We’re on a graduation trip of sorts. I recognize the faces and voices of four key friends. It’s a mixture Wall with geography that ranges from mountains and valleys to huge cement buildings. Dark light. There are thousands and thousands of girls and boys in it: dancing in the form of choreography, rave scripts, exciting conversations, festive dinners. In a football match among thousands, a carnival football match, I hit the wall as a stranger: pass and goal. We return to our seats. She left the bag at Messi’s house, in a two-room apartment. As a messenger from the future, I learned information on the trip: when I enter, there will be a group of brother’s friends who will steal an item from Leo that will change everything. I walk in, whisper, and when I look at the exit, I take a gun out of my bag. Let no one dare prevent the football revolution. less than less the dream of our heroes. From Messi.
Selection Notes
1. Cesar Luis Menotti talks about this in the prologue. Football without cheating (1986): In the Monumental dressing room, minutes after Argentina won their first World Cup, Argentina 78, and before heading off to receive the Cup, a footballer asked him: “What now?” “This phrase, which reeked of the final point or loneliness, and which together – the players I had to manage and myself – became a constant challenge. We are trying to show that, like people, we have the right to continue to believe that there is football, the one we want, in heritage, in style, because ultimately it is a way of life.” Menotti, AFA selection director since 2019, was the one who told president Claudio Tapia that Lionel Scaloni should become national team coach.
2- As in the premiere of the Qatar 2022 qualifying tournament – also 1-0, Messi’s goal, from the penalty spot, at home, and the first. I choose to believe– Ecuador was a difficult team, difficult to unblock and able to counterattack. But Messi plays in Argentina. Minute 77, Monumental, three teammates cover the stick of goalkeeper Hernan Galindez as a trick and he throws it over the barrier. Great goal, painting, and Meeeeeessy, Meeeeessy, Meeeeessy. Incidentally, at 36, he is level with Uruguayan Luis Suarez as the all-time leading scorer in qualifying (29) and David Beckham in free-kick goals (65, 12 behind Juninho Pernambucano). However, Messi warned that “probably this will not be the last time he starts appearing in matches” and that since he appeared at Inter Miami on July 21, he has played 12 games with the Ecuadorian team. that is, once every four days, and without pre-season. For now, let’s not think – just to take care of ourselves – to what extent and when Messi will play in the national team, although this seems more important than qualifying, easier with six places and seventh in the playoffs for South America. Only he knows. “I just wanted
find out / the date and place / and there I will go to sing…” says the Indian.
3. In the match against Ecuador, five years have passed since Scaloni made his debut as coach of the national team, against Guatemala in Los Angeles, September 7, 2018. Four days later he said: “We are not one of the best teams in the world, but we have a football culture that will make us one of the best in the world again. I don’t know when, but I think it won’t be long.” Before the start of Scaloni’s qualifying spoke about the biotype of the Argentine football player: “We were absolutely right to trust the biotype of a player that would bring us joy, make people feel identified. This is the style of play: the player who loves the ball, who is not afraid and does not burning. At the end of the day, that’s what we Argentines like to do, to always try.”
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4. “Cootie thinks he’s He-Man,” Scaloni said. Christian Romero defended the kingdom of the national team and the secrets of the central defenders. Figure. Attacks, duels, time in transitions, rigor in the mark, push in attack, reading, infection and class. The fans applauded him. He is 25 years old. “Having Cuti behind me is the best thing that can happen to me because he always makes me go out, he always wants to be hand in hand,” said Rodrigo De Paul, a courageous man. I’m used to leaving without looking back and that driving is a pleasure; In the end, you look at what is in front of you, and this makes you less tired. “Couti is on par with the best centre-back in the world and all the credit goes to him.”
5- In his eighth game for the national team – yes -, Enzo Fernandez made his debut in qualifying. He started as a central midfielder and then moved forward, switching positions with Alexis Mac Allister. He looked better, looser, freer, playing between the lines. And this gesture: taco pass.
