19/09
2011

Game Seven: v Estudiantes

Estudiantes  4  Argentinos Juniors  3

I did say last week that well into the twenty-first century no-one in the public eye should be allowed to sport a haircut like that displayed by the Argentinos Juniors manager,  Pedro Troglio. And so it has come to pass.

I guess poor results didn’t help either. This was the third game in a row in which the Bichos shipped four goals. So in a very dignified manner,  shortly after this defeat to bottom club Estudiantes in La Plata,  he closed his eyes,  held his nose between his forefinger and thumb and jumped off the plank.

I was not sorry to see him go since he’s not been able to mould a half-decent squad of players into a team. He seemed to find ways of suppressing their talent.

What does concern me is that the manager before last,  the man who took them to last place in the table in the 2009 Clausura season before going on to abject disaster at River Plate,  a man with an even worse unreformed nineteen-seventies mullet hairdo than Troglio – could it be they frequent the same barber? — is being talked about as the possible replacement.

Gorosito. Get yer haircut!

Please,  stay where you are,  Nestor Gorosito. Far more to my liking is the possibility that geriatric goalscorer,  Jose Luis Calderon,  who was wrenched from his rocking chair to lead the Bichos to Apertura 2010 championship glory,  will nibble at the insect being dangled before him.

I got to three stadiums this weekend but none of them were hosting the less than silky skills of Argentinos Juniors.

On Friday at the decidedly un-football friendly hour of five pm,  I hopped on a train to Retiro,  then ran the length of the Linea C underground line to Constitucion,  then took another train to Avellaneda to see Independiente host Colon.

This was the first game for the new Red Devil’s manager,  Ramón Díaz,  and it soon became apparent that he’s got a lot of work to do. Independiente were woeful and probably lucky to escape with a 1-0 defeat.

Their players showed occasional hints of talent but didn’t seem to connect to one another,  almost as though some were playing football while others were thinking basketball and volleyball.

A shame really because this is a club with a fine history and a pleasant ground which will be even better when it’s finished. I said that last time I visited nearly two years ago and it’s still not complete. Or are cement mixers and half-installed seats part of the design?

Independiente - be nice when it's finished.

The 5pm kickoff meant that supporters rushed to the ground straight from work – men in suits,  telephone engineers and cable TV installers with small boxes,  nurses with stethoscopes around their necks,  airline pilots with headphones on,  prison guards jangling keys. I’m getting carried away here but you get the picture.

Avellaneda is a whole different experience. I’d earlier been dining in Palermo Hollywood,  so-named for its preponderance of film studios. Palermo Hollywood is arty,  international and possibly even a little twee. Avellaneda is tenser,  dirtier and industrial. Some might just call it poorer.

A heavy cloud of marijuana hung in the air and many of those walking to the ground were gulping frothy liquids from plastic Coke bottles which didn’t look to me like it was anything you’d want your children to be drinking at their birthday party.

Argentinos Juniors’ arch rivals,  Platense, are currently lurking in the regional third division. My sons were playing handball there – an interesting game which seems to combine football and basketball. A-ha! Maybe that’s what Independiente were playing!

The odd thing about Platense is that they play in brown. It’s the team my wife’s family grew up with and in a none-too subtle attempt to endear myself to them,  I once took my kids there to see a game. “Shirts are like shit – they play like shit,” said my eldest son,  then a precocious but astute ten-year-old.

Flea on bass guitar...

We adopted Argentinos Juniors instead and now test our food before eating when we visit the in-laws. I’ve not spoken to the brother-in-law since.

And then to probably the best second division ground in the world – River Plate’s Monumental stadium. Again a strong strain of marijuana in the air but not a football in sight. River Plate were playing away,  struggling to a 0-0 draw against humble Deportivo Merlo.

The visitors were the Red Hot Chili Peppers,  completely dominating the goal furthest from us with a spectacular light show and Flea sublime on bass guitar.

The great thing about the Chili Peppers is that they’re my age yet they’re still hip and trendy among the youth of Buenos Aires. So I could take my boys,  aged 14 and 11,  without them living in fear of a class mate seeing them with me,  as long as I promised to subdue my shadow guitar playing and didn’t wear a leather waistcoat.

* Boca Juniors seem to have found their stride,  beating rivals Lanus 2-1 away to clinch the top spot. Atletico de Rafaela are breathing down their necks after an impressive 3-1 win at San Lorenzo. Belgrano beat fellow newcomers San Martin 1-0 at their place while Olimpo and Godoy Cruz and Tigre and Arsenal all drew 2-2.

