

Argentina were thoroughly outclassed by the European champions on Saturday night in the Vicente Calderón, losing 2-1. Xabi Alonso scored twice for the home side, the second a late penalty, whilst Lionel Messi got a temporary equaliser also from the spot after just over an hour. I wasn't in the best shape last night, hence [. Click to continue reading...

Due to December's Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, the Torneo Apertura eighteenth round match between Central and Estudiantes de La Plata was moved forward to last night in order to avoid a fixture clash later in the year for the South American champions. Taking their eye off the ball, Estudiantes played dreadfully [. Click to continue reading...

It's human nature for us to take things for granted. When they're taken away from us, we moan and complain. But while we have them, we often don't appreciate these things as much as we should.

The same goes for footballers and football managers. Years from now, we'll look back and talk incessantly about "the good 'ol days" when so and so was in the Premier League.

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Argentines Abroad is delayed slightly this week by the Monday night fixture bumping the normal domestic coverage a day on, and the fact I've been writing an article for another site (more of which later in the week). That's useful in some ways because the Copa del Rey in Spain has ensured there's action to [. Click to continue reading...

Following Newell's Old Boys' victory over River Plate on Saturday, the other sides hoping to keep up in the race for the title had to win on Sunday, and two of them managed it. Banfield overcame San Lorenzo 1-0 in Boedo for their first win away to El Cuervo in 13 years, and Estudiantes brushed [...] Click to continue reading...

Saturday's matches saw Newell's Old Boys return to the top of the table with a 2-1 home win over River Plate in which, not for the first time, Diego Buonanotte gave the visitors their only joy of the match. A little later, Atlético Tucumán ended a run of eight matches without a win, thrashing Tigre [. Click to continue reading...

Just when Rafa Benitez thought things couldn't get any worse, a study published by Foster's today reveals the Liverpool manager is officially one of the most worried managers in the Premiership.

The leading Aussie beer brand analysed the interviews and statements from every Premiership manager since the beginning of the season using its Ozometer, an algorithm developed specifically to analyse language and word sequences to determine how worried or carefree a person is.

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When we last left Jose Mourinho's tongue, it was being stuck out at the crowd after an injury time winner against Udinese. Here it makes another appearance, albeit just a cameo, after Inter's second goal against Livorno on Sunday, accompanied by some kind of Michael Jackson type hand motion.

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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, [. Click to continue reading...

Tuesday and Wednesday have seen some decent games in the midweek round of the Torneo Apertura, with Estudiantes regaining top spot with a 2-1 away win over Godoy Cruz on Tuesday, hours after champions Vélez moved into sixth (two points off the top) with a 2-1 win over Atlético Tucumán that came thanks to a [. Click to continue reading...

Barely has the dust settled from the tenth round, so full of action that the superclásico was all but forgotten about by anyone reasonable, than the next round of matches is starting. It's a big round for both Avellaneda clubs: Newell's host Racing on Tuesday afternoon for some reason Racing's new manager, Lothar Matthäus [. Click to continue reading...

John Hughes described Walter Smith as the "godfather" of Scottish football managers the other day. In recent weeks, however, Smith's traditional taciturn gravitas has been replaced by a more haunted look, the look of a man who spends his long, sleepless nights wondering what went wrong.When he returned to Rangers he knew there would be hard work ahead. Click to continue reading...

Bent's quizzical reaction to his "beach ball" goal highlight vs. Liverpool
Sunderland striker Darren Bent will miss tomorrow's Carling Cup tie against Aston Villa through injury.
Bent is suffering from what is described only as a "slight knee injury" but Sunderland fans (or the thousands of fantasy football managers who own him) may be a bit more nervous about this slight knee injury when they check out Bent's past medical history. Click to continue reading...

When Michael Lewis published Moneyball in 2003, it instantly became one of the most influential books about American sports in a generation.� Michael Lewis, normally a financial writer, analyzed how baseball's Oakland A's managed to consistently produce highly competitive teams despite a payroll that was a fraction of their biggest rivals.