6. Messi scored a magnificent goal from a free kick, and the first to hug Alejandro Garnacho and Germán Pezzella moved towards the edge of the field. When he entered the field in the 88th minute, Messi sat next to Garnacho. There is no point in rushing to change the forecast if those who are playing are playing so well and are following the instructions not to relax. 25% of those named by Scaloni had not been to Qatar. Garnacho, Facundo Buonanotte, Juan Musso, Walter Benitez, Nicholas Gonzalez, Marcos Senesi, Lucas Beltran and Facundo Medina. Although he had already decided that if Garnacho played one more minute, his third game against Argentina, there would be no turning back and goodbye Spain.
7. Paulo Dybala, the man who last game of the final In the match against France, he snatched a 4-3 score from the hands of Kylian Mbappe. He was called up but not included due to injury. “If Argentina had not won the World Cup, I think people would also be waiting for the team in Ezeiza. She felt identified in many ways. Since Leo (Messi) said we are not going to leave them stranded, people did too click. The fact that it happened the way it did made it special,” Dybala said in an interview. The Key to Eternity.
8. On Tuesday, at training in Ezeiza, we saw Messi talking to Javier Mascherano, who will be the coach of the Sub 23 team that will compete for qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as part of the pre-Olympic games that begin in January in Venezuela. Alan Velasco, Bruno Sapelli and Lucas Esquivel, as well as Thiago Almada, were summoned by Scaloni, but obeyed Mascherano’s orders. Has Messi confirmed to Mascherano that he wants to be one of the three senior players if the under-23 team takes part in the 2024 Games in Paris?
9. Tapia was bothered by the criticism elitization when accessing tickets through an AFA ID. He even answered Scaloni’s question., who bought nine tickets (and who are we to ask him to do anything?). You can’t hide the sun, that classic, VIP bias, especially when Argentine football is almost always played in full fields. “The collective December delirium, these millions on the streets, was a demand for popular, transversal football for the whole of society. The AFA ID announcement shows that stadiums are becoming increasingly elite. Choice is like prey, leaders in their world for the few,” wrote Andres Burgo, author of an excellent book. Our World Championship. Football, its strength, tends to reveal what is happening to us as a society, but in a rawer, more raw form.
10. Argentina will play their second qualifying match this Tuesday at 17:00 against Bolivia in La Paz. Bolivian football is facing a serious crisis: the Federation has canceled local tournaments due to a scandal involving match-fixing, betting and changes to VAR. The team last played at 3,625 meters above Hernando Siles and won 2-1 with goals from Lautaro Martinez and Joaquin Correa. After celebrating Lautaro’s goal, Scaloni came onto the field to hug him.
Postal Pizza
- podcast. Friends of Los de Exterior Son de Palo shared with me “Napoli, Legacy of the D10”, in which the 2022/23 Scudetto, post-Maradona, tells the history of the club, the history of the north-south division. Italy, the multicultural background of the champions and much more. Here it is, and another one from Japan, 30 years later: “Country 5:0: Colombia vs. Argentina,” by Colombian journalists Christian Solano and Nicholas Samper.
- A thread. After Marcelo Bielsa’s conference before the start of qualifying in Uruguay, I had this: “You all belong to companies that do not prioritize talent to create ideas that enrich football fans. They demand to be heard. Say and do what you want, as long as you are heard.” Felipe Fernandez, who tries to explain the world through sports, collected questions journalists.
- Interview. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s historic coach, has been FIFA’s director of football development since 2019. According to him, he is working to “improve the game.” Chat with Miguel Delaney at Independent: why football may have to ‘create schools of forwards’ due to a shortage of goalscorers, how modern training focuses on high technique and loses ‘a bit of freedom, creativity’, and asks: ‘Are there enough good players in the world?’ I don’t think so”.
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What was the last time you dreamed about football?
Greetings and hugs,
Roberto Parrottino (Beto)