Forza Futbol - A better lens into the World's Game. We talk about UEFA Cup, Champions League and International matches, especially when they intersect with teams in Spain and Italy, we talk transfer rumours, gossip and everything else that revolves around the world's greatest game. @ OleOle

Batten Down the Hatches - Argentina v Guatemala in LA

Saturday, 09 February 08, 07:46 PM

This won’t be a long post for the week, we’ve closed up shop at Forza Futbol and we’re moving to Champions Soccer Radio Network. The leagues have grown dark for midweek games, Italy dominated Portugal in a friendly and Spain did enough to win against France as well, Fabio Capello has swept away the last vestiges of the entitlement culture in the England squad and 9,000 miles away little old me was watching the Argentinian B-team pummel an over matched Guatemalan side that was clearly missing captain and L.A. Galaxy forward Carlos Ruiz.

I know, a completely diferent class of player. What I did get to see was some of the most exciting Argentinian players playing in what is essentially their U-23 youth side.

The most recognizable name on the pitch was of course ex-Villareal general Juan Roman Riquelme who was his usual, efficient self, setting up Napoli dynamo Ezequiel Lavezzi for their second goal, which was obviously a complete howler by the Guatemalan keeper who barely touched the ball at all despite it being a fairly weak shot point blank. Playing just in front of Lavezzi, was Real Madrid winger Gonzalo Higuain, who looked tentative early on, but scored the first goal in tight quarters in front of goal.

Argentina soon got in a rhythm, a dominant display not only by Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano, but by Valencia youngster Ever Banega who was by far the class player on the pitch. He was incisive in his passes, passed well especially over 30 yards, and directed traffic at the back in a role similar to Pirlo’s role for AC Milan. Of course, Mascherano can make anyone look good because of his skills in front of the back line, but the next generation of Argentinian players is in good hands with Higuain, Banega, Lavezzi and Mascherano.

While the final score said 5-0 to the Argentinians, it was exciting nontheless, less a contest than a training session of course, but a very interesting window into the future of the Argentinean squad. Weird that not everyone got the same out of it as me.

I was sitting in the Guatemala section at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the opposite end to the famous peristyle and the Olympic torch, and at times there was a tangible sense of danger, with dozens of fights going on all around me. The crowd was lively and sarcastic at first, but became the more frustrated as the Chapines made the match more and more difficult for themselves. Inexplicably, the fans around me insisted that their players had been “bought” and were tanking the game on purpose against a bunch of “nameless Argies” and a “useless Riquelme”. Just shows you how delusional you can get with a bit of liquid courage in your system.

Mando from FF

Boca Blow Up

Thursday, 27 December 07, 05:44 AM

Diego Armando Maradona is mad. Yes, he wants to meet the President of Iraq and plans on getting a tattoo of Venezuelan supremo Hugo Chavez, but that’s not the form of the word I’m talking about. He’s angry because the guy he helped bring in to coach his beloved Buenos Aires club, Boca Juniors, Miguel Angel Russo, stepped down recently, when just days after losing the FIFA World Club Cup, Russo walked out of a meeting with Boca chief Pedro Pompilio refusing to fire his top two assistants.

The first names bandied around as his replacement were Gabriel Batistuta and Guillermo Barros Scheloto, who had both talked about getting into club management, but Boca have apparently settled on Carlos Ischia of Rosario Central, a former assistant to Carlos Bianchi when he coached at Boca Juniors. When asked about Ischia, by the Argentinean news agency Telam, Maradona responded, “I don’t like Ischia as coach. I don’t believe he would be the ideal choice for the team.” Why the problem? Both Ischia and Bianchi are close associates of Guillermo Coppolla, who was an advisor to Diego’s during his playing days and are both still bitter about their acrimonious split. Some in the Argentinian media are forecasting this as the first of many changes to the xeineixes, which may mean selling players, replacing the entire coaching staff, trainers, shifting tactics, and will more than likely signal the end of Diego Maradona’s influence at the club; but the key maybe the changing of the guard on the pitch.

Before the appointment there was some talk of Clemente Rodriguez of Espanyol coming back from Spain to help Riquelme, but it looks like a return to three at the back like Ricardo LaVolpe, and it might mean some of the problems that LaVolpe had with (amongst others) captain Martin Palermo in the dressing room. The experienced players have had a relaxed time at the club under Russo, Riquelme returning was a notch on their belt, but this is not what the player leadership expected or wanted. But the board believe that someone needs to pay for the loss to AC Milan, and if Russo wouldn’t fire his assistants, regardless of his winning the Copa Libertadores, then everyone under him and around him would be blamed.

