Argentina On its Way to the 2010 World Cup

Argentina finally made it to the South African World Cup 2010. After winning against Peru on Saturday (2-1) the Argentine team had to at least draw to get their ticket to Cape Town. Diego Maradona’s team ended up with a 1-0 score after Bolatti’s goal on the 84th minute. This result assured the fourth rank to Argentina in the World Cup qualifications. Uruguay is now at the fifth place. Last night’s loser will play against Costa Rica without Caceres, expelled from the pitch by a red card.

Argentina was under pressure from its opponent in the first minutes. A bit later, Maradona’s team got more comfortable on the pitch. The experienced Juan Sebastián Verón helped a lot in this. Natural leader of the team, he had good control of the ball and was opening the way to the Uruguayan goal. Argentina missed a lot of occasions in the first half.

However, Chile scored against Ecuador and this secured the way of Argentina to the World Cup. When Uruguay was doing its best to score that goal that would lead its team to South Africa, Argentina put most of their strategy on defence. Approaching the end of the game, atmosphere was still tense though as the score was still empty. But then Argentina scored, with a goal from Bolatti on a pass from Verón.

In a press conference, Diego Maradona, coach of the Argentine team, insulted the press for the lack of confidence in him during the past months. “Those who did not believe in this, sorry to the ladies, but they can f*** off!” said the coach to journalists just after the game. He claims to have been affected by their critics regarding to poor results of Argentina in the eliminatory games. “I’m grateful toward supporters and players and no one else” he added.