In case you haven't heard, River Plate was relegated. One of the world's most renowned clubs and one of the most respected names in Argentina and South America, anywhere really, has been sent down to the second division after losing to Belgrano by a 3-1 aggregate in a relegation playoff in Argentina.
The supporters there were not very pleased, as the relegation touched off riots outside River's stadium. Supporters even tossed objects onto the field, forcing players to seek refuge far away from the stands lest the hinchas lob things on them.
Some of the scenes...
Now, I can't think of many other situations when a giant like River Plate was relegated. Juventus spent time in Serie B recently but that was due to scandal. Newcastle United was relegated, but they don't quite have the history of River Plate.
Anyway, it's a lesson for all clubs around the world that permanency in the top flight is not necessarily a given.
My brother and I used to run around quoting our favorite lines from the DeMille classic - "So let it be written; so let it be done." "Bring it back stained with his blood!"
Aside from the film, there's no denying that the original Bible set of laws is probably the most famous list of rules anywhere. The form has been borrowed many times. Now there's a ten commandments for hooligans.
Someone pointed out to me the moment he knew the U.S. was going to defeat Brazil for the gold medal.
It was during the break for the overtime periods, when Brazil's players fell to the ground to rest, exhausted. The U.S. players were obviously fitter, and a tired Brazilian defense would probably give up chances.
When I was watching Argentina versus Nigeria, I had a similar epiphany when the referee stopped play for a water break. Argentina had looked plodding, but as their players hydrated and received encouragement and instruction from their coach, I thought, "This break will save them. They get the water they need, they catch their breath against the athletic Nigerians, they get that little second wind they need to create something."
There's always that push-pull between athleticism and artistry. In the U.S., we're so competitive as a country that we push kids into formal soccer games as young as four. They're lugging around little trophies.
Though they're not on the exact same topic, I found these points of view interesting. The first is from an article on the Argentine team, which quotes their coach, Batista.
"In Argentina we are making some mistakes," he told me. "We are emulating things that take us further away from our football. And we are depriving children of their childhood. There is too much emphasis on work in the gym, on weight-training and speed. And too much pressure on kids as young as seven or eight to win. This is not good."
"The child is not treated as a child," Batista argues. "I believe strongly in respecting the stages - there is a time when you have to play for fun, enjoy the game. Argentina's strong point has always been technique. If you look at the best players in Europe, they are always the ones who are technically excellent. Gyms and machines can never give you what keepy-uppies and contact with the ball do for a child."
The other viewpoint arrived in my email inbox from a reader. If other readers have any thoughts on the merits of fitness and strength versus technique and the best balance, or if anyone wants to tackle the question this reader posits, post in the comments.
I just wanted to say that your article a few months back on college soccer hurting the development of our young players should be on the front of soccernet and required reading for everyone high up in the USSF and MLS. We have more and more people playing the game as soccer grows more popular, but we still will still have a serious lack of quality players unless our youth player development system is completely overhauled. We can't insist on following the high school-college-draft model we use for basketball and football. Soccer is a completely different game that relies much less on size and athleticism (which can be developed anywhere) than the other two.
We need to look towards Europe and Latin America for how to develop soccer players. They've been playing the sport longer than we've played anything, and they have it figured out. If we have any desires of turning into a powerful soccer nation we need to adopt the same system of youth teams owned by the professional clubs. There are innumerable problems with our current model, as I'm sure you're familiar with, so I'll just stick to the most obvious.
The first and most important is that the current model has our talent far too spread out over the country. There are thousands of high school soccer teams in America, so none of our young players are exposed to a really high level of competition. In other countries, it's centralized, so you have the top youth division, with 20 teams, followed by the next, followed by the next. Thus the best young players week in and week out get exposed to the highest level of competition and the best coaching available in the country. If a player isn't good enough, he's cut and a better one takes his place, so this elite level of play is maintained, and obviosuly every young player's dream is to be a part of these leagues. It is the most nurturing environment possible to create good soccer players. In the United States, we may have 12 year olds with the potential to be the next Zidane, but unlike their European and Latin American counterparts they will spend the ages of 12-22 unexposed to a high level play, not to mention very, very poorly coached (relatively speaking, let's face it, in the older generations soccer was much less popular, thus we have a smaller pool) by coaches who have the wrong objectives, which brings me to my next point.
