U17 apart, this weekend was all about celebration and great performances from our athletes all over the world.

On Saturday, Lionel MESSI was the star of what is, perhaps, the biggest classic match of the world between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Barcelona was behind in the score three times. Three times MESSI levelled and with his hat-trick and Sevilla dropping all three points against Gimnastic, the Catalan giants are back at the top in La Liga.

Another country, another derby, another Argie delivering! Inter were down 1-0 thanks to a sensational strike by Ronaldo (I like the guy! I´m happy he is doing fine after all the injuries and problems he had). Four Argentines were playing for Inter (Walter SAMUEL, Nicolás BURDISSO, Javier ZANETTI (captain) and Hernán CRESPO) but the league-leaders just couldn´t break their neighbours defense…until…Julio CRUZ entered the game replacing Hernán CRESPO and within seconds of doing so and by hitting the first ball that went his way he levelled the score, only to steal the ball and send a perfect pass for Zlatan IBRAHIMOVIC for the second a few minutes later.

The title now for Inter is pretty much in the bag…barring another Italian style match fixing scandal! haha!

But it continued in other sports as well. Guillermo CAÑAS, coming from the qualy as lucky-loser, defeated Roger FEDERER and, by doing so, he preserved Argentine legend Guillermo VILAS´ record of 41 consecutive matches won.

Apart from those sensational performances there were goals from Diego MILITO for Zaragoza (1-1 against Betis), Luciano GALLETTI (Atlético Madrid 2-0 against Deportivo La Coruña), Sergio ALMIRON (Empoli 2-2 against Livorno), Ezequiel GARAY for Racing Santander (1-1 against Espanyol) and Ariel IBAGAZA for Mallorca (they lost 3-1 against Real Sociedad).

Some stats:

70 goals scored by Argentine players in 26 weeks of La Liga.
An average of 2,69 Argentine goals per week in Spain.
Diego MILITO is the top-scorer with 17 goals.

Long gone are the times when any team from Argentina could be any team from Venezuela by a large margin. Prove to that was the sensational Caracas FC´s defeat of River (1-0) in Buenos Aires for the Copa Libertadores during the week.

Now Argentina and its U17 version couldn´t manage to beat Venezuela in the South American tournament and the 1-1 draw leaves us needing a victory in the last game of the first round to avoid any major upset and be eliminated from the tournament.

Colombia are through while Paraguay are the only eliminated side from Group B.

1. Colombia 7 Pts.
2. Argentina 5 Pts.
3. Venezuela 5 Pts.
4. Uruguay 4 Pts.
5. Paraguay 1 Pts.

Now Argentina will face Uruguay and will advance with a win or a draw.

Losing to Uruguay will leave Argentina with another option and that is a win by Colombia against Venezuela.

Let´s hope we won´t be needing a helping hand from elsewhere and win the next one to be a step closer to the U17 World Cup and the PanAm Games.

After an impressive start of the U17 South American tournament in Ecuador, Argentina had to settle with only one point after they drew 0-0 against Colombia.

There were no signs of that scoring machine that tore apart Paraguay only two days ago in our debut. But the team is pretty much on course for the second round as the best three teams from the group of five, will advance to the final round.

One shocking piece of bad news is the injury to the best player of our team, striker Federico LAURITO who plays for Udinese (Italy). During the match against Paraguay, he broke the ligaments of his right knee and will of course miss out on the rest of the tournament. Here´s wishing for a speedy recovery for him.

The next match will be against Venezuela on March 11th before ending the first round participation with the Rio de la Plata derby against Uruguay (March 13th).

It’s always tough to face the first game in any competition. Most of the times, the nerves get to you and they keep you from performing the way you should.

Not today, though!

Argentina defeated Paraguay 4-0 to send a statement to the rest of the teams in the competition.

The goals were scored by Damián MARTINEZ, Cristian GAITÁN, Eduardo SALVIO and Matías QUINTANA