UD Las Palmas have just completed the signing of 33-year-old Argentine midfielder Gabriel PENALBA from Mexican side Cruz Azul. He was unveiled by the club’s sporting director, Toni CRUZ.
PENALBA will link up with coach Paco JEMEZ whom he played for during their time together in Mexico. He is expected to play a crucial role in helping the club to lift itself out from the bottom of the Spanish league. He will be the fourth Argentine in the La Union Deportiva squad; Jonathan CALLERI, Hernan TOLEDO and Leandro CHICHIZOLA.
Manchester United’s Sergio ROMERO is being linked with River Plate.
The Argentinian giants are reportedly interested in signing the goalkeeper. Ever since Marcelo BAROVERO’s departure to Necaxa, River Plate’s goalkeeping situation has not been too stable. Both Augusto BATALLA and German LUX have made some mistakes which has reportedly made coach Marcelo GALLARDO look for a replacement in between the sticks.
It was announced on Fox Sports Argentina that River Plate are looking into signing ROMERO from Manchester United. It appears as though ROMERO is constantly being linked to a move in every transfer window but with Manchester United recently knocked out of the league cup, matches for the club’s number two goalkeeper will be hard to come by with David DE GEA far and ahead as the number 1 starter for Jose MOURINHO.
With the World Cup in June, it could be possible for ROMERO to make a move in an attempt to get regular playing time.
Luciano VIETTO of Atletico Madrid is edging closer to a loan move to Sporting CP.
According to reports, the former Racing Club and Villarreal man could make a move to Portugal in the January transfer window. A Bola in Portugal is reporting that both Atletico and Sporting CP are close to a deal which would see VIETTO join them until the end of the season with Sporting also working on a 10 million purchase option in the summer.
VIETTO joined Villarreal from Racing Club in the summer of 2014 and impressed scoring 12 goals in 32 league matches for the yellow submarines. He joined Diego SIMEONE’s Atletico Madrid in 2015 but failed to impress where he spent the 2016-2017 season on loan at Sevilla.
Lionel MESSI once more continues to shine in an El Clasico match.
Days after Cristiano RONALDO’s comments about being the best player in the world, Lionel MESSI outshone the Portuguese in the invetible one on one comparison battle between the two. The little number 10 scored and assisted (a ridiculous one at that) in FC Barcelona’s 3-0 win against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeau.
A shaky first half for the Catalan’s saw Real Madrid score through Cristiano RONALDO but the goal was rightly called off due to offside. The second half was an entirely different match. While being man marked by Mateo Kovacic (Croatian international who is in Argentina’s 2018 FIFA World Cup group), the man marking left Ivan RAKITIC (fellow Croat) run freely through the middle of the pitch as he slid a pass to Sergi ROBERTO who then assisted Luis SUAREZ for Barcelona’s first goal.
Ten minutes after the opening goal, Real Madrid’s CARVAJAL stopped a shot from going in with his hand and a penalty was awarded. Up stepped Lionel MESSI who made no mistake, scoring an El Clasico 25th goal. The third goal was MESSI taking MARCELO to the cleaners. With one shoe on and the other on the ground, Lionel dribble through MARCELONA before cutting it back to Aleix VIDAL for the third goal.
Lionel Messi assists in an El Clasico without a shoe.
With his goal against Madrid, MESSI becomes the all time goal scorer for a single European club (in the Top 5 leagues) surpassing Gerd MULLER as Lionel is now on 526 goals.
The past 12 months were an absolutely roller coaster for the Argentina National Team and it’s time to look back at Argentina’s 2017 from a numbers perspective.
Argentina’s 2017 consisted of a total of 10 matches played. Here’s the breakdown in numbers:
Total coaches: 2
Edgardo BAUZA
Jorge SAMPAOLI
Number of players who took part in matches: 50
Augustin MARCHESIN: 1
Alejandro GOMEZ: 4
Angel CORREA: 1
Angel DI MARIA: 10
Cristian PAVON: 2
Dario BENEDETTO: 4
Diego PEROTTI: 2
Eduardo SALVIO: 3
Emanuel MAMMANA: 2
Emiliano INSUA: 1
Emiliano RIGONI: 3
Emmanuel MAS: 1
Enzo PEREZ: 5
Ever BANEGA: 8
Facundo RONCAGLIA: 2
Federico FAZIO: 4
Fernando BELLUSCHI: 1
Fernando GAGO: 1
Gabriel MERCADO: 5
German PEZZELLA: 2
Giovani LO CELSO: 2
Gonzalo HIGUAIN: 2
Guido PIZARRO: 3
Guido RODRIGUEZ: 1
Ignacio FERNANDEZ: 1
Javier MASCHERANO: 6
Javier PASTORE: 2
Joaquin CORREA: 3
Jonathan MAIDANA: 1
Jose LUIS GOMEZ: 1
Lautaro ACOSTA: 2
Leandro PAREDES: 2
Lionel MESSI: 7
Lucas ALARIO: 1
Lucas BIGLIA: 6
Lucas PRATTO: 1
Manuel LANZINI: 2
Marcos ACUNA: 7
Marcos ROJO: 2
Mateo MUSACCHIO: 2
Matias CARUZZO: 1
Matias KRANVITTER: 1
Mauro ICARDI: 3
Nahuel GUZMAN: 1
Nicolas OTAMENDI: 8
Nicolas TAGLIAFICO: 1
Paulo DYBALA: 6
Ramiro FUNES MORI: 1
Sergio AGUERO: 4
Sergio ROMERO: 8
Player with most matches:
Angel DI MARIA (10 appearances in 10 matches)
Argentina’s 2017 Match Record
World Cup Qualifying matches: 6
Friendly matches: 4
Matches won: 5
Matches drawn: 3
Matches lost: 2
Biggest win: 6-0 vs. Singapore
Biggest loss: 2-0 vs. Bolivia, 4-2 loss vs. Nigeria
Argentina World Cup Qualifying Match Record
Matches won in World Cup Qualifiers: 2
Matches drawn in World Cup Qualifiers: 3
Matches lost in World Cup Qualifiers: 1
Argentina Friendly Match Record
Matches won in Friendly matches: 3
Matches drawn in Friendly matches: 0
Matches lost in Friendly matches: 1
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: Argentina sealed 2018 World Cup qualification vs. Ecuador
Goals
Total goals scored: 15
Total goals let in: 8
Goals scored in World Cup Qualifiers: 5
Goals let in World Cup Qualifiers: 4
Goals scored in Friendly matches: 10
Goals let in Friendly matches: 4
Most goals scored in a match: 6
Most goals let in a match: 4
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: A 6-0 victory vs. Singapore was Argentina’s biggest scoreline of the year.
Argentina’s 2017 consisted of having 10 different goal scorers (11 if you count an own goal). The top scorer? Lionel MESSI. The top scorer in World Cup Qualifying? Lionel MESSI. Players to score more than one goal? Lionel MESSI and Sergio AGUERO.
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: Lionel Messi scored 4 goals for Argentina this year.
We will be having our in depth Argentina 2017 Year in Review in the next few days where we will go in detail discussing all the changes which happened surrounding the Argentina National Team this past year.
