Is Martin Palermo’s amazing winner for Boca Juniors on Sunday, a header from nearly 40 metres that bounced just once on the line of the six-yard box on its way into the net, worthy of an entry into the Guinness Book of records?

This is a question Argentines have been asking, while TV sports chat shows have been running footage of other remarkable goals and moments in the career of the 35-year-old striker.

Palermo himself barely knew what had happened on Sunday. His expression as he celebrated his feat said it all. First a quick run, taking his shirt off and waving it over his head. Then a stance with feet and arms out wide in front of the hardcore fans at the Bombonera, soaking up the adulation but also with a wry grin as if to ask “How did I manage that?”

Velez Sarsfield goalkeeper German Montoya came out of his box to kick the ball clear. It went at head height towards the centre circle. Palermo, standing just outside the circle 38.90 metres from goal headed it right back and it sailed, veering towards the right, into the net. Another 10 metres and it would have hit the post or gone just wide.

“It always happens to me. When I look for similar stories of other players there aren’t any. Things happen to me that I can’t explain,” Palermo told TyC Sports cable TV.

Diego Maradona is probably going to give Palermo, who scored twice with two orthodox headers in a friendly 2-0 win against a weak Ghana team last Wednesday, a start in Argentina’s critical World Cup qualifier against Peru at the Monumental on Saturday.

It is another remarkable moment in the career of a striker who won seven caps in 1999, one of which came in a match against Colombia in which he missed three penalties, and then did not put on an Argentina shirt for 10 years.

Last month, he made his international comeback as a substitute in Argentina’s 1-0 defeat by Paraguay that has left Maradona’s team teetering on the edge of World Cup oblivion. Argentina’s only real chance of that match fell to him in stoppage time but he was just short of getting to Rolando Schiavi’s header across the face of goal.

A younger Palermo would probably have reached it and turned it in for an equaliser. Maradona hopes he can score against the Peruvians and Palermo said his wonder header on Sunday has been a confidence booster.

“Mentally, it’s a great boost for what’s coming with the national team,” said Palermo, who, if he plays, will win his 10th cap.

“Obviously it’s not the same to arrive (at the match) in good form as getting there in (the middle of) a bad run,” added Palermo, whose Boca side had lost their previous four matches before Sunday’s 3-2 victory over league title holders Velez.

PHOTO: Argentina’s Martin Palermo celebrates after scoring against Ghana during their friendly in Cordoba September 30, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Lionel Messi walks off the pitch in Asuncion his head bowed after Argentina’s 1-0 defeat to Paraguay. A few days later he scores for Barcelona and the dimpled grin is back on his face.

Diego Maradona says that on the compact Rosario central pitch Argentina will pin Brazil against their goal. They do up to a point, with masses of possession, but Dunga’s men demolish them in lethal counter-attacks with Maradona watching in glum silence and Argentina return to River Plate for next month’s key World Cup qualifier against Peru.

“Coco” Basile is all grins, throaty one-liners and “I know the dressing room inside out” at his official presentation as Boca Juniors coach on July 1. Last weekend it was his empty look the cameras caught as he walked off the Bombonera pitch after another defeat.

Nestor Gorosito welcomes the three musketeers Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Gallardo and Matias Almeyda at the start of a new campaign last month. Last week he went sprawling in the mud on the side of the pitch when a Lanus player slid into him in pouring rain during a 1-0 defeat that put River Plate out of the Copa Sudamericana, and the crowd cheered.

Argentina’s big teams, the national side that have won two World Cups and the multi-decorated Boca Juniors and River Plate, are not well and fans and media are struggling to understand why.

Former Argentina captain Roberto Ayala said recently in Spain he saw a “surprising lack of rebellion” in Argentina’s players against their situation as Maradona’s side hovered dangerously close to World Cup elimination.

The coaches may not have the answers but players who week in, week out make the European headlines for their clubs, the likes of Messi, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Diego Milito, are failing to deliver for Argentina.

Does at least part of the answer lie in the fact that Argentina, who won the last two World Youth Cups, did not even qualify for this year’s tournament kicking off on Thursday in Egypt?

Yet it was the very World Youth Cup that made world junior champions of Maradona in 1979, Juan Roman Riquelme and Pablo Aimar in 1997, Andres D’Alessandro in 2001, Messi in 2005 and Aguero in 2007. There is no questioning their quality.

Argentina may be lacking a midfield general, the kind of traditional No.10 who strolled the pitch spraying telling passes, the most recent of which was Riquelme.

Captain Javier Mascherano is not that man. Apart from the fact he is off his game, he patrols the area in front of the back four as Americo Gallego did for Cesar Menotti’s 1978 world champions.

Maradona’s Argentina now rely on Juan Sebastian Veron — suspended against Peru after being sent off against Paraguay — to dictate play but he is being asked to play further upfield than he does to greater effect from deeper for Estudiantes.

