In 1994, when Diego Maradona played his last match for Argentina, you could have got very long odds on him one day becoming the manager of the national side. What about the likelihood that his first match in charge would take place against the same country he scored his first senior international goal against? Click to continue reading...

That's 'Pre Diego', for those who can't work it out. The Argentina manager and most of his squad have arrived in Glasgow and begun training for Wednesday's friendly against Scotland in the city where Maradona scored his first senior goal for his country, back in 1979. It makes sense, then, to take a quick look at [. Click to continue reading...

The squad as expected by the Argentine press (and subsequently here) prior to Diego Maradona's first press conference as Argentina boss yesterday turned out to be not quite accurate, so here's the list as announced by the man himself in that press conference, along with a bit of opinion (my own and others') on it. Click to continue reading...

The AFA will hold their press conference in a few hours' time to allow Diego Armando Maradona to announce his first Argentina squad (read on to see who's made it), and already there's controversy surrounding the nature of the appointment (not to mention the exclusions of three key players). Maradona declared on Radio La Red [. Click to continue reading...

It's been a relatively quiet week for Argentines in Europe, with most of those who represented the selección during the week still recuperating from their journey home. In the wake of Alfio Basile's resignation as Argentina boss though, this weekend was a chance for certain other hopefuls to prove to the next man that they [. Click to continue reading...

After finally ending a run of six matches without defeat in a 2-1 win over Uruguay on Saturday, Argentina followed it up on Wednesday night by losing to trans-Andean neighbours Chile for the first time ever in a competitive match. It was a win Marcelo Bielsa's team thoroughly deserved, and followed on from Paraguay's one-goal [. Click to continue reading...

As ever, Coco Basile won't be revealing his starting XI until very shortly before kick off in Santiago, but with Juan Román Riquelme having rejoined the Boca Juniors squad to prepare for Sunday's superclásico following his suspension and with Carlos Tevez also ruled out, it's thought after the team's final training session at Ezeiza on [. Click to continue reading...

Friday is the last full day of training for Argentina's squad ahead of the World Cup qualifying clásico against Uruguay in the Monumental on Saturday. It's been a disrupted week for Alfio Basile's men but on Thursday, Juan Román Riquelme returned to training with the squad. Things aren't all quite to plan so far, though - [. Click to continue reading...

Two pieces of news regarding Argentine selecciones today, both of which took place on Sunday whilst the league action was going on. In the Brazil 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup, Argentina drew 2-2 against Ukraine in a frantic end to a highly entertaining match which saw all the goals come in the closing minutes (in spite [. Click to continue reading...

The Argentina squad for the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers against Paraguay in Buenos Aires, and Peru in Lima, has been almost finalised prior to the weekend's domestic action in Argentina, after which three Boca Juniors players will be added to the list. Alfio Basile has called up Getafe defender Daniel Díaz to replace Nicolás Burdisso, [. Click to continue reading...

So, maybe I forgot or just didn't do my homework but last night Argentina played Belarus in Minsk in a friendly.  Well, I really didn't miss much. Despite the presence of first team regulars Tevez, Burdisso, Cambiasso and Zanetti the albicelestes could not take advantage. The score ended up being 0-0 with few chances at goal by Argentina.

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To avoid any possible confusion should anyone be typing in terms to search engines looking for Argentine national team news today, I'll start by pointing out that this has nothing at all to do with the Olympic Football Tournament. Argentina's senior side (minus Riquelme and Mascherano of course) take on Belarus in Minsk at 8pm local [. Click to continue reading...

As if to prove that he can put together quite a handy team without including the Olympic-bound Lionel Messi, Juan Román Riquelme, Sergio Agüero et al, Alfio Basile has named the Argentina squad to face Belarus in a friendly in Minsk, two weeks from today (Weds). There are a couple of surprises in the all-Europe [. Click to continue reading...

River Plate may have just won the title after a long wait but manager Diego Simeone already knows he's still got to find a few missing pieces in the jigsaw to get the side playing the way he'd like. One very important piece he already had is now out of the equation, though: his passport [...] Click to continue reading...

With the transfer market already officially open, River are after quite a few players. Ex-players Roberto Ayala, Pablo Aimar, and Santiago Solari have already backed off, so here's a list with the current candidates to reinforce the squad:

Goalkeepers: Nicolas Navarro (Napoli), Mariano Barbosa (Free Agent; ex-Banfield and Villarreal), Mariano Andujar (Estudiantes; very complicated).

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Many false rumours are being thrown around in the transfer market nowadays, but with the highly likely departures of Radamel Falcao Garcia and Sebastian Abreu, Aguilar is said to be seriously considering reinforcing the squad with a new striker.