Newell’s and Velez and Union and Racing all drew 1-1 but a special mention must go to Banfield who scored their first and only goal of the season to record their opening win – a 1-0 at All Boys. They’re still bottom of the pile but Argentinos Juniors are just a place above them,  now the only team in the division without a win after seven games.

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13/09
2011

Game Six: v Lanus

Argentinos Juniors  0  Lanus  4

I’d like to be more positive about Argentine football.  I realised looking back over recent posts that I’m starting to sound like a whingeing,  whining local.

After several years here I noticed that the porteños are happiest when they’re complaining. In fact,  having nothing to complain about often makes them uneasy. Certain inflexions in the regional accent even make them sound like they’re complaining when they’re not.

Here’s an example. I once approached a group of acquaintances waiting for their children outside the school gates. In true British fashion I entered the conversation with a less than profound observation on what a lovely spring morning it was.

Complaining? You bet we are!

“Oh,  but weather like this brings all sorts of allergies with it,” replied one.

“So you suffer from allergies?” I said. “Hay fever perhaps?”

“No,  not me,” she said. “But you know. It’s not nice.”

That’ll give you locals something to gripe about. “These bloody foreigners…they come to Buenos Aires,  they marry our women,  they buy our best players and then they have the audacity,  the downright cheek to complain about the amount of dog shit on our pavements and our rising prices.”

Argentina,  in very general terms,  relatively speaking,  if you look at the big picture is doing alright. It is politically and economically stable,  at least if you compare it with how things have been here in recent years or with the turmoil being suffered in parts of Europe and North America. So not much to complain about there.

Boca Juniors are joint leaders of the top division after a 1-0 win over San Martin so normality reigns there too. It’s off the pitch where football is giving us plenty of concern,  although there are signs of improvement.

The former leaders of the River Plate barra brava,  Alan and William Schlenker,  were sentenced to life in prison last week for ordering the killing in 2007 of rival River Plate fan,  Gonzalo Acro. Until the sentences are confirmed and they’ve run the full gamut of appeals,  they and three others are still roaming the streets professing their innocence.

It’s reassuring that measures are being taken against these thugs who previously enjoyed immunity and sometimes even the unashamed protection of the football and political authorities.

Crying? Of course I am!

I for one might even raise a whimper of protest if a Schlenker pushes in front of me in the hot dog queue.

That change in attitude only happens because the people,  the fans demand it. Independiente supporters,  the proper fans,  are fighting back against their thuggish element. A whole bunch of them at a game last week moved to the other side of the ground to leave the barra brava isolated,  so everyone could see who they were.

The team’s manager,  Antonio Mohamed,  had resigned after a bad run of results but saying that the barra brava forced him to go. The thuggish element reacted in the only way they know how,  with violence – attacking those who had bravely dared to challenge them.

The off-field drama is obviously affecting the Independiente players who lost 2-0 to Belgrano. The tension is sprung tighter than the straps on AFA president Julio Grondona’s wallet. It’s a good old-fashioned battle between the forces of good and evil. May the good prevail! But not too much or we’ll have nothing to complain about.

Back on the pitch,  Lanus nudged their buttocks onto the top chair alongside Boca after this 4-0 drubbing of Argentinos Juniors,  I think the heaviest defeat I’ve seen the Bichos suffer,  home or away,  since I started watching them two years ago.

Permanent? I doubt it.

The home side weren’t that bad in the first half,  ending it one-nil down. But everything they tried came to nothing,  especially if it landed at the two left feet of our often lone attacker,  JJ Morales. And the few times that Lanus deigned to put some effort into it and venture into Argentinos Juniors territory they came away with a bag of goodies.

The players and the president,  Luis Segura,  have expressed their support in his time of great difficulty for manager,  Pedro Troglio,  so I expect he’ll be clearing out his desk fairly soon. He has the team playing some attractive passing football but it nearly always comes to nothing,  especially where it counts,  in front of goal.

For that reason,  I wouldn’t be sorry to see him take the 113 out of the La Paternal neighbourhood. And call me fickle and superficial if you like,  but nineteen-seventies style perm hairdos have no place in the twenty-first century. “Troglio. Get your hair cut or get out!”

