Written by Francis Fields / Monday 12th April 2010
Abel Alves has resigned as Boca Juniors coach following a loss that dropped one of Argentina’s most popular clubs into 19th place in the 20-team Clausura tournament. The move comes following a 3-0 loss to Colon. Boca confirmed Alves’ resignation Friday. He is the third Boca coach in less than a year to leave the club. Alves was the reserve-team coach when he took over in January after Alfio Basile quit following a loss to River Plate. Basile took over for Carlos Ischia, who left 10 months ago after Boca was knocked out of the final 16 of the Copa Libertadores.
Diego Maradona suffered an unexpected interruption to his World Cup squad preparations on Tuesday when he was bitten in the face by one of his pet dogs. Plastic surgeons repaired his upper lip after the Argentina coach was admitted to the Los Arcos clinic in Buenos Aires with bloody wounds caused by a Chinese Shar-Pei breed pet. Maradona needed 10 stitches in his lip and will have to rest for three days, a medical source at the clinic said.
Written by Francis Fields / Monday 22nd March 2010
All eyes in Argentina will be on River Plate’s veteran midfielder Marcelo Gallardo and the other 21 players who take the pitch to contest the Superclásico on Sunday at 16:30 local time, early Monday morning AEST time. He is hoping to win his last Superclásico this weekend as he considers retirement. The deadball specialist has a decent scoring record against Boca Juniors and has netted free kicks in the last two league meetings between the great rivals. Having played just under 300 games for River, the 34-year-old knows exactly what victory in this Sunday’s fixture would mean to fans of the club.
Written by Francis Fields / Monday 15th March 2010
In a week filled with media criticism on the much-publicized scrutiny of Brazilian forward, former Inter Milan and current Flamengo star Adriano with alcohol issues along with Copa Libertadores mid-week action, Argentina president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was about to announce a government message on national television only to realise she needed to postpone it due to the coverage of a Clausura match between Chacarita Juniors and San Lorenzo where the head of state admitted, "as a politician I am ready to confront opposition but never with a football fan at home whom are normal people until the very moment of a television match broadcast to which these people convert themselves onto the incredible Hulk." A considerable act to do and quite memorable words to say.
