Thursday, January 12, 2006

Argentina in Crisis?

With key players injured, the first team not decided and only one game left before the World Cup, could one of the most fancied teams in the tournament be in crisis?

Since qualifying for Germany with a 3-1 over holders Brazil, and 3 games to spare, Argentina's fortunes have taken a downturn. They finished second to Brazil in their qualifying group after they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Paraguay, and lost 3-2 in a friendly match against England.

Then came the World Cup draw, where they were placed in the 'Group of Death' with the Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro and the Netherlands.

There have also been numerous injuries in the squad, with Ayala, Macherano, Sorin and Heinze out, with Heinze possibly remining injured until after the competition.

Added to the fact that manager Bielsa has used more than 50 different players since his appointment in October 2004, and things don't look good.

Having said all of that, it's easy to be sensationalist about World Cup teams, especially when it happens to be one of the competition's favourites.

The truth is, the competition is still 5 months away, only Heinze seems a doubt for the tournament, and even in the narrow defeat to England Argentina showed signs of the kind of play that saw them beat Brazil in June.

I'd still put them as second favourites with England to win the tournament...

Full story at http://soccernet.espn.go.com/..

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Posted by Chris @ 2:52 PM.

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