Liverpool's Argentina captain Javier Mascherano has admitted that his international commitments are taking a toll on him.
The combative midfielder thinks that his workload has been too heavy - and the constant globetrotting has left him tired.
Mascherano has made a bad start on his return to England since featuring for Argentina in their final World Cup qualification matches. Click to continue reading...

For some reason I thought news out of the South American country would cool down a little since the national team qualified.
It's still crazy.
This story quotes Maradona, Argentine Football Association head Julio Grondona, Juan Sebastian Veron and a country's newspaper.
Questions and issues are still abound. Click to continue reading...

.What a dramatic turnaround? Well it seems a never ending saga with Diego Armando Maradona being inside a football stadium, be it in the field or out of it. Argentina scraped 0-1 past Uruguay, who were reduced to ten men. However, it was overall a poor match in terms of football qualities. Lionel Messi again failed [. Click to continue reading...

For Europe, South America and the CONCACAF region, yesterday saw the last chance for teams to grab an automatic qualifying place for the 2010 World Cup. It was also the last chance for some teams to claim a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card - or a play-off place, as it's known in football circles.
Here's our round-up of all the important news from each of those regions. Click to continue reading...

Jonas Gutierrez is brought down by Martin Caceres in a momentary lapse of reason. Leo Messi feeds the ball to Juan Sebastian Veron who blasts the ball into a thicket of legs. Luckily for Argentina and Maradona, the ball bounces of a Uruguayan defender straight into the legs of substitute Mario Bolatti who turns the ball past Nestor Muslera in goal.

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Por favor, bajemos un poco la exitoína, guardemos las trompetas y analicemos a nuestra selección. Si, a la que va a estar en el próximo mundial de fútbol, la que clasificó con angustia y la que no se sabe a lo que juega.
Le ganamos a Uruguay después de muchos años y nos trajimos los 3 puntos en una plaza realmente complicada, pero ya lo dijo Juan Sebastian Veron: "Se hizo todo mal de arriba a abajo". Click to continue reading...

By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

Wednesday marks the final round of South America's World Cup qualifying action and all eyes will be on the masterpiece of a match in Montevideo, where Uruguay plays host to Argentina in a "battle of life and death," as one top player put it.

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• Disculpe amigas but Guti and Casillas will not be sharing a candlelight dinner anytime soon. According to AS (not the most reliable source in the world), Casillas yelled at Guti for failing to man-mark Sevilla's players especially Renato on Sunday.

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You know how sometimes big money transfers don't work out? I'm thinking Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea, Juan Sebastian Veron at Man Utd, Denilson at Real Betis etcetera. Well, there were some who thought Barcelona's signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Real Madrid's signing of Cristiano Ronaldo could fall into that category. Click to continue reading...

Working as a freelance journalist has its perks but one of the drawbacks is having free time when the rest of the world is out there earning a crust. This time must be filled somehow and today I found myself perusing the BBC website checking the scores from the early kick offs in the Europa League qualifiers.

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Argentinian football, Premier League new faces and some sad news from Spain all feature in this seasons first good, the bad and the ugly section of languagecaster's football podcast. Click on the links below to find out more on all of these stories.

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Juan Sebastián Verón recently matched his famous father's feat of winning the Copa Libertadores with Estudiantes. But if there were any doubts about Seba being an Estudiantes club legend, he surely sealed the deal this week by taking a voluntary 40% paycut to help the club out financially. It's no secret that Argentinean football is struggling [. Click to continue reading...

Word is Carlos Tevez and Juan Sebastian Veron are missing an upcoming friendly with Russia due to injuries.
That has Argentina's national team coach Maradona very much concerned about his team's health approaching a big World Cup qualifier against Brazil. Click to continue reading...

Veron, Tevez to miss Argentina friendly in Russia

Reuters

August 5, 2009

Juan Sebastian Veron and Carlos Tevez will miss Argentina's friendly against Russia in Moscow next week due to injury, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said on Tuesday.

Striker Tevez called Diego Maradona to say he had aggravated a twisted ankle and midfielder Veron told the coach he had not recovered from a leg muscle injury, AFA said.

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express.co.uk

FERGUSON IN FOR £35M AGUERO

Sunday August 2,2009
By John Richardson

MANCHESTER UNITED boss Sir Alex Ferguson has targeted Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero as the man to provide the missing Old goals.

Argentinian Aguero, 21, is seen as the ideal replacement for Carlos Tevez, having formed a potent partnership with ex-United striker Diego Forlan in La Liga.

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Reuters

Former Argentina skipper Sorin to retire

Former Argentina captain Juan Pablo Sorin announced his retirement from soccer at the age of 33 on Tuesday.

The left back, who led Argentina to the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, had been plagued by injuries during his third spell with Brazilian side Cruzeiro, playing only six matches in the last seven months.

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(calcio risultati: Cruzeiro-Estudiantes 1-2)
Lo zero a zero dell'andata, rimediato in terra argentina soprattutto grazie alla grande prova disputata dal potiere Fabio, autore di parate davvero importanti, consentiva ai brasiliani del Cruzeiro di guardare con fiducia alla gara di ritorno, che si sarebbe giocata nello splendido impianto amico di Belo Horizonte. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
An update on the Mexico v USA World Cup qualifier viewing clusterfuck. In case you haven't seen this already, the game will not be shown on a channel that 99% of us fans can get. Telemundo owns the rights to all games from Mexico, and their plan is to broadcast it in English on a spin-off channel they have called Mun2. Click to continue reading...

