Buzzin Football

In June or July when Argentina get knocked out of the World Cup, all fingers will be pointed at El Diego Maradona. His bias for picking players who play in Argentina has been his downfall and yet he still refuses to accept that this has categorically not worked.

You’d think after barely qualifying for the 2010 South Africa World Cup, Maradona would have enough humility to admit he was wrong, but instead of including the experience and reliability of guys like Zanetti, Cambiasso, Aimar, Lucho Gonzalez and to a lesser extent, Gago, he has opted for more unproven relative unknowns. Sure some are doing well in Argentina but how can this equate to playing against players with European experience and world class ability.

Let’s look at Cambiasso, one of the best in his position and an ever-present in Inter Milan’s historic treble, not to mention Zanetti, who captains that very same team. Then there’s Aimar and Gonzalez, who were both league winners in their respective teams.

Maradona prefers to choose flops like Gutierrez who played in the English second division last season, and his old buddy Martin Palermo from Boca Juniors who has made the final cut.

The reason many Argentines secretly think Maradona should have been fired over a year ago is the public fall-out with Riquelme, a rift which will see Riquelme miss his last chance to take part in a world cup, along with Zanetti, Cambiasso and Aimar. Is it because the AFA are too scared to publicly reject a national treasure? Whatever the reason, Diego Maradona has divided his homeland, while sacrificing their hopes of winning their third World Cup.

Although Dunga has made some curious contradictory decisions, it seems unlikely that it will have the same destructive effect on Brazil’s chances of glory. He has already suggested he expects Brazil fans to be unhappy with his decisions but to be patriotic regardless which I am sure they will be.

Ronaldinho has had a renaissance at AC Milan in the past 12 months. Training well, playing almost every game and contributing assists and goals along with his usual flair and infectious good humour.

Not to mention he has had a significantly better season than Kaka, who does go to South Africa; even though he has barely played since he coincidentally got “injured” just after being criticized for the poor form which got Real Madrid eliminated from the Champions League.

The manager claims he will use the players who have proved themselves for the national team but in Ronaldinho and Adriano’s case, haven’t been given that opportunity even though they have been in fine form for AC Milan and Flamengo respectively. Even the players told the manager they wanted Adriano in the squad.

Meanwhile Alex Pato, a star of the future and a player AC Milan are building their team around for next season hasn’t made the cut because he has apparently had a bad season. I would like to take the opportunity to say that AC Milan only had a chance of winning Serie A because of Pato and it is only since he has been injured that they lost any hope of doing so.

There is no consistency in Dunga’s choices, but unlike his counterpart from Buenos Aries, he has enough strength in the squad to stake a serious claim for the trophy. Just as well, he is going to need it to get out of that group.