The coaches of high school and college teams in the United States have one thing in mind: winning. That is how their success is measured and their only incentive. Youth teams in the rest of their world have one objective, and that is churning out top quality players for the parent club. The end product is not only technichally superior but far more creative and tactically aware than American soccer players, who may be just as athletic. No one cares if the youth team wins or loses, as long as it yields great players for the club. But in the US the youth teams only focus on winning, thus our prodigies spend their practices focusing on conditioning and learning how to play the American youth soccer game, aka running war. How on earth we decide our youth game to allow unlimited substitutions, I have no idea. It's barely soccer at that point.
There is also the issue of scouting, how do we expect ourselves to find talent (which evaluating is much more subjective than basketball and football, it's not just a matter of who's bigger and faster and who gets the best stats) when there are thousands of high schools spread out over this vast nation, and then come age 18 all of the players move to completely different systems? And I'm not even getting into how bad the youth programs in this country are, the profiteering, the poor coaching, etc. etc.
Though our current system may be decent for developing mid level talent, ie lots of pretty good high school soccer players, I am amazed that despite having to grow up playing their game in America we still have some decent players that can make mid level European leagues. But if the MLS is to survive (with it's rapid expansion, the talent pool is going to be spread very thin, and since the last draft was very weak, as well as the one before it with the exception of Edu, I fear things are only going to get worse) and if we are to have any real success on the international level, we need to adopt the European system as soon as possible.
It'll take a long time for the changes to come into effect as developing a good youth system takes years, not to mention it'll take 7 or 8 years before we have our first young ones who have made it all the way through the system. There need to be major incentives for MLS teams to create these systems, as well as funding from the MLS. Each MLS team needs to have sole access to the contract rights of its youth players (they cannot go to the draft, then there'd be no incentive), and I think players from a team's youth system, at least at the beginning, should have a portion of their salary not count toward's the team's salary cap. The youth teams need to get the best facilities and coaches and need to be exposed to the best competition. We need all of our young soccer players striving to play these teams so that our very best are all put together in the most nurturing environment possible.
Am I the only one that thinks this way? Is there any chance of the European system becoming the norm here? What can the average frustrated American soccer fan do to help bring about change?
We're still waiting for Peter Nowak to decide who is on the U.S. Olympic list, but defending champions Argentina are bringing the arsenal. Messi is there, and Riquelme as one of their overage guys.
Hey, hey, folks, let's get to it, why don't we? Predictions, please. Get them logged in before kickoff. It's LD time, JP and Harkesey tell us. OK, that means he's going to play somewhere in there. It's also apparently very, very hot. Ok, that's it for the English announcers - anyone still watching them please post what else they say here. I've switched to Galavision. Their announcers are excited about the return of LD. The grass in Giants Stadium looks lumpy. Apparently traffic is so horrid that they've delayed the start of the match so more people can get inside to watch the game. The announcers discussed how bummed LS must have been to miss the last two matches. Now they're commenting on the impressive Argentine (and Argentine-wanna-bes) turnout. Now they talk about the contract pressure on certain stars to play - Messi, for one. hey, there's Sunil, shaking hands with all the players. Kasey Keller is on the field, looking a bit miserable that he's not in uniform. Kasey always loved big games and he can cuss in Spanish, too. Kasey gets a watch from Sunil. 52 - Counter catches the U.S. badly, Tim Howard out, Aguero sold that foul, but didn't get it, though the replay showed Timmay clipped him. Karma for the call LD didn't get? This would have been a PK, though. 54 - LD cross gets cut off. Suddenly the game is faster and more open for both sides. Argentine anthem is bouncy. Sam's Army has the flag out. EJ is singing. So is my mom, who I didn't think was much of a soccer fan. Let's see if she sees the match out. Cooper was apparently just a backup in case any of the regular players got hurt. Basile looks stressed, or just hot. Bob is in his usual catbird seat on the back of the bench. Kickoff! 