Wednesday’s NewsWrap

August 9, 2006

ARGENTINA TO FACE CHINA AND JAPAN

After Alfio BASILE’s debut friendly match against Brazil in Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London (Sept. 3rd) there is more information regarding the future friendlies for the remainder of this year. And it is with great enthusiasm that I have to let you know that Argentina will be playing a friendly match against both, China and Japan! Argentina will visit Asia and will play on October 7th and 11th. Venues and other details are yet to be confirmed.

PROBABLE NAMES AGAINST BRAZIL

It is known that BASILE has a lot of favourite players still competing in our local league (Fernando GAGO, Sebastián BATTAGLIA, Hugo IBARRA and Rodrigo PALACIO to name a few), but for the friendly against Brazil in London, he will call up a team formed exclusively by footballers playing outside Argentina, mostly in Europe, of course. There is another little thing to that, BASILE will not only pay attention to La Liga and Serie A. He’ll concentrate in other leagues because he wants to have players with a little bit more activity. Of course there’ll be exceptions to this and I hope to see MESSI and AGÜERO, to name just two. With this scenario, the names dancing in COCO’s head are:

Clemente RODRIGUEZ (left back) and Fernando CAVENAGHI (centre forward) –both playing for Spartak Moscow-

Daniel BILOS (midfielder-forward, playing for Saint Ettiene in France);

Federico INSUA (playmaker, playing for Borussia Moengengladbach in Germany) and Martin DEMICHELIS (midfielder, Bayern Munich, Germany);

Gabriel HEINZE (defender, Manchester United, England) and Gabriel PALETTA (defender, Liverpool, England).

And finally the Corinthians duo Carlos TEVEZ and Javier MASCHERANO.

These look like certainties, but nothing is confirmed yet. We’ll have to wait and see. And of course, due to the contract signed by AFA with the Russian company (RENOVA), BASILE will have to call up 8 players from the World Cup squad plus: Germán LUX, Gonzalo RODRIGUEZ, Leandro SOMOZA, Hernan PELLERANO, Fernando GAGO, Federico INSUA and Fernando BELLUSCHI.

BASKETBALL: Argentina to play in Singapore

Roy Nemer

August 9, 2006

BASKETBALL TEAM WILL PLAY THE MERLION CUP IN SINGAPORE

The next and final step in Argentina’s warm up period before the World Championships in Japan will take place in Singapore. After a series of friendlies in Argentina and a friendly tournament in Spain (beating Lithuania and losing to Spain in the final), Manu GINOBILI and his team-mates will visit Singapore and will face Serbia & Montenegro this Friday in the start of the Merlion Cup. The game is scheduled for 6:15 PM local time (7:15 AM Buenos Aires).

Slovenia and Spain are the other two teams taking part of this four-team tournament.

In other news, in a poll conducted by FIBA in their official website (www.fiba.com), 54% of the 13.000 voters said that France have no chance of beating Argentina in both teams’ debut in the World Championships. 41% said France will win it narrowly while the remaining 5% said they will win it easily.

HERRMANN BECOMES THE FIFTH ARGENTINE IN THE NBA

With Michael JORDAN’s approval, the Charlotte Bobcats will announce sometime during the World Championships in Japan, the signing of small forward Walter HERRMANN for one season. He will have to fight for a place with rookie sensation Adam MORRISON and with Bernard ROBINSON and he will be lucky if he plays some quality time this season.

He joins Manu GINOBILI and Fabricio OBERTO (San Antonio Spurs); Andres NOCIONI (Chicago Bulls) and Carlos DELFINO (Detroit Pistons). But I feel particularly happy for Walter after all his personal tragedies in the past (his mother, his sister and his girlfriend die in a car accident on their way to watching him play in a match. That terrible tragedy happened just one year after his dad’s death). Despite these horrible things, he kept fighting in every game. He shone in Spain’s ACB and now he has his reward in joining the best league in the World. He is a true warrior (like his nickname in Spanish suggests: EL GUERRERO). So I’m sure he will keep it up!

VAMOS WALTER! Congratulations!

Under 20 begin their preparation tonight

Roy Nemer

August 9, 2006

After PEKERMAN’s resignation there were changes in the AFA staff but some names remain the same. Hugo TOCALLI, PEKERMAN’s assistant manager during the last World Cup takes control of the Under 20 National Team and he will have his debut tonight in a friendly match against Australia.

The 5-time Youth World Cup winning team (Japan ’79 with MARADONA, Qatar ’95, Malaysia ’97, Argentina 2001 and Holland 2005) are preparing for the South American tournament (to be played in January 2007 in Paraguay). That competition will also serve as a qualifying tournament for the Under 20 World Cup in Canada.

