Is someone laughing at us? Is there someone at the controls of life? Is God a cule?

Well, if he's not, he's certainly a native of Buenos Aires. It's ironic that in the same year that Lionel Messi scores a goal to rival the best of Maradona, that scant weeks later he replicates the worst of my namesake Diego Armando in the Hand of God. It almost worked, Barcelona was 18 seconds from pulling away from their rivals, playing sublimely against well matched rivals Espanyol, but all anyone I knew wanted to talk about was the cheating Argie that emulates his hero just a tad too closely.

Well, I won't bore you with an old salt like, "Anyone who isn't cheating doesn't care enough" but we soccer fans tend to put way too much of the blame for football's ills on the cheating, diving, whining Latins who have defiled the proper British sport of football.

Frankly, it happens everywhere I've been and in every league I've seen, but Argentina it seems has a past that rears its ugly head every chance it gets, from Maradona to Simeone, or Kun Aguero to Messi this year. The heart of a Carlos Tevez, the ball skills of Pablito Aimar or El Conejo Saviola, or the guts of a Javier Mascherano are overshadowed by the darker side of their game: one of gamesmanship, professional fouls, negative tactics and time-wasting.

The fact is that a great player from south of the Andes is measured not only by what he can bring to the ball but by what he can do without it. One minute Aimar can pull off a move that will break an opponents ankles, but seconds later he can win a penalty like the one he won against Madrid this weekend, where he trips on himself a foot after he passes Helguera in the area.

I guess we need to realize, whether we like it or not, that the games is and has always been about the balancing both sides of "the Force."