How Things Stand
By: Jeremy |
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Well, the games are over and only four weeks of matches remain. The top three all won, while fourth place colon only managed a draw against a Racing side desperate to pick up points.
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The Title Chase
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Last time out we took a look at the relegation fodder. Now we turn out attention to the top of the table. With five games to go, only one team is mathematically eliminated – Gimnasia (J). That doesn’t mean that all the other are in the running, however.
Category: UncategorizedRelegation Race
By: Jeremy | Add Comments
With five matches to go, it’s time to start thinking about those teams that won’t grace us with their presence in the A next year.
Gimnasia (J) are rock bottom and only a miracle would keep them from direct relegation. At best they can rise to 18th and play the 3rd place finisher from the B. 17th place is out of the question, so the most they can hope for is a promotion play-off against the stronger of the two teams participating in the promotion play-offs from the B.
And by hope I mean they would need to pick up 12 points on Gimnasia (LP). Not likely to happen. Failing that, they would need to gain 13 points over San Martin de Tucuman. Stick a fork in them.
Gimnasia (LP) occupies the other direct relegation spot, but they only need to pick up 2 points to vault San Martin (T) into the first promotion playoff spot and then gaining 10 points over Rosario Central would see them to safety. They won’t make it to safety.
San Martin sits 18th, in the first promotion play-off slot, clinging to a one point lead over Gimnasia (LP) and trailing Racing (in the last safety spot) by 8 points. I’m thinking 18th is where the finish.
Central sit in the last play-off spot, a mere three points behind Racing, who lost a huge three points to San Martin last weekend. They are probably too far ahead of the teams behind them, so direct relegation is not looking likely. Worst case is finishing where they are at and playing the 4th place finisher from the B for the right to play in the A next season.
Racing Club hold a three point lead over Rosario Central with five games to play. They already played Central, winning 1-0. So they control their fate. I’m guessing Caruso Lombardi keeps them up.
Barring a complete meltdown, the team in front of Racing, Banfield is safe. They hold an 8 point lead over Central and 5 on Racing. There is probably the slightest bit of nerves going on there, but picking up any points will totally calm them down.
Everyone else is safe. While there are some mathematical possibilities left, the Moon, planets, stars and a few other things would all have to align, so no one else is worried.
The winner of this weekend’s match between San Martin and Gimnasia (LP) will most likely decide who gets the automatic drop and who faces a play-off. My gut says San Martin stay up, but what would the A look like with no Gimnasias?
Category: UncategorizedWhat Lies Ahead
By: Jeremy | Add Comments
Well, I thought I would wait a day to see if I could gain any perspective on the Massacre in La Paz. Maybe I would find some little nugget of comfort or two. But no. They aren’t there. Wednesday was what Wednesday was. There worst international defeat, ever. They lost by the same score in a World Cup about 50 years ago to the Czech Republic.
Maradona’s challenge has arrived. Luckily he has until June to do it, but somehow he has to put the pieces back together again. What was looking like a slam dunk qualification has now been put somewhat into doubt, as the albiceleste are in the fourth and final automatic slot. They lead Uruguay by two points, but have yet to play in Montevideo.
What remains for Argentina is six games.
- Home against Colombia, who are desperate for points as they currently sit fifth, three behind Uruguay.
- Away to Ecuador, who are also three points adrift of Uruguay and will present some altitude issues.
- Home against Brasil, who sit second and well it’s Brasil.
- Away to Paraguay, top of table.
- Home against Peru, should be an easy W but we’ll see.
- Away to Uruguay, circle this one.
While fifth place Uruguay play Brasil next, they have already played both matches against leaders Paraguay and third place Chile. With both Brasil and Argentina going to Montevideo, their schedule definitely appears to be easier than Argentina’s.
June’s match against Colombia has suddenly taken on a more urgent note for Argentina, as they will be looking to take maximum points from Colombia, and not doing so will be viewed as a large failure.