Cruzeiro were favourites to win the Copa Libertores final, having held Estudiantes to a 0-0 first leg draw in Argentina thanks to the heroics of Fabio. But it was Estudiantes who won the second leg 2-1 in Brazil. Henrique put Cruzeiro ahead early in the second half, but Estudiantes equalized when Gaston Fernandez tapped in both [. Click to continue reading...

Congratulations to the Argentine champions, Estudiantes for a fantastic run to the Copa Libertadores championship win. After a 0-0 draw in La Plata, Argentina last week, Cruzeiro would have been favourites to win the Copa with home advantage. Estudiantes stormed back from a goal down to upset Cruzeiro with goals from Gaston Fernandez and Mauro Boselli. Click to continue reading...

Congratulations to the Argentine champions, Estudiantes for a fantastic run to the Copa Libertadores championship win. After a 0-0 draw in La Plata, Argentina last week, Cruzeiro would have been favourites to win the Copa with home advantage. Estudiantes stormed back from a goal down to upset Cruzeiro with goals from Gaston Fernandez and Mauro Boselli. Click to continue reading...

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The Chicago Fire moved one step closer to silverware on Wednesday night, riding a Cuauhtemoc Blanco free kick to knock off the New England Revolution, 2-1, in the SuperLiga semifinals.

The victory means the Fire will now face Mexican side Tigres in the SuperLiga final. Tigres defeated Santos Laguna, 3-2, in the second semifinal at Gillette Stadium.

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The Chicago Fire moved one step closer to silverware on Wednesday night, riding a Cuauhtemoc Blanco free kick to knock off the New England Revolution, 2-1, in the SuperLiga semifinals.

The victory means the Fire will now face Mexican side Tigres in the SuperLiga final. Tigres defeated Santos Laguna, 3-2, in the second semifinal at Gillette Stadium.

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Estudiantes win the Copa Libertadores for the fourth time and Juan Sebastian Veron does his father proud as he leads the Argentinians to a come from behind 2-1 victory (his father won the cup three times with Estudiantes). Well done the 'rat-stabbers'. In Europe, transfer fever continues and Tevez crosses the divide from Manchester United to Manchester City, who are still courting Chelsea's John Terry.

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Their first Libertadores title in 39 years. It was a come from behind win as Henrique lashed a shot that took a deflection of a Estudiantes defender and beat Andujar to put Cruzeiro up by a goal in the 52' minute.

But Juan Sebastian Veron in one of his magical moments laid a perfect outlet to Rodrigo Brana who caught up to the ball running onto his right.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has a practical take on morality. Anything benefitting Manchester United is right. Anything hindering Manchester United is wrong. With Manchester City and Real Madrid suddenly able to outbid Manchester United for players. It should surprise no one that the grizzled Scot spoke out for the little man.

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First leg of the 2009 Copa Libertadores final was last night: Estudiantes vs Cruzeiro, a classic Argentina vs Brazil affair. The game in La Plata, Argentina finished goalless, mostly thanks to a superhuman display from Cruzeiro keeper Fábio. You can see his impressive shift above, with five excellent saves in the first minute and fifteen seconds [. Click to continue reading...

Cruzeiro with goalie Fabio kept Los Pincharratas at bay and earned a crucial away draw at the Ciudad de La Plata. Juan Sebastian Veron came out strong in the first half but in a noticeable pattern ran out of steam in the second half. A Raposa came up with some very good chances in the second half to win the match through Leonardo Silva, Kleber, and Wellington but in the end they could not pull of an upset.

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Its an Argentina vs Brazil final. What more can you do to stir passion?

However as Tim Vickery points out, the Copa Libertadores is looked down by many in Brazil even as the clubs fight for the final four spots in the national championships because similar to the European Championships, entry into the Copa yields big financial payoffs and a potential launching pad for players interested in an international career.

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By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

South America will see its Copa Libertadores finalists determined this week when the second legs of the semifinals are sorted out with Club Nacional of Montevideo, Uruguay hosting Argentina's Estudiantes de la Plata in the first match-up tonight while tomorrow's all-Brazilian affair has Gremio welcoming Cruzeiro.

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By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

South America will see its Copa Libertadores finalists determined this week when the second legs of the semifinals are sorted out with Club Nacional of Montevideo, Uruguay hosting Argentina's Estudiantes de la Plata in the first match-up tonight while tomorrow's all-Brazilian affair has Gremio welcoming Cruzeiro.

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Is that Felipão's long lost brother from Estudiantes? Those balloons look lovely on him, by the way! At least El Loco over there came prepared to celebrate his team's 1-0 victory over Nacional in the first leg of their Copa Libertadores semi-final tie last night.

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The faultlines between Julio Grondona and Diego Maradona could deepen if these two cult of personalities square off on the potential inclusion of Juan Roman Riquelme to the national team.

Like Steve McLaren call up of David Beckham in England's faltering Euro 2008 campaign, Riquelme is on Grondona's lips because the Albiceleste are approaching a crisis point under Maradona in their World Cup quest.

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Tomorrow, Estudiantes led by the legendary Juan Sebastian Veron, will fight it out in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores against the Uruguayian team, Defensor Sporting. Estudiantes, currently in sixth place of Argentina's first division managed to stay alive in this popular south American cup. Click to continue reading...

By NESTOR F. SEBASTIAN

Copa Libertadores returns to action and its semifinalists will be determined this week as the second legs of he quarterfinals get underway this week with all four matches pretty tight, making the away-goal rule crucial. Brazil has a great chance of having a champion with four of its representatives in the final eight, which would give it its first title since 2006 when Internacional won it.

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