Good To see you here Steven !
I see George covered all of your questions, better than I could have done myself. Lately I have been busy trading and reading, so my soccer following has been reduced to mainly the World Cup events. Although I get the chance to see some games here and there, I cannot follow it consistently.
The World Cup is different... you know, it is religious stuff. [gg]
The only thing I would add is that many Argentinean people are divided in seeing some of the better players go play in Europe. One the one hand they understand it, given the larger salaries and additional exposure these players get in Europe, on the other hand, some complain that the national team is harder to assemble. Some even say that it could very well be the reason why Argentina does not beat the Brazilians more often.
Brazil, in many of the last cups have arrived to the event with an "aura of invincibility", yet when the action begins, one discovers that after all, they are also humans. [Incredibly what that brilliant team of the late 60's and 70's did for their image of near-soccer-gods]. Frankly, although they are many times my favorite, they do not play as they should/could Best example was the last cup in France. I do not even know how is it that they made the final. Some of the games they played were atrocious.
My expectation of Brazil is very very high and their image is permanently embedded in my mind as the best players in the world since Mexico in the 1970 cup. I have not seen Brazil played with such perfection. During the final game against Italy, the Brazilians simply erased the Italians off the field... mind you to the Italian's credit, one must remember that during their semifinal game against Germany they used everything they had, in the most thrilling game of soccer I ever saw. George may disagree with me, but since that Italy -vs-Germany game, I have NOT seen a better game in terms of goals scored, courage and sheer willingness to win, never giving up one inch. Even better than the controversial final between England and Germany 4 years earlier at Wembley stadium
I have always thought that if the Argentina national team played more like a team rather than "individualists put together in a team", they could be as good as the Brazilians, if not better. But that is a hard thing to ask of a good Argentinean player. [read, their pride is bigger than the Coliseum in Rome --gggg]
As for the frogs -[gg]- well... partly, they won because they played at home, although, they did win fair and square, and won the final from the Brazilians no less... -mind you the Brazilians played NOT with winning in mind. The Frenchmen did.
Yes... Time is drawing close for the next World Cup... Cannot wait !
FYI... Read an entertaining view of the two most important teams on Argentina... Boca Juniors and River Plate:
footballculture.net
______
Lastly... O. T. if any of you guys do some serious trading, I recommend you listen to what this guy has to say... so far the man has been outstanding in his calls... but yes, you have to be at the terminal all day long, not much time left for soccer.
He has his own Thread here at SI...
Subject 51138
and his own site (but it is by subscription)
traderpulse.com |
