It all seemed to be going so well for Diego Maradona. Maradona was given the reins to Argentina’s men’s national soccer team in November despite having little coaching experience. Since then he had “hit the ground running” with a pair of exhibition wins over Scotland and France and a 4-0 thumping of Venezuela in qualifiers on Saturday. Things had been looking rosy for los albiceletes ahead of their Wednesday match against an underperforming Bolivian squad.
Fate had a much different tale in store, however:
FIFA and several South American countries including Bolivia argued last year over playing international matches at altitudes above 8200 feet. Yet the high altitude of La Paz was a minor factor in a game that was thoroughly dominated by the Bolivians.
Argentina’s defeat was the first since 1958 where that were hit with six goals against them and their worse loss since the historical “cinco a cero” loss to Colombia in 1993.
The shocking result leaves Argentina in the fourth and final South American World Cup qualification place behind Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile, respectively.
Online Sources- YouTube, Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters
what's this? The prodigal son has regressed? I'm not going to say I told you so...but I saw this one coming.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little too early to tell if this will be merely a blip on Maradona's coaching radar or the beginning of the end.
ReplyDeleteBut I have a funny feeling Carlos Bianchi is smiling a little brighter today.
How a guy like this can become a coach... the guy was adrugaddict, in any moment he can fall again in that shit... I guess this was a terrible decision.
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