Argentina might just miss the World Cup plane

In exactly 273 days from now the world will be descending on South Africa for the 2010 soccer World Cup while some of the world’s best soccer talent will be feeling a little disgruntled in front of their top-of-the-range HDTV televisions where they’ll be watching it from home and harbour grievances at what could have been if they had led the way forward or even replicated their club form with their national teams.

For the first time in a long time we might see a World Cup without France, Argentina and Portugal. Previously unthinkable and now almost a real possibility.

Argentina lie fifth in the Conmebol World Cup qualification group where the top four qualify automatically and the fifth placed will go into a playoff with a team from the Concacaf region. They are coached by the country’s icon, Diego Maradona, so dubbed “El Diego” but things haven’t gone according to plan since the Argentinian legend took over the hotseat 12 months ago. At his disposal he has the talents of Lionel Messi, currently the best player in the planet and the favourite to be crowned world player of the year in December. More ammunition for the Argentinians is provided by the likes of Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Maxi Rodriguez and Jesus Datolo while the midfield steel is provided by Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago and Sebastian Veron.

Unfortunately for Argentina they can’t call on one of the finest midfielders of this decade in Juan Roman Riquelme, who had a fall-out with Maradona. For the past 6 years, all national teams where built around him as he controlled the tempo of the match, supplied those defence-splitting passes and also being a regular threat from set pieces. With 2 games to go before the end of qualification, they are running out of games and time to make it to South Africa.

France look like they might make the trip to South Africa albeit through a play-off berth as they lie second in the European qualifying group seven with two games left. The French coach so far has shown that he can rebuild his team since Zinedine Zidane led them to the final of the World Cup in 2006. The team failed dismally at Euro 2008 and their qualification so far has been a stop-start affair. Zidane hasn’t been fully replaced but they can call on the talents of Yoann Gourcuff and Samir Nasri who are as skilful as the French legend.

Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra is a mirror image of another retired stalwart in Claude Makelele. Thierry Henry, one of the best players to ever grace the English Premier League, is still their main talisman and Real Madrid’s recent acquisition, Karim Benzema, at the age of 21 is one of the most feared strikers in Europe and the world.

In Franck Ribery they have one of the most wanted players in Europe with Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter Milan interested in the French man. With such a talented team, what has made the French qualification process such a tough mission? The French media have blamed it on Raymond Domenech, the coach, and the French Football Federation for not taking action especially after a disastrous Euro 2008. Recent quotes by Henry, overheard by a journalist when he was talking to the coach suggest that all is not well in the camp. He was quoted as saying that the training regime and tactics are confusing, the players are bored and most of the time are lost on the pitch. If they can win their last 2 games then they will be in contention but then it will be through the playoffs, which can present its own banana peels especially if they are to come up against the dangerous Russians or Croatians.

Great escapes have happened before and the teams went on to pull a lot of surprises at the world cup. Portugal is looking for the great escape, which would mean no more draws or losses. They lie third in group one and most of their aspirations depend on Denmark or Sweden slipping. Carlos Queiroz has been an excellent number 2 at Old Trafford but he hasn’t been an excellent coach and it showed when he was in charge of Real Madrid for 10 months.

Like Argentina, Portugal have a lot of talented players to call upon with current world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Simao, Maniche, Deco, Quaresma and Joao Moutinho but the results have been very poor to suggest otherwise. So far the coach has laid the blame at the players’ feet saying: “They need to do more. There’s no reason why Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Simao, Maniche and Tiago shouldn’t play as well when they are on international duty as they do for their club teams.” At the end of the day, the coach is the one who is supposed to motivate and make them play as a unit.

Teams like Brazil and England have booked their tickets to South Africa. Who of the above giants will be missing from the tournament next year?