Argentina bunch up in the middle of their opponents’ half, the forwards often get in each others’ way and the defence is left thin and open to the counter-punch.

Sadly, River Plate and Boca Juniors, two of the country’s traditional player production lines, have dried up in that department. All the most recent major exports are strikers.

Former River Plate midfielders Pablo Aimar, now at Benfica, and Andres D’Alessandro, who is in Brazil with Internacional, are on people’s tongues again as the sort of No.10 Argentina need.

Maradona as a player was that and much more. He appears unable, though, to inject his team with the passion he showed in an Argentina shirt or, as their coach, a strategy that brings the best out of them.

PHOTO: Argentina’s Lionel Messi pauses during their World Cup qualifying defeat against Paraguay in Asuncion, Sept 9, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

In Argentina, where footballing great Diego Maradona is worshipped in his own church, everyone is asking the same question: What will it take to get the ball rolling again?

Fans are angst-ridden over the delay of the season as bad management and the global slowdown leave the country’s world-famous clubs unable to pay players and heavily in debt.

“It makes you mad,” said Nicolas Luca, a Boca Juniors fan who toured the club’s stadium last week. “Everyone’s waiting to see if it starts. Soccer is more than a passion here.”

Next to him, Juan Diaz, a 56-year-old Argentine living in Florida, snapped pictures of an empty green pitch. Then, he shoots the yellow and blue seating, trophies, club posters and even the locker room showers as a memento of his favorite club. 

“Not having soccer here is mad,” Diaz said. “There are too many economic interests in this fight and they’re hurting the Argentine people.”

Clubs say fallout from the severe world economic downturn has forced them to sell players to European clubs for a fraction of what they received in years past.

Seven first division clubs have racked up some $184 million in debt, including about $80 million in taxes. Clubs owners and the AFA say the only solution is to more than double what they charge for television rights. On Wednesday, they cancelled the existing TV deal.

But to many fans here it comes down to putting an end to the perceived corruption of soccer bosses.

“There is an embezzlement of funds,” Osvaldo Maciel, a taxi driver and River Plate fan said of his club. “They sold all the players and have had (rock) concerts all year (at the club’s stadium). Where’s the money now?”

The delay to the start of the season has angered fans, some of whom hurled stones and smashed windows at AFA’s offices.

At Boca Juniors’ La Bombanera stadiums, fans and shopkeepers are anxious for an end to the dispute. Businesses selling T-shirts and flags around the stadium are empty  except for an occasional tourist.

“Soccer cannot go untouched by the global crisis,” said restaurant owner Carlos Zinola, 61, a lifetime Boca fan. “They’re killing the game, people suffer all week and on Sunday, soccer gives them a way to escape their problems.”

Picture of empty La Bombonera stadium by REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci.

South Americans often claim that the Libertadores Cup is a tougher tournament than its European equivalent, the Champions League, and Argentine champions Boca Juniors are unlikely to disagree after their marathon journey to the Venezuelan Andes for a game this week.

In terms of quality of play, the Champions League obviously wins hands down. But bring in factors such as hostile conditions, heat, altitude and travelling and the Libertadores is a much tougher proposition.

None of the teams involved in last week’s Champions League second round ties face flights of more than a couple of hours to get to their games, with the exception of Panathinaikos who had a slightly loger trip to visit Villarreal in Spain. But even that was a short hop compared to Boca’s epic trip.

After playing Huracan in the Argentine championship on Sunday evening, Boca were up at the crack of dawn to catch a morning flight to Lima, with flying time of around four hours. That was followed by a three-hour flight to Bogota, immigration and a 90-minute domestic connection to the border town of Cucuta where the team will stay for two nights.

On the day of the match, Boca will travel for two hours over mountain roads to San Cristobal to face Venezuelan champions Deportivo Tachira, arriving shortly before kick off.

Then they do it all in reverse before facing Independiente in a derby on Sunday evening.

Mexican teams regularly face 10-hour flights to play in Brazil or Argentina — longer if their destination is anywhere other than Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires or if they start from anywhere other than Mexico City — and Asuncion in Paraguay is notoriously awkward to get to.

Possibly the most dreaded venue is Potosi, a former silver mining town perched at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level in the Bolivian Andes.

Visiting teams must fly into Santa Cruz, catch a connecting flight to Sucre and then drive for three hours over twisting mountain roads to reach the world’s highest first division stadium.

No wonder there was a collective sigh of relief when they lost to Brazil’s Palmeiras in the preliminary round this year.

PHOTO: Rodrigo Teixeira (R) of Ecuador’s Deportivo Cuenca battles Facundo Roncaglia of Argentina’s Boca Juniors during their Copa Libertadores match in Buenos Aires, February 17, 2009. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Less than a year after being forced out of Villarreal, who tired of what they said were his excessive privileges and lack of commitment, Juan Roman Riquelme is at the centre of a similar storm at Boca Juniors.

