One of the great disconnects in the Argentina World Cup qualifiers was the anemic performance of Leo Messi when compared to his stellar Barca exploits. It was as if there were two different performers inhabiting the same body.

Maradona might have come to the realization that Messi needs the sort of laissez faire environment that he enjoys at Barca where his creative genius alongside that of Iniesta and Xavi create parallel points of attack.

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Jogaram pelas eliminatórias da América do Sul, em Buenos Aires, no Estádio Monumental de Nunez, para um público de 38.019 pessoas, as seleções da Argentina (6ª no ranking da FIFA) e Peru (74º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
Copa do Mundo - 21-06-1978 - Argentina 6x0 Peru
Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo - 14 jogos, 8 vitórias Argentina, 4 empates, 2 vitórias Peru, 21 gols Argentina, 11 gols Peru. Click to continue reading...

Martin Demichelis arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday for the WC qualifiers and spoke with the media.

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Because of a recent string of injuries Maradona has made changes to the latest call up list for the upcoming Ghana friendly and remaining WC qualifiers.

Martin Demichelis will be called up after all, he'll be replacing Fabricio Coloccini. A less than fit Demichelis is probably better than a 100% fit Coloccini anyhow.

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Maradona arrived in Buenos Aires today from his vacation in Italy and had this to say to the media gathered at the national team training center:

"Here, I am the one who decides everything. The last thing that I would put up with from another person is for something to be imposed on me, I didn't accept it when I was 15 years old, even less now that I am 48.

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Anybody who uses the phrase "Hat's off!" is my kind of fella. That's why I like Mainz coach Thomas Tuchel. Not only has he taken control of his squad with less than a week's notice prior to the start of the season following the dramatic dismissal of his predecessor, but when he masterminded his team's magnificent 2-1 victory over the mighty Bayern Munch at the weekend, he proudly uttered the words "Hats off to my team". Click to continue reading...

Heute wollen wir mal ein Auge auf die Kleinen dieser Fußballwelt werfen. Meist berichten wir ja über die Bayern, die DFB-Elf oder sonst irgendwelche Teams, die eh schon jeder in und auswendig kennt. Unsere kleine aber feine Serie geht heute mit der Nationalelf von Neukaledonien los. Neukaledonien ist eine Inselgruppe im Pazifischen Ozean, die Frankreich zugehört.

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Martin Demichelis and Fernando Gago were injured in practice sessions with their club teams and will not be available for the upcoming friendly against Russia.

Maradona called up Deportivo Espanyol defender Nicolas Pareja to replace Demichelis.

No decision has been made yet about Gago's replacement.

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It´s never a great feeling to lose a final, not matter how much or how little is at stake, but I think we can leave Munich with our heads held high. The team which ripped AC Milan apart the evening before didn´t have a lot of joy against us, despite having the best part of the Allianz stadium cheering them on.

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Argentina got very lucky today when their defender, Cata Diaz scored a spectacular one-touch goal. The main stars of today's game were all defenders - The new goalie, Mariano Andujar had several brilliant saves which gave the fans a sense of great relief once the game started to go Colombia's way.
Argentina's midfield could not control the ball thus disorienting the team and it's offensive strategy. Click to continue reading...

After having successfully answered the questions about whether he was better than Ronaldo or not the next big challenge for Messi is to make sure that Argentina qualify for the World Cup.
If Argentina fail to beat Colombia on Saturday they risk missing out on the World Cup altogether.
Maradona has made a few changes in the squad - Estudiantes captain Veron returns to the side to replace Juan Roman Riquelme.

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Diego Maradona has called his roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers for Argentina. Los Albicelestes currently sit in 4th place in the CONMEBOL standings and look to win both of their upcoming matches to secure their place in South Africa 2010.

Among the surprises on the roster is Cristian Gimenez.

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Following from yesterday's post claiming that D'Alessandro and Guiñazu had been announced in Maradona's latest Argentina squad, I can confirm that the pair have not be called up.
To clarify the situation, the full Argentina squad for their qualifiers against Colombia and Ecuador is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Juan Pablo Carrizo, Mariano Andujar and Federico Vilar
Defenders: Javier Zanetti, Gabriel Heinze, Daniel Diaz, Nicolas Burdisso, Martin Demichelis, Emiliano Papa, Juan Forlin, Marcos Angeleri, Nicolas Otamendi
Midfielders: Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago, Maxi Rodriguez, Jonas Gutierrez, Christian Gimenez, Sebastian Battaglia, Juan Sebastian Veron, Daniel Montenegro
Strikers: Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Lisandro Lopez, Diego Milito, Gonzalo Bergessio Click to continue reading...

Inter bad boy Adriano, fresh from him timeout in Brazil last season, greets Bayern's Martin Demichelis with an elbow, who does not appreciate the gesture. Bet L'Imperatore knows where Martin is from, too. (Lennart Preiss/AFP/Getty Images) Click to continue reading...

Lets start off with Jonathan Bottinelli.
Bottinelli is 23 years old, a defender for Argentinian side San Lorenzo. Bottinelli has also been called up for the Argentina international squad when Martin Demichelis was forced to serve a ban. In 5 seasons at San Lorenzo, Bottinelli had amassed 116 caps with 9 goals for San Lorenzo.

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