All I can think of, if this marks a new turn to Boca Juniors, with the return of Bianchi as the kingmaker and the departure of Diego, will this lead to the selling of young players like Ever Banega and what of the field generals like Martin Palermo? Defender Juan Angel Krupoviesa has already been sold to Marseilles, the board has already mandated the selling of experienced players, and what then of temperamental genius Riquelme? A return to Spain, a move to Italy or England?

Mando from FF

Aguilas de America v Boca Juniors: Copa Panamericana 2007

Saturday, 21 July 07, 06:02 PM

Copa Panamericana 2007 Aguilas v Boca Juniors

After a lot of running around and a less than professional detour for batteries, I arrived at All-Tell Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona for the final regular day of the group stages in the Copa Panamericana, a tournament put together by Pro Entertainment and Directv, and broadcast locally by Telemundo on tape delay. It seemed like I was on tape delay myself as my flight got in 25 minutes before the start of the match and I got into Glendale sometime around injury time in the first half and I was feeling like a kid not old enough to drive taking the family car out for a spin, looking in the rear view mirror for a cop. I was holding my press pass dearly, but I settled eventually in a nice chair overlooking the Boca Juniors goal in the pressbox and watched the remainder of the first half.

After round robin play in Group 1, Boca Juniors and Club America of Mexico were facing off Friday night for the opportunity to reach the final on Sunday after both clubs summarily dismantled Alianza Lima of Peru by equally impressive 2-0 scorelines. It looked on paper to be the class match of the tournament as both clubs were taking it seriously, Boca bringing not only Martin Palermo, Neri Cardozo but also Sebastian Battaglia, and a mix of up-and-comers from the youth ranks. The Aguilas, despite voicing disappointment at low turnout and lack of support at the tourney by their Phoenix fan base earlier in the week, also fielded a side much like the one they'll put out for their apertura tournament, headed by ex-Boca and Borussia Monchengladback midfielder Federico Insua, and with noted names like Paraguayan striker Salvador Cabañas and Lucas Castroman on the bench, they had a side likely ready for the apertura tournament in Mexico. Only Rodrigo Palacios and Juan Roman Riquelme for Boca and Guillermo Ochoa for America, who were all still on holiday from their late round finishes in the Copa America, were missing from the sides.

It was hard to tell what the first half had been like, other than the scoreline which had Boca up 1-0 to America after a typical fox in the box performance by captain Martin Palermo, who took advantage of a mistake by defender Ismael Rodriguez (the beauty of replay in an empty pressbox), and scored decisively. But talking to the other reporters, they mentioned that neither team had done much to that point to warrant the scoreline.

While the horns were blaring, I decided to take a look around the place. For Americanista fans, what few their were, it must have been a disappointment, and I saw many of them wandering around during half time with their red, blue and yellow flags and capes, but they were still very vocal, especially in the curva section by the far goal. In the near goal, their was an empty concrete slab behind the pitch, with what looked like indentations running all along the surface right up against the interior wall. I decided to forego buying some schwag and get down to field level to get a closer look. What I found was a marvel of engineering. For those people who remembered the Velstin Arena (home of Schalke '04) in Germany for the last World Cup, you may remember reading about their retractable field, well University of Phoenix Stadium also has that kind of set-up. Most days the grass lies leisurely outside in a football pitch sized planter on rails, but when the buses filled with supporters come expecting a match, the field gets choo-chooed back into place, a process that takes about 4 hours to complete. The 72 degree weather indoors was incredibly helpful as the scorching Arizona heat left me breathless as it is.

Well, I saw the second half from behind the goal, watching the Boca bench do their warm up drills to my left. Each had that hungry look of the football obsessive wanting in on a match that they imagined only they could change the result. They seemed to silently, without looking at the mullet-headed trainer, plead to be let in on the action. The pace behind the goal was about as leisurely as it was with the first team on the field. Aguilas came out needing to make up the goal difference, maybe force penalties, to reach Sunday's final and Boca, uncharacteristically, closed up shop and decided to weather the attack. Most of the last 45 was spent towards the other goal away from my sight lines but rather than complain about the lack of creativity by the Xeineixes and a lack of opportunity by the Mexicans, I'll just thank the folks at Ziga Zoga who helped bring this report back from blistering Phoenix, Arizona. While Alvin Mendoza might have scored, ultimately it was I who scored.