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

Barcelona deposed Manchester United as European champions with an outstanding 2-0 victory in the Champions League final at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Samuel Eto’o struck the opener after 10 minutes when he cut in from the right past Nemanja Vidic with surprising ease and his low shot beat United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar at his near post. Xavi cracked a free kick against a United post at the start of the second half before Lionel Messi sealed the win after 70 minutes when he scored with a beautifully timed header from Xavi’s cross.

It was a curiously subdued performance from United, while Barcelona got full value for a performance that was thoroughly professional but hardly brilliant.

Alex Ferguson was content to say the best team won. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Xavi (R) and Victor Valdes celebrate victory over Manchester United. REUTERS/Albert Gea

Potential Real Madrid presidential candidates will be trying to decide whether Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi is the player most likely to deliver them the majority of votes in this summer’s election campaign.

Ramon Calderon was forced out of the presidency earlier this month, setting the wheels in motion for another six months of rumours and speculation as rival candidates manoeuvre behind the scenes to take power at the Bernabeu.

The nine-times European champions are ‘owned’ by the thousands of club members rather than a small group of shareholders, and they get to chose their president every four years.

As a result, candidates need to splash the cash with full blown election campaigns complete with manifestos, lists of promises, advertising campaigns, and rallies to win over the voters and the local media. (more…)

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on Monday night, adding the award to the Ballon d’Or he picked up from France Football and the FIFPro World Player of the Year title voted for by his fellow professionals.

It was an inevitable choice after the season he had for United in 2007-08 but I’m pretty confident that next year the award will be going to the man who finished second this time. Lionel Messi is playing ridiculously well at the moment, just streets ahead of anyone else in Spain, and I don’t think too many people would disagree that on current form he is the world’s best player.

On the basis of what the two achieved in 2008, though, Ronaldo deserves the award, I think. Here’s how we described him:

The Portuguese winger is blessed with strength, pace, aerial ability and savage shooting power and he invariably delivers when it matters most — his magnificent header in last season’s Champions League final a prime example.

He arrived at Manchester United just as David Beckham was leaving but he was no straight replacement. While Beckham was all precision passing and energy, Ronaldo has more tricks up his sleeve than a circus magician.

His initial tendency to over-indulge his exhibitionist personality with endless stepovers has gradually receded over the years at Old Trafford and last season he turned into a ruthless scoring machine.

An extraordinary tally of 42 goals propelled United to the Champions League and Premier League double and earned him a place in United folklore alongside George Best.

Fair enough, I’d say.

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo holds the FIFA World Player 2008 award in Zurich, Jan 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Rafa Benitez was on the attack ahead of Liverpool’s game against Stoke City but then decided to leave Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres on the bench.

The game ended in a goalless draw and on Sunday Manchester United put three past Chelsea to close the gap at the top.

Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley discuss Liverpool’s team selection and look ahead to Monday’s FIFA World Player of the Year Awards Gala. Should Messi or Ronaldo take home the title?

UEFA’s teams of the year feature is irresistible reading for lovers of footballing gossip, particularly in Spain and Argentina.

Javier Zanetti, Leo Messi and Kun Aguero have all published their best XIs of 2008 on uefa.com and there are a couple of conspicious absentees…

Aguero could find no place for his countryman Messi, despite his brilliant form over the year, while Messi himself left out… Cristiano Ronaldo.

Here’s Aguero’s team: Cech; Sagna, Ferdinand, Carvalho, Evra; Ronaldo, Xavi, Fabregas, Ribery; Del Piero, Ibrahimovic.

There’s a little comment on each and here’s what he says about Ibrahimovic: “He has the ability to destabilise opponents. Next to Ronaldo he is the best player in the world at the moment. He is the complete striker.”

Ouch! Isn’t he forgetting someone?

Here’s Messi’s team of the year: Cech; Maicon, Ferdinand, Puyol, Van Bronckhorst; Zanetti, Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta; Aguero, Rooney

Here’s what Messi says about Aguero: “I love him and not just because he’s Argentinian! He plays like the gods, has extraordinary quality and a great instinct for scoring goals.”

UEFA promise more teams from Marcos Senna and Pepe but the one I’d really like to see would be Ronaldo’s… Think he’d find space for Messi?

The pair will meet on Monday when the FIFA player of the year award is handed out. Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo (who presumably won’t be driving) is one of five nominees along with Messi.

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Lionel Messi pose after a press conference before the FIFA World Player Gala in Zurich Dec. 17, 2007. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

When Carlos Bilardo began his job as Argentina coach in January 1983, the first thing he did was to visit Maradona in Spain where he was playing for Barcelona.

Bilardo told Maradona he wanted him as Argentina’s captain, that he was the only player sure of his place and that he would build a team around him to win the World Cup.

Maradona, who had had an unhappy first World Cup in Spain six months earlier, reacted by promising himself nothing would stand in their way.

“The first thing I resolved in that moment was to create something, a conscience: to play for the national team had to be the most important thing in the world,” he said many years later in his autobiography.

“If we had to travel thousands and thousands of kilometres, do it; if we had four matches in a week, play them; if we had to stay in little hotels that were falling apart, accept it…Everything, everything for the national team, for the blue and white.

“That was the style I wanted to transmit.” (more…)

This week we had the nominations for FIFA world player of the year, discovered the winner of the FIFPro world player of the year and mulled the contenders for the Ballon d’Or.

Exactly how many gongs do we need? In the recent past the situation was a bit clearer.

The Ballon d’Or was originally just for Europeans (hence the foreign language-challenged English calling it the European player of the year). In 1995 magazine France Football, which runs the award, decided any player playing in Europe could win it and since 2007 any footballer in the world is eligible (although it will surely be rare for a player not playing with a European side to win). (more…)

It was the battle between the young pretender and the crown prince but there was to be no revolution, just wonderful football.

Atletico Madrid’s hot-shot striker Sergio Aguero has stolen all the headlines in recent months and has quickly been compared to Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. A match-winning display in March’s 4-2 win over Barca further boosted Aguero’s profile. (more…)

Barcelona’s Argentine forward Lionel Messi took a step closer to Beijing on Wednesday when FIFA ruled that clubs are obliged to release players aged 23 or under to play at the Olympics.

Barcelona and Bundesliga clubs Werder Bremen and Schalke, who want to keep Diego and Rafinha out of the Games, will probably fight on in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but for now FIFA has made the right decision, one that’s for the good of the game as well as the Games.

Seeing Bremen and Schalke threaten legal action against their young Brazilian internationals earlier this month was a sad sight not only for the Olympics but for soccer.

Diego and Rafinha decided (quite nobly, if you ask me) to put their country and the Olympics temporarily ahead of their club careers and defied the orders of their employers — going AWOL in the process and putting themselves in line for large fines and other disciplinary problems on their return.

Barcelona and Schalke have Champions League qualifiers coming up, so it’s easy to see why they in particular want their players back home, but the long-term consequences could be more damaging than the short-term loss.

How can anyone expect a brilliant player like Diego to get excited about playing in Bremen ever again if he is forced to miss the Olympics in order to take part in a pre-season Bundesliga training camp on the North Sea island of Norderney?

Could we expect Rafinha to have his heart in the Bundesliga’s first two matches when his compatriots were trying to win a first gold medal in China?

“(The judge stated that) taking part in the Olympic Games is a unique opportunity for all athletes of any sporting discipline,” FIFA said in its statement.

Shouldn’t everyone have the chance to take that opportunity, regardless of who their employers are?

PHOTO: Messi scores his first goal during Barcelona’s pre-season friendly against Dundee United, July 26, 2008. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne