2010 FIFA World Cup: Argentina under Maradona
A lot has been written about the Argentinean selecting committee giving the head coaching job to Diego Maradona. A lot of people have been in a huff about the decision but some people were ecstatic. It seems the former star of the 1986 World Cup winning Argentinean football team is a controversial figure and has always been one. People either hate him or love him.
This brings us to the tale of Argentina almost not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. The country's campaign to qualify almost didn't materialise and some people blame that on the lack of coaching experience of the fiery man in charge. What actually happened here and why was it so hard for the country to qualify?
Argentina almost didn't qualify this year because of a lot of losses and draws in their qualifying campaign. The team played 18 matches, had 8 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses. The Argentineans were only above Uruguay but were below Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.
What happened to this once great team and did it have something to do with their eccentric coach? It seems many factors contributed to their poor run up to the World Cup and one of the factors seems to indeed be Maradona.
A lot has been said before about this controversial figure, with his cocaine problems, his weight issues and many other issues. It was also revealed that he owes $54 million in back taxes to the Italian government. On a recent trip to a fat farm in Italy, he was stopped by Italian Provincial Tax police and they took away his earrings which were worth almost $6000.
What is so interesting about this story, just like everything else he does, is the question firstly why did he go to Italy if he knew he owed them back taxes and might get arrested? Secondly why didn't the Italian police arrest him for non payment of those taxes?
The other thing is that he went on his little fat burning trip to Italy during the middle of Argentina's qualifying campaign. It could be a factor in the performance of a team if they see their coach going off to Italy for a week and then almost getting arrested. But he made it back and led the team to get to the World Cup and he has seen them win their opening match as well.
This seems to be the likeability of the man, he goes off to a country where he knows he might get arrested, almost does get arrested, comes back sees his team through to the World Cup and gets them their first win.
There were other factors to the strange run up of the Argentineans in qualifying. First of all it is very difficult to qualify from South America. It used to be easy before but the quality of teams and players coming out of the continent has gotten better and better of late. In all of this you throw in a team with an inexperienced coach finding his feet and it becomes easy to see why the road was so tough.
Another reason was that it seems Argentina had too many players to choose from. Maradona invited fury and disbelief when he kept changing players at a whim in every qualifying game.
An article explains the problems with swapping too many players around at qualifying time. "Having so many players to choose from can be a curse. A team can be undermined by its own strength in depth, as the call goes out for changes and more changes. The names on the team sheet keep getting swapped around and the team is never formed". The same article pointed out that at one point a decision to replace a player seemed like an act of desperation from a lost coach, namely Maradona.
But as with everything else the man leading Argentina somehow manages to scrape through. This quality of his might even be able to see the great football nation to victory at this year's World Cup. That is if he doesn't get arrested for not paying his taxes and taking a trip to Italy in the middle of the tournament.
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