Ever since I started playing these games in 1998 I became a huge fan and I think I’m slightly addicted to Fantasy Sports.

I’m playing Yahoo! Fantasy Football (NFL), Basketball (NBA), Baseball (MLB) and the UEFA.com versions of the Fantasy Champions League and UEFA Cup.

But one of the Fantasy games I enjoy the most is the Premier League version.

I’ve discovered that besides playing it just for fun, you develop a great knowledge of every sport by following players and teams you barely knew they existed.

This time around, I’ve come up with the idea of creating a league for us, regulars of this blog, so we can play together.

The season starts on August 5th so we’ve got one week before kick-off and I’m sure we’re going to have some fun.

What we can do is: send me your preferred e-mail address to argentina.correspondent@gmail.com and I’ll send you the invitation to join our league.

In the meantime, you can go directly to http://fantasy.premierleague.com and create your team right away. Rules and instructions are easy to find.

Hope you’ll join me and if this is your first season, I’m sure you’ll thank me for this invitation!

Oh…and by the way…if there are Fantasy players out there and you know a good free Fantasy game for the following european leagues, just let me know:

-Spain
-Italy
-France
-Germany

I’m trying to find a game similar to the Premier League one but so far I had no luck!

As I keep on writing the basketball world championships preview (it’ll soon be ready) and I’m yet to start an article about the coming Apertura Tournament, here are a few pieces of news about Argentina.

NO BAFANA-BAFANA THIS TIME:

The friendly match against South Africa, originally scheduled for August 15th, then postponed, then scheduled again was officially cancelled. That decision came due to a lack of time to organise it. As BASILE is prepared to take over in Argentina, Carlos Alberto PARREIRA, Brazil’s manager in USA 94 and Germany 2006 have signed a pre-contract with the South African FA and will most probably become the manager of the host of the next World Cup.
In the agenda there is a visit to Europe OR the USA for two friendly matches in September. No rival has been confirmed yet.

BASILE IS NEXT, BUT WHEN?

A great controversy is on the menu these days between Boca Juniors and the AFA. BASILE feels he is in between the devil and the deep blue sea as his club, with which he has a contract until December, and the AFA continue to argue regarding the right time for BASILE to make the transition. The AFA want him immediately, while Boca Juniors feel they have not time to look for another manager with the Apertura tournament around the corner. They will even consider to ask the AFA for a postponement of their first couple of matches of that tournament if they can’t find a solution.

“I WISH I COULD PLAY WITH TEVEZ AND KUN”

In an interview published this Friday by OLE (a sports newspaper from Buenos Aires), Lionel MESSI said he is still sorry for playing little time in Germany. He also said he can’t wait for the season to get started with FC Barcelona and that he would love to play for Argentina alongside his friend Sergio “KUN” AGÜERO. MESSI said: “Football is more beautiful when you play it short passes. I know BASILE has an attacking mentality and I love that.”

A RABBITT STAYING IN BARCELONA?

MESSI could have another co-countryman playing in his club after the departure of Maxi LOPEZ (now playing at Mallorca). Javier SAVIOLA is yet to find a club who want to buy him and he is training with Catalan club. Txiki BEGIRISTAIN, an important directive in Barcelona, said that if by the 31st of July, SAVIOLA didn’t find a club to play for, he will stay and he will probably play some minutes this season. He will have a tough competition for places with the likes of RONALDINHO, MESSI, ETO’O, EZQUERRO, GIULY and GUDJOHNSEN ahead of him in the pecking order.

SORIN MOVING TO ENGLAND?

Bolton Wanderers and Villarreal reached an agreement on Argentina’s skipper Juan Pablo SORIN. It is yet to be determined if the English club can pay what SORIN is asking. If the deal comes through, it will be SORIN’s sixth different country in his career after playing in Argentina, Italy, Spain, Brazil and France.

UNOFFICIAL DEBUT FOR ABBONDANZIERI

Argentina’s goalkeeper during the last World Cup have played in a friendly match for his new club Getafe. They have won 3-2 against the little club Gimnástica Segoviana. Alongside PATO ABBONDANZIERI, Lucas LITCH ex Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata in Argentina, also made his debut for Getafe.

BASKETBALL:
ARGENTINA WINS FIRST FRIENDLY

With all the key players taking part of the match, Argentina defeated Venezuela 96-82 at Mar del Plata. It was the first friendly in the preparation for the World Championships in Japan (starting on August 19th against France). Manu GINOBILI scored 20 points and the crowd was really excited to see the Olympic Champions in action for the first time in Argentina after that incredible victory in Athens 2004.
This weekend Argentina will play a friendly Super-4 tournament with Brazil, New Zeland and Venezuela.

It is confirmed. Alfio BASILE will be Argentina’s manager until South Africa 2010. There are no more questions about it.

The big story these days in Argentina is when will he leave BOCA JUNIORS to concentrate full time on his national manager role.

Apparentely, that novel is near the end now and he will step out of BOCA when his off-season tour of Mexico is over in the next few days.

A member of BASILE’s staff in BOCA (Jorge RIBOLZI) will take over as an interim manager until Mauricio MACRI (BOCA’s president) finds the right man to become the next full time manager.

So far, Diego MARADONA, Marcelo BIELSA and Ricardo LA VOLPE have rejected the chance of succeeding BASILE at the helm of the most popular club in Argentina.

In other news, Argentina’s friendly match against South Africa (originally scheduled for August 15th) was postponed but now it looks like there are chances for it to be played in Cape Town.

If it’s confirmed, this could mark BASILE’s debut.

There are rumours of Argentina going to play a friendly in Japan and another in Korea in November.

The rest is still a mystery.

Hi everybody, I’ve been away from the computer for a couple of days and so I didn’t update this blog during the weekend.

There were not so many news worthy of a mention but here are some things that happened while I also start to take a look at what’s coming up in this blog.

-BASILE went to Mexico with BOCA JUNIORS and they won the Copa Puebla (a friendly contest against Mexican side CRUZ AZUL. They won the penalty shoot-out after a 2-2 draw (with both of BOCA’s goals coming from cult hero Guillermo BARROS SCHELOTTO).

-Mauricio MACRI is also in Mexico and he will meet up with Ricardo LA VOLPE to talk about his possible role as manager of BOCA JUNIORS.

-Diego MARADONA has been offered the job by MACRI before, but the legendary champion of the World in 1986 said ‘No, thank you’.

-Carlos TEVEZ returned to action for CORINTHIANS (Brazil). He scored in a 2-2 draw against FORTALEZA and he made a gesture towards his team’s supporters asking for silence, after the ‘torcida’ spent most of the game and the previous days, insulting their players for a bad run of results that have them in the relegation zone. After the match, the CORINTHIANS supporters waited for TEVEZ outside the stadium and they insulted him for a while. One fan even kicked TEVEZ’s car when he was leaving the stadium.

-Juan Pablo SORIN could be on his way to BOLTON WANDERERS. An offer by the English Premiership outfit has been accepted by VILLARREAL but now it remains to be seen if STUTTGART, PORTSMOUTH and INTER MILAN will continue to fight for Argentina’s captain.

-Javier SAVIOLA could also be on his way to BOLTON. No further news about his situation, but a move to the Reebok Stadium looks probable.

What’s next?

-We’ll take a look to the national basketball team and its final preparation towards Japan 2006.

-We anticipate the start of the Apertura and the most important leagues in Europe, following the argentine players every weekend.