To the surprise of many, one of the "stronger" names will actually be one that is well known to River fans already. Click to continue reading...

With the completion of the two-match 'tour' of the United States on Sunday, the Argentina squad returned to Buenos Aires to begin preparations for the next round of South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. On Sunday, Argentina will host Ecuador in El Monumental, before travelling to take on Brazil in Belo Horizonte [. Click to continue reading...

River Plate defeated Olimpo by 2-1 for the eighteenth round of the Torneo Clausura 2008. Due to a combination of both this and Estudiantes' goal-less draw with Colon, "los Millonarios" were able to lift their 33rd Argentine League trophy.

River played an overall good game. Diego Simeone's team was able to go up 1-0 in the first half, after Diego Buonanotte successfully scored a previously-prepared set-piece.

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It took a lot of digging deep in Sunday's match against a spirited and highly motivated Olimpo, but after four long years River Plate are finally able to call themselves champions of Argentina again. Thanks to a stellar performance from young gun Diego Buonanotte, Diego Simeone's side claimed the club's 33rd professional league title, beating the [. Click to continue reading...

This wasn't posted with the rest of the goal videos on Monday evening because I didn't want it to overshadow them, or vice versa, in people's attention. So, here is a nice long video for any Boca Juniors fans who want to re-live their side's 1-0 victory over River Plate in La Bombonera on Sunday [. Click to continue reading...

It's been four years since Boca Juniors last beat River Plate in La Bombonera, during which time their sole consolation has been that River haven't won any trophies and they have done. On Sunday, though, with River arriving in La Boca on top of the league table, the run came to an end thanks to [.. Click to continue reading...

Apologies for the lack of coverage of Saturday's matches - my phone line (and with it my broadband) crashed on Saturday morning and was only fixed on Sunday - but the first competitive superclásico of 2008 is now just a few hours away. I type during the first few minutes of the Milan derby, but the [. Click to continue reading...

River Plate will be going into next weekend's superclásico looking down on Boca Juniors from the top of the Primera A table, after they returned to winning ways against Argentinos Juniors thanks to a spectacular performance from their teenage wunderkid Diego Buonanotte. El Enano scored twice, was key in the third, and showed composure and [. Click to continue reading...

River Plate became the fourth Argentine club in the last 16 of the 2008 Copa Libertadores on Thursday night thanks to an easy home win over Peru's San Martín de Porres in the Monumental. Any result would have done for River as long as they didn't lose by more than one goal, but once Sebastián [.. Click to continue reading...

When River Plate visited Tigre during the Clausura, the result was a 4-1 win for the hosts that pushed Daniel Passarella a little bit closer to the exit door at River. Today was the rematch, and the Millonarios showed just what a difference Diego Simeone is making at the club; they didn't play particularly well [. Click to continue reading...

There was a summit meeting tinged with sadness in Liniers on Sunday afternoon, as Vélez Sársfield, top with 13 points but having lost a fan a week ago to the ongoing violence in the country's footballing climate, hosted River Plate for the right to top the table as the first third of the 2008 Clausura [. Click to continue reading...

River desperately needed a win on Wednesday night to get their Copa Libertadores campaign up and running, but played underwhelmingly and were only drawing with tough opponents, unable to make the breakthrough in the second half. And then up popped one of the club's icons to give all three points to the Millonarios. Click to continue reading...

Well, that's one way to do it. Carlos Ischia wasn't the Boca fans' choice of new manager, and his appointment caused some anger towards Pedro Pompilio when the latter first unveiled him, but on Saturday night, in the Estadio Mundialista of Mar del Plata, he took a huge step to winning over the fans: He [. Click to continue reading...

So, it turned out on Sunday that the 18 names Alfio Basile gave us a few weeks ago weren't in fact the only ones to be included in Argentina's squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Chile (in the Monumental) and Ecuador (in Quito). I'd like to emphasise that there was no hint of [...] Click to continue reading...

The managers at Argentina's two biggest clubs have some complication selection issues going into this week's Copa Sudamericana return legs. Boca Juniors, who won the first leg of their tie against Sao Paulo 2-1 but conceded a last minute away goal which will make for very tricky business in Morumbí on Wednesday night, have seen [...] Click to continue reading...

Juan Román Riquelme has signed a two year contract with Atlético Madrid. There, it's done at last. Now let's move on. Juan Pablo Carrizo will fly back from Rome to Buenos Aires on Friday to rejoin River Plate on loan for six months. 'Complications' (which given some of the fuss a few years ago with in [...] Click to continue reading...