Monday 01 December 2008, 17:00
This has been, undoubtedly, River Plate's worst ever season. Out of 17 of the season's games (leaving three left to play), the Millionarios have won only two. To say it is a crisis is perhaps an understatement. Diego Simeone left his coaching...
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Tuesday 18 November 2008, 16:00
Kick-off in Diego Maradona's first ever game as coach of the Argentine Seleccion is growing ever nearer, but in the meantime here's a little treat for you... the best, sorry worst, goalkeeping error of the season by former Boca glove-man Pablo...
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Monday 17 November 2008, 09:18
Remember the Peanuts character Pig-Pen? Wherever he went, the poor kid always had a ring of dust and dirt surrounding him. Similarly, Diego Maradona has a ring of muck the size of Saturn's spinning constantly around him. God's arrival as the new...
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Wednesday 29 October 2008, 11:00
At the moment it seems a very God-like coup. It was a perfectly executed piece of political manoeuvring that even the snakelike Argentine president Christina Kirschner would have admired. Speaking in Tblisi, a city that's no stranger to a bit of political...
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Thursday 23 October 2008, 16:00
Blogs always run the risk of blurring the boundaries between fact and opinion... and Argie Bargy is no different. A nugget of information here, a misguided prediction there (I recently saw a quote of mine in a magazine declaring unequivocally who would...
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Monday 13 October 2008, 09:00
Argentine spectators left the Monumental stadium on Saturday again feeling exasperated by another mediocre performance by their national team, but more-so worried about playing Chile on Wednesday without a raft of their best players. It was an ill-tempered...
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Friday 10 October 2008, 11:00
Uruguay is a relatively small patch of country that borders both behemoths Brazil and Argentina. Derided as a province by most Argentines, it is often said that Uruguayans have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. Tango, they claim, began there. They actually...
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Wednesday 08 October 2008, 15:00
Well it's that time again folks... when tales of the 'World's Greatest Derby' rear their head ahead of Boca Juniors vs River Plate. The clash of the titans of Argentine football return in a frenzy of flag waving, chanting, scantily-clad...
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Friday 03 October 2008, 16:30
There are few fans in the world quite as high profile as Diego Maradona. Forever in his blue and yellow shirt, the former player follows his team around the world and is often spotted hanging over an executive box with three bodyguards holding on to his...
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Wednesday 01 October 2008, 17:00
It was another clasico, another local derby. This time it was the 'millionaires' of River playing the league's paupers Racing (who recently held a prize draw among the players to win a PlayStation 2). Racing, who barely stayed up last season...
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Tuesday 16 September 2008, 10:00
Red cards, handballs, good goals not given... ah yes, Argentine football at its best. Argie Bargy has long said the fascination of Argentine football may not necessarily be its quality but its sheer entertainment value; rare is the game that hasn't...
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Friday 12 September 2008, 18:00
Diego's mouth has been uncharacteristically quiet (full of pizza?) for a quite a while now. But it is with a heavy sigh that we return to our irregular God Watch feature for all things Maradona. Yep, the number 10 has somehow managed to upset Lio...
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Monday 08 September 2008, 22:00
If it happens again, you could almost say it is becoming a habit. And while there is no way we could ever prefix the words 'Carlos Tevez' with 'Bad boy' (he is such a nice lad) another sending off in another World Cup qualifier doesn't...
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Monday 01 September 2008, 15:00
Boca Juniors, it could be argued, are moving into a new era. No Riquelme, no Palacio and no Palermo. None of Boca's big three were available on Sunday to play Huracan, but the chicos ran away with a confident 3-0 win . Palermo, who found it difficult...
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Monday 25 August 2008, 13:00
Argentina's Olympic squad retained their gold medal in a close encounter with Nigeria. Beating the African rivals 1-0, Argentina finished off a convincing campaign that saw them fend off fierce rivals Brazil in the quarter-finals. The Brazilians left...
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Saturday 23 August 2008, 09:00
In the August 2008 issue of FourFourTwo magazine, Argie Bargy reported on the intense rivalry between Independiente and Racing. At the end of last season Racing were a goal away from being relegated, but survived to live on in the Primera. They are, after...
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Wednesday 20 August 2008, 12:30
In Argentina there is only one thing that is sweeter than beating England... thrashing Brazil. Long the poorer siblings to the Brazilian behemoth, Argentina finally got one over their bitter rivals with a glorious 3-0 win in the Beijing Olympics semi...
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Wednesday 13 August 2008, 17:00
Another game, another win for the Argentine Olympic squad and with it qualification to the next round. The game could easily be picked apart and was, again, far from convincing, but it was an overall solid performance in amongst a series of pretty wobbly...