But tonight, the brightest names won’t be present for Argentina. Players like Lionel MESSI or Sergio AGÜERO will not be part of the team and it is a big doubt they will join TOCALLI’s army in the near future.

MESSI has already won a Youth World Cup and he has a World Cup under his belt. It is very unlikely that he will go back to a youth level competition.

On the other hand, KUN will be granted the space and the freedom he needs to face his first season in La Liga, playing for Atletico Madrid. Besides, his situation could change if Alfio BASILE decides to call him up for the ‘big boys’.

In any case, MESSI and KUN are very high profile names and it was pretty obvious for them not to play tonight in a game with nothing at stake. There are, however, a lot of well known players also ignored for tonight’s match.

In fact, the game for tonight will be formed by virtually unknown players or young talents with no experience in the first division.

This is the probable starting eleven:

Goalkeeper:
Javier GARCIA
Defense:
Fabián CORONEL
Julián FAZIO
Matías CAHAIS
Gonzalo GARCIA
Midfield (with a lot to be confirmed)
TORRES or ACOSTA
YACOB or GONZALEZ
Sebastián BATTAGLIA (not the one playing in Boca Juniors for several years. He has the same name and surname!)
BRUNO or DE MARIA
Attack:
Juan ANTONIO
Emilio ZELAYA

Kick-off will be tonight at 9:30 PM (Buenos Aires) (1:30 AM London, 8:30 PM New York).

Apertura – 1st Week

Roy Nemer

August 6, 2006

The first week of the season is over and with it we can see a little bit more of the same.

Boca and River have won their respective matches and will fight for the title like every six months.

In Argentina there are 5 clubs considered big powers. Historically these teams are the ones with more titles, more supporters and of course, more media coverage.

This weekend, all of them have won.

On Friday, Racing played horribly but managed to beat Nueva Chicago 2-0.

Saturday saw their bitter rivals, Independiente (the club where Kun AGÜERO used to play) beating Colon de Santa Fé. Independiente came from one goal behind to win 4-1 and send a message to all the other clubs.

Early on Sunday, San Lorenzo de Almagro (managed by Oscar RUGGERI) travelled to the north of our country to face the newly promoted Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy and they won 1-0 in a tricky venue.

Later on, Boca Juniors played to a goal-less first half against Banfield but Martin PALERMO (2) and Sebastián BATTAGLIA provided the fire for BASILE’s team to win 3-0, with another fine performance by Fernando GAGO in the centre of midfield.

And to finish the weekend for the “5 Grandes”, River Plate won away against Lanus. Ariel ORTEGA made a comeback for his former team but it was Gonzalo HIGUAIN who sent a cross for an own goal by VELAZQUEZ and then scored himself to put River 2-0 up.

In other news, Juan Sebastian VERON made his second coming for Estudiantes de La Plata and was active in the creative process for his team’s one and only goal in their defeat of Quilmes.

Cristian ‘KILY’ GONZALEZ is another ex-Inter playing again in Argentina. But he had another kind of luck. His team, Rosario Central, lost against Belgrano de Córdoba and KILY saw the red card in his first match in Argentina after his European experience.

Newell’s Old Boys shocked everyone by easily defeating Velez Sarsfield 3-0.

Argentinos Juniors (Diego MARADONA’s first club) won 1-0 against new boys Godoy Cruz de Mendoza, while on Saturday, Arsenal (not the one from Highbury, of course!) defeated Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata 3-1.

Did you get to see any of the action?

What do you think of the start of this season in Argentina?

Football is back!

Roy Nemer

August 4, 2006

I just came back from the stadium after watching my team Racing Club defeat the newly promoted Nueva Chicago in the start of the Apertura tournament in Argentina.

Great atmosphere, great expectation but a horrible game of football.

We won 2-0 thanks to two penalties, very well taken by former Fulham striker, Facundo SAVA (pictured below). But that was it. Nueva Chicago was the better team in the first half and they deserved a little bit more.

The best thing of the night????

I saw my childhood friend Juan Manuel passing besides me and as I recognised him we couldn’t believe it!

I watched the whole match with him talking about life and everything that happened to us since the last time we saw each other.

This is like the 4th time I lost touch with him only to see him again in the stadium 2 or 3 years later!

I’m way much happier about this encounter than with the result!

I’ll publish some pictures and hopefully some videos too (as soon as I have the time).

Hopefully, the pics and the videos will help you to see just a little glimpse of how we live football in this part of the World.

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