Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

To sum it up..... Agassi vs. Puerta...

A tale of two standards.....

2 month suspension for this guy..

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...wNRmgD9C05C4O0

http://oglobo.globo.com/fotos/2009/1...G_maradona.JPG

Bit of a nonsense really as it means he will miss very little.

Indeed.... a friggen' fiasco... aka cover up. Blatter and Don Corleone Grondona are just worried to not mess up the business at South Africa 2010.....

:rolleyes:

So then... what to the resident experts say to the 2-1 defeat against the Spanish Armada..????

A typical meaningless friendly.....it was a fair result.

While its true that most friendly games are meaningless.... its also true that if at these games a team cannot show even a little something of what its got.... imagine when push comes to shove and the pressure is on....?????

Im very very very worried about what this 'team' is going to be able to deliver at the World Cup...

Gaucho100K - Argentina haven't competed in the last few World Cups.....so what's new? They certainly won't in South Africa either no matter who is in charge. Apart from Brazil, Europe has always been stronger in world football, club and internationally.
From what I've seen in the last couple of years watching Argentine domestic games the quality just isn't there anymore. What has surprised me most is the skill element,yes you get the odd flash of brilliance but simple things like passing and controlling the ball as well as keeping possession seem to have disappeared for some reason. :confused:
When one watches European football it is obvious it is streets ahead in all departments....only one player in the Argentine team is world class and can really shine on the world stage....I need not bother mentioning who that is.
There is something far wrong with the game over here....the skill just isn't there any more sad to say.

Most of the talent gets exported out very early to the more wealthy leagues in Europe.... so that indeed has meant that the quality of the local tournament has gone down the drain....

Yes that happens in a lot of countries yet they are still able to have a decent domestic league.

My concern is that the Argentine footballers playing in Europe aren't exactly top notch except one.

I do not agree here. A lot of countries? The only two countries that export talents in a massive way are Brasil and Argentina... I can't recall any other. Both leagues are terrible these days.

PS: Sad note in Paris tonight. La larga mano negra de FIFA otra vez.

Not so sure it's as "massive" as you say. I think you're exaggerating just how much Argentine footballers are in demand. I am only talking about the best players here not the journeymen who don't play for the national team. Heavens - if home based Palermo can still get a game with the national team at his age that would seem to indicate that there aren't that many good foreign based Argentines at the moment.

Anyway using that as an excuse for the deterioration in the domestic game here is pretty lame as the best players being sold abroad has been going on for many many years.......maybe the domestic game here has always been poor?

Sorry Hiddy... but you are wrong. If you compare the Champion team of Mexico 86 to the current National Team, you will see that while in the old seleccion only 2 (two) players played outside the Argentine leagues, this team has only 4 (four) players on the roster that are playing in Argentina.... plus the average age has dropped to less than 23 years when the 86 team had an average age of over 27....

Pro Soccer has changed enormously..... players now leave Argentina at ages of 18-19 years, as they begin their Premiere League careers at ages as early as 16....

I do agree that the current level of the league is pathetic... is you have cable TV then you can watch some of the older games and I do think that the average level some 15 years ago was far superior.

I bow to your superior knowledge Gaucho100K......That is a surprising statistic although 86 is a heck of a long time ago.
So it looks like the quality of players must be blamed on them going to play in Europe rather than them maturing here? Although I guess Brazil has a similar tale to tell but it hasn't stopped them from winning.

Something similar has happened in Scotland - Used to be the likes of the Scandinavian teams were easy meat for Scotland when they met......not any more. I put it down to the standard in rest of the world improving rather than the standard in the Scotland national team deteriorating.

Average skill level in domestic league and World Cup performance are in my book two different chapters. As for the 86 statistics... I just lucked out since I was driving in traffic (EZE rush hour) and was listening to a Soccer program.... they were specifically debating the disasterous level of play of la Seleccion... and one of the reporters dug up the statistics and made the comments I posted above... so I dont deserve the credit... :p