Spicaresque:

A Spanglish blog dedicated to the works, ruminations, and mongrel pyrotechnics of Yago S. Cura, an Argentine-American poet, translator, publisher & futbol cretin. Yago publishes Hinchas de Poesia, an online literary journal, & is the sole proprietor of Hinchas Press.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

COPA 2010 & ARGENTINA GROUP DYNAMICS

*This image is the official ball of the 2010 World Cup
O.K. so the results of the drawings are pretty much common knowledge by now, but there is still a lot to discuss in terms of phantom scenarios, viable difficulties, and the stench of history. Besides that, Brazil is heavily favored to win their sixth cup and this probably sits well with no one except Brazilians and fans of Brazil. Let me be frank with my bias as well: I want Argentina to win, not only to close the gap (in terms of cups won) between itself and Brazil. The N.Y. Times has a popular soccer blog and I appreciate all they do to keep the American masses informed.

In "World Cup Draw Sets the Stage for Drama" by Rob Hughes, the fate of Argentina is given a full paragraph, "Argentina, after its trauma to qualify for this World Cup under Diego Maradona — who appears nothing like as great a coach as he was a player — has Nigeria, a physically powerful African opponent. South Korea and Greece, the other teams in the group, are stronger than sum of their individual players might suggest."

I agree with Hughes' assessment of Argentina's group but I had to read another article to understand the particularly difficulties Argentina is facing. For example, the article, "World Cup Teams Draw Mixed Fortunes At High Altitudes" was very interesting because it relates the fact that all of Argentina's game are going to be played at high altitudes, "Argentina seem to have fared the worst of the top seeds, playing all three of their group stage games at high altitude in Johannesburg and Polokwane, in the north.

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