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The scores and scorers of the weekend will be up in a few hours' time after the super, Tigre and Argentinos drew 1-1 in Victoria and Colón then took over the leadership of the table in the weekend's final match with a 2-1 win over fellow contenders San Lorenzo in El Cementerio. For now [...] Click to continue reading...

I'm a bit late due to a computer issue the match is already 8 minutes old but is still at 0-0 presently. Open this post, and refresh periodically for sort-of-live-ish text updates on a thoroughly middle-of-the-table superclásico. River Plate 0 0 Boca Juniors (8 mins) 8 mins: Shortly after Nico Domingo drags a shot just [. Click to continue reading...

There's a vital grudge match in England this afternoon as Liverpool host Manchester United in the Premier League, and also today Indian football hosts a less globally famous but no less passionate derby with Mohun Bagan taking on East Bengal. For a change, I'm not going to bill the superclásico as the world's biggest derby [. Click to continue reading...

Three teams are tied on twenty points at the top of the Torneo Apertura after Saturday's matches, and San Lorenzo could join them on Sunday. As well as Central's 2-0 win over Independiente, Estudiantes had already won on Friday night, 1-0 over Atlético Tucumán, and on Saturday Banfield (3-0 at home to Godoy Cruz) and [. Click to continue reading...

Come Sunday, expect the television cameras to be zooming in on the faces of Rafa Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson as they try to detect whether the pressure is getting to either manager. Attention will be paid to body language and how each manager interacts with one another, what the handshake is like and to make sure they exchange pleasantries after the final whistle is blown.

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Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been voted as the greatest football manager of all time. Sir Alex came ahead of some of the football greats such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Matt Busby.
This poll was carried out by the makers of Football Manager 2010, here are the top 10 football managers of all time, voted for by the public. Click to continue reading...

A recent poll carried out by Sports Interactive has confirmed what we United fans have known for sometime. Sir Alex Ferguson is by far the greatest manager to have ever graced the game of football.

Football fans who play the popular Football Manager game series were polled to see who they hold in highest regard with Fergie coming out on top; head and shoulders above anyone else.

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Sir Alex Ferguson is assured legendary status in football and his achievements have been recognised by football fans worldwide - even those that prefer spending their days playing Football Manager than playing football.

Ferguson topped a poll carried out by Sports Interactive (makers Football Manager 2010) with 26 per cent of the vote.

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Diego Simeone's San Lorenzo travelled across the Río De La Plata on Wednesday night for the first leg of their Copa Sudamericana quarter final against Uruguayan opposition Just like the national team a week earlier, they came away with a narrow win, 1-0 over River Plate of Montevideo thanks to a 71st minute header from [. Click to continue reading...

On the day that retired ex River Plate, Argentinos Juniors, Villarreal, Cruzeiro and Argentina full back Juan Pablo Sorín was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Belo Horizonte (the city he's lived in three times during his spells at Cruzeiro), FIFA confirmed that another former Argentina player is held in rather less high esteem. Click to continue reading...

Argentina's 2010 World Cup qualification campaign isn't likely be forgotten easily by anyone who followed it from beginning to end. For anyone who wants to read a little about the likely fallout from the decision to give the managerial job to a certified nutter, without (too much) mention of crotch-grabbing in press conferences, you can [. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

The eighth round of the 2009 Torneo Apertura finally ended on Monday night with the first match of Leonardo Astrada's second spell in charge of River Plate. There wasn't even the shortest of honeymoon periods, though Independiente took a 3-0 lead by half time and only a Marcelo Gallardo penalty with a minute to [. Click to continue reading...

Funny how things come full circle. Back in June, Argentina narrowly beat Colombia on a pitch so bad due to River Plate's decision to stage a rock concert on it a few days previously that Diego Maradona threw a hissy fit which saw the match with Brazil last month moved to Rosario Central's [...] Click to continue reading...

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 [. Click to continue reading...