A sequence of listless performances from the enigmatic number 10 prompted public criticism from team mate Julio Cesar Caceres. And it all sounded very familiar.

“Riquelme appears to be saturated mentally,” said the Paraguayan central defender. “In some games, he gives the appearance that he is running, in others he is passive.”

Those were the only really cutting comments in an otherwise fairly tame assessment, yet Riquelme was furious.

For a player whose interviews rarely offer anything more insightful than “I’m happy to be in the team and it’s going to be a difficult match”, Riquelme immediately popped up on Fox Sports to launch an outspoken attack on Cacares. (more…)

South America’s Libertadores Cup has reached the quarter-finals and, for those lucky enough to see it (it’s sadly shunned by most tv networks outside the region), offers a refreshing change to the predictability of its richer European counterpart.  

Only three of the eight teams reached this stage last year, there are no clear favourites for the title and all four ties remain wide open after last week’s first legs.  

Titleholders Boca Juniors face a tough battle after being held 2-2 at home by Mexico’s Atlas but are far from dead and buried, especially if the mercurial Juan Roman Riquelme can hit form. They were in a similar situation last year after drawing at home with Libertad in the first leg, but hit back for a 2-0 win in Asuncion.  

Boca’s fellow Argentines San Lorenzo also drew at home last week, 1-1 against Ecuadorean champions LDU, but have already shown they are the last team you would want to write off.  

In the group stage, Ramon Diaz’s team somehow came from 2-0 behind to beat Real Potosi 3-2 away — at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level — and in the last sixteen they fought back from 2-0 behind with nine men against River Plate to draw 2-2 and win 4-3 on aggregate.  

LDU, on the other hand, remain a good bet to take the trophy to Ecuador for the first time.  

Sao Paulo, where Adriano is enjoying a revival after being loaned from Inter Milan, take a slender 1-0 lead to Fluminense in the all-Brazilian tie while Santos, Pele’s former club, are still confident they can overcome a 2-0 deficit against America, the other Mexican side.  

America have already pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset, winning 3-0 away to Flamengo in the last round after losing 4-2 in the first leg, and their Paraguayan striker Salvador Cabanas, ridiculed by the Brazilian media as “fat”, is joint top scorer with eight goals.  

Although it is ignored elsewhere and despite the continued exodus of top players, the Libertadores is flourishing.  

There were full houses for all four ties last week with 90,000 watching America at the Azteca stadium.  

And, whoever eventually reaches the final, their supporters won’t be forced to travel thousands of kilometres to watch as the tie is played over two legs.

Brian Homewood, Rio

The fact that Martin Palermo is Boca Juniors’s regular penalty taker speaks volumes about his strength of character.

Back in 1999, Palermo made international headlines for the wrong reasons when he missed three penalties for Argentina in their 3-0 Copa America defeat by Colombia. Yet, instead of hiding in his hotel room, Palermo came out and faced the media the next day, promising to get on with his career.

Three days later, he bounced back to score in a 2-0 win over Uruguay. Nine years later, Palermo is Boca’s all-time leading scorer, having overtaken the previous record of 180 goals set by Francisco Varallo in the 1930s. His Argentina career never got off the ground but he has become a cult figure at Boca, having returned after stints with Villarreal, Real Betis and Alaves in Spain.

By Argentine standards, Palermo is a somewhat clumsy, lumbering forward. Yet his ability to bounce back from adversity and his knack for alternating brilliance with tragicomedy have endeared him to the club’s fanatical supporters. At Villarreal, Palermo famously broke his leg while celebrating a goal when he stood on a small concrete wall which collapsed under the weight of fans.

After returning to Boca, he was one of the central figures in a brawl which sparked a crowd riot in a Libertadores Cup game against Guadalajara. The match was abandoned, Boca were knocked out and Palermo banned. On the flipside, Palermo succeeded where Pele had failed by scoring from just inside his own half against Independiente.

Boca’s last two matches in the Libertadores have been fairly typical of his ups and downs. Two weeks ago against Chilean champions Colo Colo, Palermo missed another penalty with his team 1-0 down and reduced to 10 men. Yet, two minutes later he scored — and Boca went on to win 4-3.

Tuesday’s match against Mexico’s Atlas was one of his unlucky days. With the score at 1-1 and Boca on top, Palermo contrived to miss an open goal from six metres as he sidefooted the ball wide. Atlas came out for the second half with fresh ambition, won 3-1 and left the defending champions facing an early exit at the group stage.

But you can be sure that Palermo will be forgiven by Boca fans. And don’t bet against him scoring a hat-trick in the final group game at home to UA Maracaibo.

Brian Homewood, Rio de Janeiro