Can it really be possible that Diego Maradona will fail to lead Argentina to the 2010 World Cup?
After their defeat at home to Brazil they have gone on to lose 1-0 to Paraguay and drop to fifth place in the qualifying group.
Get out
With only the top four certain to qualify Argentina find themselves one point behind fourth placed Ecuador with two games left to play. The ‘get out clause’ for Maradona and his men is that the side in fifth face a play-off with the fourth-placed team in the North, Central America and Caribbean group.
In defeating Argentina, Paraguay became the eleventh side to automatically book their place at South Africa next Summer and leave their esteemed opponents looking on with envy.
Worse
In fact, things are even worse for Argentina as they themselves are only one point ahead of Uruguay and Venezuela and two points clear of Colombia. In October they have what should be a relatively straight forward game at home to Peru, but their final game in Uruguay could be a momentous occasion.
It is unbelievable to think that Argentina have won just six of their sixteen games in the tournament so far and have a goal difference of just one. Their poor form won’t be helped by the fact that Juan Sebastian Veron was giving his marching orders in Paraguay and won’t be available for the crucial October games.
Distant
Let us not forget that just two years ago Argentina reached the very top of the FIFA rankings for the first time in their history. They were officially regarded as the best side in the world. Two years on that looks like a very distant memory.
In the eighteen World Cups so far the country has withdrawn three times but in the fifteen occasions they have competed they have failed to qualify just once, in 1970. Not qualifying now is totally unthinkable. For a country who has won it twice, been runners-up once and reached the quarter finals three times, including last time out, qualification is regarded as a certainty.
Failed
In the Copa America they have triumphed on fourteen occasions. They haven’t failed to get to at least the quarter-finals in their last nine attempts and have been runners-up in the last two tournaments. With this record against other South American teams how on earth can they be sitting in fifth place?
They are currently ranked eighth by FIFA in the World standings whereas the teams sitting above them in the qualifying group include Paraguay (twenty-third), Chile (twenty-first) and Ecuador (thirty-sixth). Venezuela, just one point behind them do not even make FIFA’s top fifty.
Wrong
Something is going terribly wrong for the side who should surely still be one of the best in the world and one of the favourites for South Africa 2010. They still have great players and they have a manager who despite his well publicised problems is a national icon.
It is likely that Argentina will still find just about enough to qualify and that will leave them with a few months to sort the problems out before the tournament proper actually starts.
Problems
However, it would appear that those problems are pretty serious and it could be that the removal of Maradona and the appointment of an experienced manager is what is needed.
What do we think, should Maradona go or does the problem lie elsewhere?
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