With six games still to go, it is hard to predict anything, but Argentina’s final match at Uruguay could well determine who makes it in and who has to play the fourth team from the CONCACAF.
Hopefully Diego will get it together and this past match will become an anomaly in an otherwise fine-ish qualifying campaign. If he fails to do so, he can’t blame Basile. The team was in third when Alfio left.
Category: UncategorizedWeekend Report
By: Jeremy | Add Comments
Not much going on down in Argentina, what with the club teams off and all. And while you may not have heard, a squat little fella seems to have had a good first day at the office.
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Category: UncategorizedBurruchaga Raises the Unemployment Rate in Argentina
By: Jeremy | 5 Comments
Yep, on the same weekend that Pepe Santoro won and quit, Banfield’s Jorge Burruchaga put an end to his tenure as coach today after beating Arsenal 2-0 yesterday.
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Category: UncategorizedSantoro Leaves On Own Terms
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Despite soundly thumping (and this hurts to write) Newell’s Old Boys 4-1 at home on Friday night, Pepe Santoro stepped down as coach of Independiente after the game.
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Category: UncategorizedWhat A Friday!
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Two games and 10, as in nine plus one, goals. In the first game, Gimnasia de Jujuy showed off their brand spankin’ new coach,Héctor Arzubialde, and overwhelmed Pepe Santoro’s Independiente 4 -1 (plus they had one called off). Ouch. I’ve said before that Gimnasia weren’t that bad this season even though results would indicate otherwise, but man they really teed off on el Rojo. Video after the break.
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Category: UncategorizedAnother Coaching Casualty
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Following Estudiantes defeat to Deportivo Quito in Ecuador in a Group 5 Copa Libertadores tie, head coach Leonardo Astrada resigned, citing the run of bad results as the reason.
Early talk for replacements includes two groups of co-coaches – Alejandro Sabella and Julián Camino with Fernando Gamboa and Ariel Zapata also getting mentioned. Sabella has tons of coaching experience as Daniel Passarella number 2, and I have to admit that I don’t know much about Camino, other than I think he and Sabella were teammates on title winning Estudiantes’ squads back in the 80’s.
Gamboa has fresh coaching experience with Newell’s Old Boys while Ariel Zapata just retired from playing for Newell’s.
I can understand the Sabella/Camino thing, but I’m not sure where the Gamboa/Zapata combo comes from. I’ve got to think another candidate will come forward in the next day or two, so we’ll see who gets the nod.
Category: UncategorizedRiquelme Quits Maradona
By: Jeremy | 4 Comments
Just a short time after Diego named him to the squad to face Venezuela and Bolivia, Juan Roman Riquelme announced his retirement from the national team. This came as quite a shock to most people, including me and Diego.
He said that the thought of Riquelme retiring never entered his mind. Juan Roman said that he and Diego couldn’t get along because they think differently and have a different code of ethics. So he decided to quit the national team at 30. Even if Diego gets the axe after 2010, Riquelme would be pretty old in footballing years by the time 2014 rolls around, so he is effectively ending his World Cup career.
While he didn’t say exactly what the differences were, he did say they had something with where Diego wanted him to play.
Earlier Diego had said that he needed Riquelme to provide cover in the last 20 meters for Tevez/Messi/Aguero and not playing farther back and taking the ball from Demichelis or dancing around Mascherano and Gago.
Another possible reason is that Riquelme claims to have found more things out about his participation in the Selection from tv or radio sources than from Diego or Bilardo directly.
Who knows if Diego can smooth this out, but I am inclined to think that this could ultimately be a good thing for Argentina. I’m not wanting to say that Riquelme is selfish on the pitch, but he does seem to want to be the centerpiece, whether he is playing well or not. In fairness, on his club teams a lot pressure is on his shoulders to win, and maybe he can’t switch that off when he plays for Argentina. This could wind up to be like Henry to Barcelona for Arsenal last year.
Crazy things in Argentina this week.
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