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Sunday 10 August 2008, 23:07
Stood amongst the spectacular fireworks of the Olympic opening ceremony was one Lionel Messi. After weeks of wrangling that involved FIFA, the highest levels of the clubs and a sports arbitration board, Barcelona finally let Messi play. In their opening...
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Thursday 07 August 2008, 10:00
With Argentina making their final preparations for the opening game against the Ivory Coast in the Olympics, the wrangle of Messi shows no sign of abating. Barcelona at first refused to allow the forward to play as one of the few over 23 players allowed...
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Friday 01 August 2008, 11:48
Did you feel that slight breeze at around 2pm yesterday? That was the collective sigh of relief from 35 million Argentinians as Lionel Messi was freed by Barcelona for the national Olympic squad. Slight exaggeration? Well yes, but there can't be a...
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Wednesday 30 July 2008, 12:30
While the weather may have disrupted the first Argentinian friendly warm up in Tokyo yesterday, the storm continues over Lionel 'the Flea' Messi. The ongoing dispute between Barcelona and the AFA has got so out of hand that FIFA have been brought...
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Thursday 17 July 2008, 12:42
When this blogger lived in Argentina in 2001, the rush for European passports was immense. As the country teetered on the brink of collapse – which came, sure enough – hundreds of thousands of residents looked up their past in an attempt to find a way...
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Wednesday 16 July 2008, 18:00
Well this blog might not have too much to do with football, but what is happening in Argentina today is quite unlike anything I have ever seen. My office is located on a wide Parisian avenue that connects the Congress building and, 15 blocks away, the...
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Thursday 10 July 2008, 14:15
Can you remember how incensed you were when all-seater stadiums became law? "It's going to lose the atmosphere of the terrace!" they shouted. And well, I think it has. So as FIFA demand that Argentina's Primera clubs do likewise, the...
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Friday 04 July 2008, 12:29
So now we are in the off-season and have six weeks to enjoy idle gossip about transfers until the first game of the new season on August 8. Thankfully, this blog won't be filled with such meaningless tattle (well it will, but I'm making a point...
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Monday 30 June 2008, 18:04
Well all the praying to the virgin and various other, slightly non-authorised saints seems to have worked as Racing stayed in the Primera thanks to a horrendous miss by Belgrano. Not that anything should be taken away from a gallant Racing. In front of...
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Friday 27 June 2008, 11:32
"I've been hassling the Virgin Mary a lot," Racing's manager Juan Llop told the press before the first leg of the playoffs to determine whether his side stays up. 24 later Llop was back on his knees and crossing himself after a draw...
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Thursday 26 June 2008, 11:34
It's the last game of the season and Argie Bargy drags itself down to La Republica de Boca. It was all in the name of spreading the word about football. Yep, there are actually people who have not been to a football game and three were with me on...
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Wednesday 18 June 2008, 15:10
There may have been no wars and no sneaky handballs. But for Argentines, the 'clasicó' against Brazil is more important than any game against England. There has been little trouble between the fan groups, instead Argentina and Brazil are united...
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Wednesday 18 June 2008, 07:00
Argie Bargy recently braved a freezing Buenos Aires evening - is it always four degrees colder on a football terrace? - to watch the national side take on Ecuador in a World Cup qualifier; the sold out River Plate stadium shaking with the excitement of...
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Monday 09 June 2008, 14:37
The presumptuous barra brava had the fireworks ready. And with 10 minutes to go, River Plate's jam-packed Monumental stadium erupted in flame. In the penultimate game of the season the Millionarios extended their lead over Estudiantes and won the...
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Tuesday 03 June 2008, 14:30
River Plate have extended their lead over Estudiantes after a comfortable home win against mid-table Colon , despite playing most of the game with 10 men. River are now two points clear with two more games to play. However, with Estudiantes on 35 points...
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Thursday 29 May 2008, 17:00
With two games to go the domestic league is wide open, with six teams within six points of each other. But however important it is to Argentine football fans for their team to win the championship, each would gladly lose the title to their arch rivals...
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Thursday 22 May 2008, 11:57
Even in Argentina the Champions League final threatened to push Boca's quarter-final win over Mexico's Atlas off the city's café screens... but not quite. Anyway, for those not flicking through FourFourTwo 's photo archive of recent events...
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Wednesday 21 May 2008, 14:00
Argentina is an undeniably macho society. Men wolf-whistle, stare and call out comments at pretty much any female passing. Women generally stay at home - granted this is changing, but we are still looking at 1950s Britain as a comparison - and they earn...
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Friday 16 May 2008, 18:15
Just take a look at this . There are few bloopers that may have such lasting effects. In the first - and home - leg of San Lorenzo's Copa Libertadores quarter final, the team from the Almagro neighbourhood went one nil down against Liga de Quito with...
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Wednesday 14 May 2008, 15:20
'He wore the Argentina flag, he wore the Argentina flag,' was a phrase that I think, with only a little bit of exaggeration, was what every one of my Argentine friends said to me on Monday morning. The photo of King Tevez with a Argentina celestial...
