Thursday, October 08, 2009

Argentina vs Peru Preview & Live Score: World Cup 2010 Qualifier

Argentina takes on Peru in a very important match of World Cup 2010 qualifying round on 10 October 2009 at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires. No doubt, it is a do-or-die match for the Argentines who are now facing a real threat of missing out on a world cup finals place for the first time since 1970. Peru has already been eliminated as they occupy the bottom place in the standing with 10 points from 16 games. So, naturally Argentina is favorite and it is expected that Maradona boys would clinch a big margin victory. However, you should also remember that Peru defeated mighty Uruguay 1-0 last month, ending their eight-match losing streak. So, Argentina would make a mistake, if they expect an easy affair with Peru.


Match: Argentina vs Peru, Round 17, South American Region, World Cup Qualification 2010

Date: 10 October 2009

Kick off: 22:00 GMT; 23:00 BST (British Summer Time); 23:55 CAT (Central African Time); 03:30 am Indian Standard Time (on 11 October)

Venue: Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Live on TV: Sky Sports 1, Super Sports 3 Television Channels


The biggest advantage of the visitors is perhaps the fact that they have already been eliminated, and thus, feeling no pressure ahead of the Argentina fixture. Moreover, the win over Uruguay also came as a much-needed boost up for them and they are now hoping to repeat history. Yes, history also boosts up Peru’s confidence level.


Peru created many problems for Argentina in the past, even when they were playing in Argentina. Peru was instrumental behind Argentina’s failure to reach the world cup finals in 1970, the last instance of Argentina’s failure in the qualifying round, as they held Argentina to a draw in Buenos Aires in 1969, and thus, qualifying for the 1970 world cup. Then in 1986 qualifying round, Argentina came very close to face a play-off while playing against Peru, but an equalizer on the 81 minutes came as a savior for the Argentines.


So, you can see that Peru would get enough inspiration from the history to make another successful run on Saturday against Diego Maradona’s Argentina. Well, Argentina actually does not have enough time to look back to history as they have their own problems to deal with ahead of the home match. They would go into the Peru match on the back of 3 consecutive defeats at the hands of Ecuador, Brazil and Paraguay. The poor run left Argentina in the fifth place with 22 points from 16 games, just a point above from sixth and seventh placed Uruguay and Venezuela respectively as well as 2 points above the eighth placed Colombia.


There is no doubt, Argentina is now under huge pressure, and so do their newly appointed coach Diego Maradona. Since he succeeded Alfio Basile as Argentina coach last November, Argentina’s performance has been poor and it is evident in their performance over the last six months during which Argentina lost 4 out of their 5 world cup qualifiers including a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Bolivia. Maradona is also fed up with the team’s progress and reports also indicate that he might quit the coaching job at the end of the qualifying campaign, even if Argentina gets into the world cup finals. Reports also suggest that Maradona does not get along well with technical director Carlos Bilardo.


BBC reported:

"If I continue it will be under my conditions," said Maradona.

"After the qualifiers I will talk to [Grondona]," he said. "Things happened that I didn't like and I will speak about them later."


Although Maradona did not specify his conditions, it is believed that he is unhappy with technical director Carlos Bilardo's interference in team affairs.

Peru has nothing to lose in the match, but has everything to win through an inspirational display. However, they know that it would not be easy against mighty Argentina, even though the home side is going through a bad patch. Peru may be confident after the Uruguay victory, but the fear factor is that they are still missing two key strikers Jefferson Farfan and Claudio Pizarro on disciplinary ground, while midfielder Roberto Palacios is uncertain for the Argentina match due to his niggling knee ligament problem.


In their absence Peru would look for a special performance from Hernan Rengifo who solitary goal earned an excellent victory over Uruguay recently. Captain Nolberto Solano is pretty much confident to create as much problems as possible for the home side. He said that Peru would be like the bad guys in movies who generally overcome the mighty powers.


The New York Times reported:

"I want to play a great game against Argentina and go down in history, like the bad guys in the movies, for eliminating a great team," the Peruvian captain told reporters in Lima.