1 - Donovan gets whistled for a foul and he's got the weirdest, "Who, me?" look on his face. 4 - Kun Aguero is in the box, but it doesn't result in a shot. 5 - Now it does. Kun in the box, shoots twice. Howard stops both. 6 - LD overshoots Bease with a pass. He's rusty. (Mom: Who's the goalkeeper? He's good) 7 - Cruz in the box, Howard stops other shot. 8 - Corner for Argentina, leads to a low cross in front of the goal, but is knocked out for a goal kick. 9 - LD to Bease on the wing, who crosses, Heinze clears, Dempsey has it but his cros misses everyone and Argentina regain the ball for another counter. 11 - EJ Offside. Shot of BB looking intense. 12 - "everything is at the rhythm that Argentina desires" 14 - The U.S. on a little attack. 'Dolo's cross is too far, goes out. 15 - Abbondanzieri looks hot and unhappy. "Dolo in the box with Cruz, who grabs his shirt to gain advantage - ref catches it and whistles play dead. 16 - Califf with a foul. Yikes. Dangerous chance for Argentina. Wall needs to be reset. Dempsey protesting. 17 - Heinze connects! It's over the bar. 18 - Dempsey on the counter, dribbles well, draws foul. LD sets up. More shoving in the wall. Ref goes for card. Niko Burriso. LD serves ball in, EJ pops up for a header, right to Abbondanzierri. 19 - Corner for the U.S. LD sets up. Nice service, but Abbo punches it out. Outside U.S. shot way over bar. Might be trying too hard to recreate Benny's Mexico shot there. 21 - Califf up for a header, Kun too, but Kun goes down for a good while. They hit heads, or Califf hit with a little forearm, too. 23 - Bradley loses the ball just as the announcers are talking about how he deserves to play. 24 - The announcers also give LD credit for the U.S.'s improved play, just as he gets called for a foul on Heinze. 25 - Messi earns a corner for Argentina. Howard catches the ball. 28 - Kun in the box! He's ahead of the defense, and Timmay comes out against him, makes a save by knocking the ball way with his knee. 29 - Califf gives up another foul on Cruz, right at the arc. This is really dangerous. 30 - Messi takes it, puts the ball high. It doesn't bend down for him. 31 - Argentina are looking more deliberate in the attack. Dempsey cuts a ball forward and is fouled. 32 - Dempsey with a shot. It's outside, but it pegs an Argentine defender and nearly sneaks in far post on the deflection. U.S. corner. 33- LD puts it into the arms of Abbo. 35 - Pablo gets called for a foul - A shot of the U.S. bench shows three players chewing their fingernails. Pearce on a counter dares to take a shot - it's a solid hit and on frame. Abbo catches it, but that made him work just a little. 36 - Maxi pays it back and then some, testing Howard on the other end, but Timmay is up for it. 37 - Bradley has the ball near the arc, gets fouled but still comes up with the ball, and the ref waves play on - advantage. Perhaps, but a FK there would have been a threat. Argentina regains possession soon after the play-on call. 39 - LD is arguing the ref's call not to mark a foul on him, but to go back to an earlier play, where Fernando Gago is down on the field. 41 - LD can't believe the ref missed his foul. Pearce shields the ball in the box, gets fouled. Timmay takes the kick. 43 - Dempsey crosses into the box and EJ nearly gets there, but the ball hits off his battling defender and goes to goal, where Abbo gets it. 44 - Dempsey with the ball on his foot, hits a horrid forward pass. Uck. 45 - Cruz beats the defensive line of the U.S. - is alone on goal. Timmay! He saves it, but Messi gets it right back in the box for another attack. Gets a corner. Argentina takes it short, but the U.S. knocks the ball out. Halftime whistle. The draw is deserved by Tim Howard nearly single-handedly. It's like he's channeling Kasey versuc Brazil way back in the Gold Cup. But on the field itself, the U.S. does look better. LD had a legit gripe about that foul, but the U.S. needs to create more chances. (Mom gave up on the game, mostly. She's cooking and occasionally peeking in.) The announcers are beating up on Julio Cruz for not putting away his chances. Hey, lookey there. Bradley is not playing 90 minutes. Edu is on for him. Good move, though Bradley did fine during his time on the field. 47 - I've switched to the English coverage. Pearce crosses in, Dempsey flicks to LD, whose shot is deflected out for a corner. 48 - Crossbar! LD serves it to Gooch and his header is off the bar. The U.S. gets another chance, but the shot is deflected. 50 - Off the counter following an Arg FK, LD gets fouled. 52 - Aguero in the box on a counter got clipped by Howard but no call. Karma for the missed foul on LD? This would have been for a PK. 56 - LD nearly successful in splitting two defenders. 57 - Cruz earns FK near top of arc at a slight angle. Service slightly overhit, the U.S. clears. 59 - Gooch in a duel with Cruz, wins out in the box. 60 - Mastro long for Bease - misses. Then mastro gets a foul that seems rather pointless - and gets him a yellow. 