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Friday 09 May 2008, 15:54
It was billed as the battle of the season and, judging by the scuffles on and off the pitch, it lived up to its name. Nine-man San Lorenzo came from 2-0 down against River Plate to draw 2-2 and progress into the quarter finals of the Copa Libertadores...
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Thursday 08 May 2008, 14:14
It's turning out to be a pretty good week for Boca Juniors. On Sunday they beat title favourites and local rivals River in the superclasicó . And last night, they took on Cruzeiro in Brazil and won 2-1 , sending the holders through to the semis. AND...
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Tuesday 06 May 2008, 10:26
There were fireworks, enough ticker to cover parading liberators of all the wars put together and odd bombs that spurted blue and gold smoke. It was the closing season's superclasicó and it was the home team Boca Juniors who earned the glory. Sure...
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Friday 02 May 2008, 10:45
Well what a week for football. Champions League antics maybe dominating the European scene, but in this small corner at the end of the world it's one hell of a weekend for football. Buenos Aires giants San Lorenzo played River Plate in the first leg...
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Tuesday 29 April 2008, 09:30
Boca's season is not on fire. Scraping through to the final 16 in the Libertadores, Sunday's defeat by San Lorenzo and struggling (for Boca) in third place in the league – all after this blogger confidently predicted the team would win everything...
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Friday 25 April 2008, 16:17
Peronism. Argentina's dominant political movement is about as easy to understand as geothermal physics. There are Peronists and then there are Peronists. And they hate each other. Named after Juan Domingo Peron, who had some famous wife or other and...
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Wednesday 23 April 2008, 15:05
River fans call Boca 'swines'. Last night they became lucky swines, qualifying for the last 16 of Latin America's holy grail: the Copa Libertadores. They went into the game needing a five-goal win over Venezuelan whipping-boys Maracaibo to...
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Friday 18 April 2008, 14:32
Cough, cough, splutter, splutter... as Buenos Aires is enveloped in a soup of acrid smoke from farmers burning land (I can see less than 100 metres across the roofs of the city; see it here River Plate were on fire last night (sorry couldn't resist...
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Thursday 17 April 2008, 14:36
Managers come and go, but one always remains a fan of the team. It's the law. And no matter how much you hate the gaffer, you wish the team well. Maradona, never one to hide his rancor, hates Boca Junior's boss Carlo Isichia (he once called him...
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Wednesday 16 April 2008, 10:55
For Independiente, the unthinkable has happened. The rivalry between Racing and Independiente is one of the most intense in Argentina. It's difficult to express how much they hate each other. And yet, as both teams reach crisis point - Racing are...
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Friday 11 April 2008, 10:31
The Boca wibble-wobble Boca Juniors' wobble continued during a bizarre Copa Libertadores match against Mexicans Atlas on Tuesday, courtesy of what might be the worst miss in the history of football. To use a footballing cliché, my grandmother, nimble...
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Monday 07 April 2008, 14:23
Well, finally, cause for celebration: A violence free weekend. OK, last time I hailed a few days like this it was followed by all sorts of trouble. But, nevertheless, lets take this opportunity to talk about ..... da da da da da da da DAAAAA ..... football...
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Wednesday 02 April 2008, 17:12
An email arrived in my inbox this morning from a fellow Argy football fan with the title F.*.*.K.I.N.G M.U.P.P.E.T. Half expecting an amateur YouTube clip of Miss Piggy in an inappropriate clinch with Kermit, I can't say I was overly surprised to...
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Wednesday 02 April 2008, 10:04
First there was fear and loathing, now we have chaos and violence. It has been one of the saddest couple of weeks in Argentine football for years. At the best of times, Argentina feels like a society hanging from a thread, but sometimes it feels as though...
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Tuesday 25 March 2008, 09:27
After a weekend of horrendous violence, leaving two dead , the Easter weekend games were peaceful and mostly sober affairs. At the Vélez game against a resurgent River, fans packed the stand and held up signs saying 'We will never forget you Emanuel'...
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Wednesday 19 March 2008, 16:38
In the wake of two deaths related to football violence, a new fight amongt the highly orgaanised Boca Juniors barra brava 'El Doce' has broken out, resulting in the non-fatal stabbing of a 44 year old barra member. Late last year El Doce leader...
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Wednesday 19 March 2008, 10:20
Two young fans killed in seperate incidents, bringing the total number of football violence related deaths to 224. This has been a sad, sad weekend for Argentinian football. Yet again, football, a sport meant to be enjoyed, has been marred by violence...
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Friday 14 March 2008, 14:40
It features in every '646 things to do before you become worm food' list. It is on the itinerary of every visit to Latin America. Machu Piccu. Tick. Guinea pig for lunch. Tick. Football game in Buenos Aires. Tick. There is nothing I have ever...
