What Lies Ahead
By: Jeremy | April 2nd, 2009Well, 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.
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