61 - A Gooch foul results in another Arg FK. Adu is coming on for Clint Dempsey. Jay DeMerit for Onyewu. 63 - LD pushes ball wide - cross gets blocked - Argentina reclaims possession. They keep it for a while, circling the U.S. goal, but can't get a shot. 64 - Cruz comes out for Lopez. 65 - Adu earns a midfield foul. Another U.S. attack builds up, but Argentina eventually clears. 67 - EJ behind the defense, alone on goal, he passes the ball back - to Adu - but it's way behind him. 68 - EJ is down. He's limping off. Abbo caught him just as he passed the ball. 69 - Kljestan comes on for EJ. 70 - Edu gets a card and gives up a FK. This one is further out, but give Argentina options. 71 - Red Card! Mastro, but the replay shows nothing. The announcers think it might be a mistake. Weird. I don't get it. 74 - LD tries to argue, but the decision is made. The U.S. is playing a man down. Kljestan comes in for EJ. 75 - Announcers can't figure it out. "That should never happen." Harkes says. 76 - Who the hell confuses Mo Edu for Pablo? The U.S. resist another Arg FK. 77- Jose Aguilar Chicas - his name may live in infamy. 78 - The U.S. are now stuck in their own half - in the immediate vicinity of the goal. Eddie Lewis in for Heath Pearce, who did quite well. 79 - Do you hear the U.S. fans sing? Singing the song of angry fans. 80 - Adu draws a foul. The FK reaches LD in the box, but he's shielded from the ball as soon as he takes a touch. 81 - Cross into the box cleared by 'Dolo, out for corner. It's taken short, and 'Dolo draws the foul from Aguero to get a goal kick. 83 - LD and Sach work the give and go, LD hits Lewis, who hits a cross, cleared for a deep throw. Freddy works on the side, gets a FK on the side of the box. LD sends in the kick. Arg clears it - U.S. corner. 85 - LD serves it in - cleared - another corner. LD sets up. cleared, ball out to Freddy, whose shot is high. It's raining hard now. The sound is affected. 86 - Mascherano fouls LD hard - LD got to the ball quicker than one would expect out of game shape and the ball was gone and masch hit LD instead of the ball. 87 - That was Mascherano's second - the sides are equal now. 88 - Ever Vanega on for Aguero. Adu on a long run, give and go with Sach, but then gets dispossessed deep. 90 - Freddy dancing with the ball in the rain. Five minutes of stoppage time. Frankie Hejduk comes in for Beas. 90+ LD on the run! Gets the ball wide to Kljestan, who cuts back in the box for a shot which is deflected for a corner. LD serves it in, but Argentina clears. Argentina circles the U.S. goal again. LD starts a counter - gets the ball to Freddy, who gets tackled from behind, but there's no card. Ref probably just wants to go home and dry out. Long FK finds Abbo. It's pouring rain and the fans are chanting "USA!" as the U.S. closes out the draw. Pretty exciting for a scoreless match.
Hard to say that Argentina's 4-1 win over Mexico was anything but a spanking. It was a clinic in many ways as Argentina picked apart Mexico. It's clear that Mexico needs something, needs Sven to come in and take charge. I'm wondering, though, if the players were cool about his arrival and his hiring how they will react to him once he's in charge.
I thought Ricardo Lavolpe's tactics fit Mexico perfectly but Hugo Sanchez and now Chucho Ramirez have each not played to Mexico's strengths. It will be interesting to see what Sven does.
Anyway, here are a couple of stories from the game.
But Mexico sure doesn't look very good tonight. It's halftime and the score is 3-0 in favor of Argentina. Sven Goran Eriksson is in attendance, and he might be wondering if there was more work to do than he thought. Jesus "Chucho" Ramirez is trying his best as the now lame-duck coach.
Argentina, meanwhile, has played aggressively. We'll see how the second half plays out, but short of a miraculous comeback Argentina should walk away with a convincing victory.
ADD: Okay, final score Argentina 4-1. If the players were really for Chucho and wanted to send a message about their support for him, the message wasn't received. Sven should just start now and manage the game on Sunday in Chicago against Peru. Why wait?
Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune had a story on the possibility of Mexico-Argentina in San Diego on June 4. The story probably went to print before the Argentine FA posted the news late last night that it had indeed accepted the mini-tour of North America in June, which includes Mexico-Argentina on June 4.
It's a Wednesday night and, as Zeigler points out, the match would be Mexico's 17th game in San Diego. But often the opponents have left something to be desired. Mexico has played Venezuela, Sweden, Albania and Paraguay there in recent years - two decent (though undermanned) sides and two walkovers.
If Mexico drew a record 63,328 to San Diego for the Venezuela game last year, I can't imagine Argentina not breaking that in June.