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Tuesday 11 March 2008, 16:13
Buenos Aires is a wonderful city. I, personally, would say it is one of the greatest and most vibrant cites in the world. Of course I'm biased, but ask anyone who has been to Argentina's capital and I put money on it being a similar answer. But...
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Friday 07 March 2008, 11:46
Nausea, malaise, swelling of hands and feet (sometimes the brain), shortness of breath, occasionally fatal. Not symptoms you would necessarily want to be characteristic of your football team. This is what can happen when you rise above 2400 metres (8000...
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Thursday 06 March 2008, 13:30
To say it has been a pretty bad couple of weeks for Racing Club is like saying the year 1939 was a bit of a bummer for international peace. Without so much as a win in weeks, the fans of Racing, marched to the AFA headquarters asking for the resignation...
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Monday 03 March 2008, 16:19
El Loco reaches record, San Lorenzo break goal drought, the rain, the rain... Half of Buenos Aires currently lies under a metre of water, and I can barely hear myself type, let alone catch what's being said on the fine old BBC. River vs San Martin...
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Thursday 28 February 2008, 09:10
I was once talking to some sort of delegate of the European Union. He was from Slovenia, I from Britain, so we were discussing how our national characteristics affect our debating skills. "Each country is very different," he said, in English...
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Tuesday 26 February 2008, 10:00
Trust River to wait until a big one to start winning. Disciplined, practical and no longer running around like kids in an Easter egg hunt, Simeone's team thoroughly overcame their past problems, by beating San Lorenzo 2-0, who certainly haven't...
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Friday 22 February 2008, 11:25
Hugs and relief for Riquelme's Boca As fellow Four Four Two blogger Celso de campos Jr wrote in his excellent post yesterday the Copa Libertadores is a hugely important title for any Latin American team. It is the highlight of any teams, well, it...
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Tuesday 19 February 2008, 09:50
Boca blitz Argentinos La Bombonera, the Chocolate Box, is one of the most intimidating stadiums in the world. Its vertiginously sided terrace, that jut steeply into a sky the colour of Argentina's flag, create an echo that strikes the fear into any...
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Friday 15 February 2008, 17:31
Lanús win Libertadores game Lanús, a small team from the southern suburbs, firstly shocked the Argentine footballing world by winning their first ever championship last year. They are now the only Argentine team to have won their opening Libertadores...
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Tuesday 12 February 2008, 09:40
Today: Two reportedly stabbed at River game, small teams continue to shine, full weekend results, and an amazing goal of the weekend. Violence continues at River After a well-deserved break (they were fighting all last season), River Plate's hooligans...
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Sunday 10 February 2008, 19:47
Today: Boca to win new season, San Lorenzo in surprise loss, Estudiantes score two in eight minutes, Argentina beat Guatamala 5-0. Boca to win title At the risk of turning this blog into a Mystic Meg/Russell Grant-style astrological prediction column...
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Friday 08 February 2008, 16:13
Today: D'Alessandro returns, admission prices "From the First World", and the rest of the opening fixtures. D'Alessandro arrives to celebrations Andrés D'Alessandro landed in Ezeiza yesterday morning to swarms of fans (mostly young...
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Thursday 07 February 2008, 11:02
Today: The season kicks off, a goal makes up for love tiff, and Maradona gets the insults out It's here!!! Yay!!!! Pah-Pah!!! Toot toot! The football season has arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more of the banal discussion that plague the sports press in the...
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Wednesday 06 February 2008, 08:35
Featuring: Arsenal (no not that one), football players to scared to practice, River Plate copy Manchester United, Little teams, Big Cup. El *** in the Libertadores The Copa Libertadores, the greatest competition in Latin America is underway and could...
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Friday 01 February 2008, 09:46
Well, finally 'God' has apologised, sort of. In an interview with The Sun , Maradona said with customary modesty, 'If I could apologise and go back and change history I would do. But the goal is still a goal, Argentina became world champions...
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Tuesday 29 January 2008, 20:47
Featuring: A not very clásico clásico; Monkey man goal referred to FIFA; God watch: Look who Maradona has upset now; Team focus: Independiente; Sporty girls in very short skirts A not very classic clásico Racing versus Independiente is Argentina's...
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Monday 28 January 2008, 10:16
Boca Juniors versus River Plate. The Superclasico. Perhaps the most fiercely fought derby game in the entire world. Yesterday these two teams clashed in the five-team 'Summer tournament' in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, a gaudy city where...
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Tuesday 22 January 2008, 21:11
Hola, y benvenido to the first ever blog for Four Four Two solely dedicated to everything related to Argentine football, directly from, a frankly sweltering, Buenos Aires. One thing's for sure, we're never going to be stuck for news. They say...
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