Racing continued their good form with a 1-0 win over Olimpo. Rafaela keep up the pressure on the top after a 0-0 draw against Newell’s and Colon looked impressive in a 3-1 pounding of the declining San Lorenzo. The result of the weekend was Godoy Cruz’s 6-1 drubbing of All Boys. Estudiantes continue to be one of the few teams performing worse than Argentinos Juniors – they lost 3-1 at home to Tigre.

Champions Velez,  despite a constant pounding of the Union goal,  lost 1-0 at home but it’s Banfield and their fans we should be feeling sorry for. They lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal to leave them after six games without a goal,  without a point and without much hope.

 

 

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19/06
2011

Game Nineteen: v Tigre

Argentinos Juniors  1  Tigre  1

With hindsight, this game was only ever going to end in a draw. There have been so many this season. But let’s be thankful for small mercies. At least there were a couple of goals and it didn’t start raining, despite threatening to throughout the game, until we were scurrying out of the stadium after we’d applauded our boys off the pitch and on their way to their winter holidays in a kind of semi-enthusiastic , mas o menos, sort of way.

As the final whistle blew, the Tigre fans and players leapt about and on top of one another as though they’d just won the championship and the lottery at the same time. Word had obviously just filtered through that results from the other four games being played simultaneously had gone their way and their place in the top division was safe.

Limited Action

Limited Action

But the news that in Argentina pretty much knocks the world off its axis is that River Plate lost at home to Lanus and must now play a couple of matches against a low-life from a lower division – in this case Belgrano of Cordoba – to retain their place in the top division and avoid relegation for the first time in their history.

As one who’s just lived through the trauma of relegation with West Ham I can assure River Plate supporters that, while it seems at times to be the worst thing that can happen to you, up there with having your house repossessed or your children confessing that they don’t much like football and only accompanied you to games for the burgers, life does go on and there is hope of a better future.

Argentine writer and River fan, Quino, wrote an excellent piece in the Perfil newspaper, for which his fellow fans will brand him a blasphemer, saying he wanted River to go down.

“Bit by bit, year after year,” he wrote, “River have turned into a team without a soul, without football, without goals, without respect for their tradition, with dull footballers and cowardly coaches. And now we’ve reached rock bottom.”

Relegation, he predicts, will deliver them a radical solution that he hopes will allow them to escape from what he calls interminable suffering.

So Long, Farewell.

So Long, Farewell.

Quilmes are down, for sure, after losing 1-0 to Olimpo. Huracan, who lost 5-1 to Independiente, must play Gimnasia, who squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Boca, in what promise to be a couple of tense matches. The loser will go down, the winner will have another chance and will battle it out with a team from the lower echelon for a place in the top flight.

I personally witnessed most of Argentinos Juniors’ home games, a couple of away matches and the rest on tele and never have I spent so long watching football for so little reward. The football was often ineffective and the goals sparse. The Bichos were often the better team but in nineteen games they managed just 16 goals and most of them were scored away from home. That is not entertaining football by anyone’s standards.

They finished a very respectable fifth simply by having the best defence in the division, letting in just 11 goals. The champions, Velez, conceded 16 but managed to score more than twice as many as Argentinos Juniors. The point being, if you can’t score goals all our cheering and all the players’ huffing and puffing and running around amounts to very little and frustration will inevitably set in.

I hope the manager, Pedro Troglio, stays and manages to convince key players to remain with him since there’s the foundations of a decent team here. A couple of players who can tuck the ball in the net will make all the difference.

The truth is that none of the other teams I saw at the Diego Maradona stadium this season impressed me. I missed the Velez visit since I was at Upton Park watching West Ham lose to Birmingham City in the poorest exhibition of football at inflated prices that I’ve probably ever seen. May The Blues linger in the lower divisions for a long time and Aston Villa fans, you have my sympathy.

So, I’ll take a break now. I may return for the Copa America that kicks off on July 1. All the games, apart from the final, are being played in cities distant from Buenos Aires.  Since I’ve put my money on Argentina winning every major tournament for the last eight years or so, I’m going to continue in the same vein – Argentina to beat Brazil in the final. Not especially adventurous, I know. Paraguay and Uruguay are good outside bets and could provide an upset or two.

I’m putting my Argentinos Junior’s shirt in the wash now so it’s clean and ironed for next season. Hasta la vista chicos.

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02/04
2011

Game Eight: v Banfield

Banfield  0  Argentinos Juniors  2

My mum always says that football is just a bunch of blokes kicking a ball about. She’s not wrong. But she’s not quite right either. It is a bunch of blokes kicking a ball about but it’s also so much more. How else do you explain the deep disappointment, the hopes and expectations, the joy and the anger and the disappointment? I think I already mentioned the disappointment. That’s because I’m overflowing with the stuff after watching West Ham United, 2-0 up at half-time to mighty Manchester United, lose 4-2 at home to leave the claret and blues sitting sticky back in the relegation bottom three.