Argentina reported on its Web site that it will play Mexico in San Diego on June 4 and against the United States on June 8 at Giants Stadium.
From the report on the Argentine FA's Web site:
The Argentine national team will take a mini-tour through North America in June. Alfio Basile's squad will face Mexico in San Diego on the 4th of that month and will play four days later against the United States in New York. In both cases, neither the time nor the stadium has been set.
Our national representatives will use the matches as preparation for qualifiers that will be played on the 14th against Ecuador in Buenos Aires and on the 18th in Brazil against the hosts. Both games will serve as qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Looks like it's up to Argentine manager Alfio Basile if we get a rare treat here in the United States.
Argentina, who thrashed Guatemala 5-0 in Los Angeles in February, is considering a two-game swing in June that would see the two-time World Cup champions play Mexico and the United States.
The proposed Mexico game would be in San Diego on Wednesday, June 4 while Argentina-U.S. would be on the East Coast some four days later, according to reports. Brazil had a similar two-day swing a year ago as they played the US in Chicago on Sept. 9 and Mexico in Foxboro, Mass., a few days later.
Earlier this week, Argentina released their roster for an upcoming friendly against Guatemala. On Feb. 6, Argentina will play Guatemala at the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Argentina spared no expense in calling in a star-studded roster, which includes Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Aguero, not to mention up-and-comers in Gonzalo Higuain and Fernando Gago, among others. The match falls on an international fixture date, which allowed Argentina to call in a mostly European-based squad.
I'm hoping to be at the game as it's not often you get to take in Argentina in person, at least not here in the United States.
Still, I can't help but thinking... the U.S. is playing Mexico that same night, in Houston. Wouldn't the U.S. be better off playing Argentina than Mexico? Sure, a rivalry match is always an enjoyable one but why not test your mettle against one of the best nations in the world?
U.S.-Mexico will undoubtedly be a good game. There will be moments of drama and (probably) pulsating goals. The action will likely go back and forth and few will complain about the entertainment value of the match once its over (though the result will likely irritate one group of fans).
But Argentina is Argentina, and wouldn't a friendly against them be better for the U.S. than another match against Mexico?
Now, I've often been supportive of U.S.-Mexico games, and still am. I think it's one of those things that you can't get enough of, for all the things I've said prior. But Mexico is close by. A two- or three-hour flight from Mexico City to American soil is usually all it takes for El Tri to arrive. Argentina is quite a bit further, especially when you consider most of their players are based in the Old World. That Argentina is willing to come to the United States to play against Guatemala seems a bit strange. I mean, if they are willing to come play Guatemala - all the way in Los Angeles - surely they'd be willing to play the United States here, no? Why didn't the U.S. make a greater push to play against Argentina?
Anyway, here's what the U.S. missed out on:
Goalkeepers: Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain), Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands).
Defenders: Pablo Zabaleta (Espanyol, Spain) , Ezequiel Garay (Racing Santander, Spain), Federico Fazio (Sevilla, Spain), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich, Germany), Cristian Ansaldi (Rubin Kazan, Russia). Midfielders: Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain), Ever Banega (Valencia, Spain), Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich, Germany), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England), Damian Escudero (Velez Sarsfield), Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors).
Strikers: Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid, Spain), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Angel Di Maria (Benfica, Portugal), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy), Marco Ruben (River Plate).
Sunday one of the greatest rivalries in the world will renew when Boca Juniors plays River Plate. If you haven't seen one of these Argentine clasicos, you need to tune in Sunday to watch it. The spectacle on the field is topped only by the passion in the stands.
Personally, on my "Top 10 Things to do Before I Die" list is to attend a Boca Juniors match in La Bombonera, and if it were a game against River Plate, wow.
Here are a couple of clips from each side's hinchada that I found on You Tube.
It's hard to believe but River Plate has gone three years without a championship. And here I thought only Real Madrid was the only club not living up to its history.
River Plate is a downright soccer factory. It is one of the best exporters in talent in the entire world. Yet the club's own success is lacking, even with the number of players who have passed through the club.
SI colleague Greg Sica thinks that River Plate will win the upcoming Clausura season. I can't say I disagree with him. Boca Juniors got better by ditching coach Ricardo Lavolpe, which was a good omen for the club. But River just has too much firepower for the rest of theleague.
I'd like to think that the new rainbow cleats of Lionel Messi are a subtle plea for tolerance and inclusion, as well as respect for human rights. 