He added, however, that if Argentina go through to the 2010 finals in South Africa, "they will be favourites even though they have not had a great (qualifying) campaign."


Well, the captain sounds confident, but he should also keep in mind that his team has just ended a disastrous 8-match losing streak, and even after the 1-0 win over Uruguay, Peru suffered a 3-1 defeat to Venezuela in their last game in the qualifying round.


Maradona may not have much time to think about Peru because he needs to deal with a number of problems that Argentina facing ahead of the Peru match. First of all, Maradona is missing a number of key players through suspension and injury. Central midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron is suspended for the game as he was shown a marching order during Argentina’s recent 1-0 defeat to Paraguay. Captain Javier Mascherano, another key player in the central midfield, may miss the game as he is suffering from a muscular injury, but it is not very serious and it is expected that he would be fit enough to feature against Peru. However, Maradona called up Rodrigo Brana into the squad as the reserve for Mascherano. Pablo Zabaleta has also been ruled out of the game due to a muscle injury. The only good news is that Angel Di Maria has been back to the squad following a four-match ban.


Maradona has been fully criticized for his inconsistent selection approach. Many times his selections have been questioned because of his strange decisions. For example, to everybody’s surprise, he has recently called up Boca Juniors striker Martín Palermo who has been back into the national squad after 10 years. The 35-year-old, however, showed his skill once again when he scored twice to give Argentina a 2-0 win over Ghana in a friendly game. Naturally, it is expected that he would get into the starting eleven against Peru. However, reports available in the media suggest that Maradona is contemplating to feature uncapped striker Gonzalo Higuain alongside Lionel Messi in the attacking line up. No doubt, Higuain has been in good form over the last season, but then Maradona should have played Higuain in the friendly game against Ghana, if he had any intention of featuring him against Peru.


Goal.com reported:

Earlier in the week it seemed that Diego Maradona had opted for Boca Juniors striker Martin Palermo, who scored twice in the 2-0 friendly victory over Ghana last week, but now it's more than likely that Higuain will get the nod instead.
'Pipita' proved his worth with Real Madrid last season, and has continued the good work this season, even if he hasn't always been given a game from kick-off.

Diego Maradona has some other surprises in his recent selection. First of all, he called up two defenders uncapped Emiliano Insua and 36-year-old Rolando Schiavi who is just 2-match experienced, while left out experienced Inter Milan captain Javier Zanetti who has represented Argentina in 138 international matches so far. Nicolas Pareja is another uncapped player in Argentina’s defense line up. Maradona has also included midfielder Enzo Perez, who played his debut match against Ghana in the recent friendly game, and recalled experienced Pablo Aimar for the match against Peru and Uruguay. It is pretty much certain that Aimar take up the role of attacking midfielder and would look to set up for the strikers against Peru.


Argentina legend Maradona would be under huge pressure if his side fails to win over Peru in what would take them on the verge of elimination from the tournament. However, you should remember one thing that Maradona knows football better than me and many of you and he is at the helm of the Argentine side. So, he has his own approach to coaching and picked up the players who, he felt, would be important in his plan. So, there is nothing to complain about his selection from this point of view. Still, it is true that Maradona would face huge criticism, if his side continues their losing run against Peru too.


Brazil and Paraguay have already qualified, while Chile is just one step behind their qualification. So, fifth placed Argentina would definitely be looking to win over Peru and would love to see the other match between fourth placed Ecuador and sixth placed Uruguay ending in a draw in what would move Argentina to the fourth place with a game in hand.


Online Live Score and Updates

You can get the live score and updates of the match from the following websites:


Live Score

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Goal.com

Footie Scorez


Argentina players must appear with their top form against Peru and display a dominating performance. Lionel Messi has a big role to play, while Aimar would be another important player for Argentina in the game. Overall, Argentina has a very strong squad, which is way stronger than Peru. However, it does not mean that I am going to write off Peru. To be honest, Peru has a squad that can defend very well and can cause huge problems for any football powerhouse in their heyday.


No comments:

Post a Comment