But then there was the unexpected joy just a few hours earlier of seeing Argentinos Juniors completely outplay Banfield to come away with a 2-0 win that leaves the bichos colorados in second place – at least until the rest of the weekend fixtures are played.

My ramblings raise an important question. Is it possible to support two football teams and feel the same joy, anger, disappointment etc. for both? Or does it make you a fickle, superficial, indecisive sort of chap?

Spilt loyalties?

Spilt loyalties?

There was a senior figure at the large organisation where I used to work who, in a national newspaper interview, said he supported two Premiership clubs. I remember thinking at the time: “That is a man I would not trust. He no doubt got where he got by snivelling and sliding through the oily passages that take a person to the top in a big organisation.”

Subsequent events proved me right. I would like to argue however that it is possible to feel similar levels of emotion for teams in different countries. Or even for teams in the same country but in different divisions, as long as they never draw one another in the cup.

My heart is with West Ham. But the cost and the no small matter of the Atlantic Ocean prevent me from getting from Buenos Aires to the London Borough of Newham. They are building an extension to the Linea B of the Buenos Aires subte but it doesn’t really make getting me onto the District Line any easier.

West Ham are known as the Academy for the long list of talented players they’ve nurtured, only to see them transferred to bigger clubs. Clubs, some would argue, that win things. Over the years, there have been many, too many. A quick glance at just a few of the top players now plying their trade in the Premiership illustrates my point. Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe, Carlos Tevez to name just a few. OK, Tevez wasn’t quite nurtured at West Ham but I’d argue that he was primed there for a successful spell in English football.

Much the same story applies to Argentinos Juniors – the semillero or seed bed of Argentine football.  The obvious name at the top of the list is that of Diego Maradona. But even without him, it’s pretty illustruous. Juan Román Riquelme, Juan Pablo Sorín, Esteban Cambiasso, Fabricio Coloccini, Fernando Redondo, Claudio Borghi and 1986 World Cup winner, Sergio Batista.

Since I live in Argentina and get infected by the football passion, I’ll shout for the national side. Until, of course, they meet England then there is no doubt where my loyalty lies. On the club side, the chances of West Ham ever meeting Argentinos Juniors are slim.

My kids have a tougher dilemma when it comes to national loyalties. Their mother is Argentine, they live here but they have lived over there. Their bedrooms are bedecked with posters celebrating the Argentina and England national teams and also West Ham and Argentinos Juniors.

Most of their sporadic visits to West Ham have ended in disappointment while we got to celebrate a championship win with Argentinos Juniors. Some weekends we endure double the misery or twice the joy.

No connection.

No connection.

Manchester United turned around a dismal first half because they’ve got a manager in Alex Ferguson who knows how to turn things around when they’re not going his way. He brought on the Mexican Javier Hernandez at half time and Dimitri Berbatov shortly afterwards and the difference was immediate. Oh! And of course Wayne Rooney scored a hattrick. They took the game to West Ham. Our manager, Avram Grant, just continued in the second half as he had in the first and only made significant changes ten minutes before the end, bringing on Robbie Keane and Victor Obinna, when the game was already lost.

Pedro Troglio seems to have forged a team at Argentinos Juniors. Commentators say they play much the same way as the very entertaining side that won the title a year ago under Claudio Borghi. I don’t think the current crop of players is as good. There’s no Ismael Sosa or Nestor Ortigoza. But it’s a team. They’ve conceded just two goals in eight games. The goals they score tend to come from their opponents’ defensive errors which means, if they don’t make any, the games end 0-0. That’s been the outcome in three out of the eight games played this season.

The foundations are in place though for a team that probably won’t challenge for the title this season but might be worth placing a peso or two on for the next one.  West Ham look good enough to stay up but time is running out.

It is just a bunch of blokes kicking a ball about. But that’s like saying ‘Picasso just daubed a load of colours onto a canvas’ or ‘Borges just scribbled a bunch of words onto a page.’ If it gets your heart racing, your tears flowing or you kicking your television set in frustration, then it’s art. Especially the way Mauro Bogado nodded in Argentinos Juniors’ clincher and Mark Noble slotted home West Ham’s second penalty. Ahhh!

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