vs
Brazil
Match scheduled:
Date : September 6, 2009
Time : 00:30 until 02:30 GMT
Live/Repeat : Live
World Cup 2010 Qualifying Live
Details: It is arguably the clash of the month across the whole world; Diego Maradona’s Argentina host this year’s Confederations Cup champions Brazil in a World Cup qualifier on September 5.
Argentina vs Brazil live streams and TV channels
Sky Sports 1
Maradona needs to keep his focus on the Brazilian side.
The top three remain unchanged in the latest FIFA world rankings with five-time World Cup winners Brazil leading Spain and Holland.
The South American country have won their past nine games under head coach Dunga and on Saturday face rivals Argentina in a World Cup qualifier.
Spain, winners of Euro 2008, have closed the gap under manager Vicente del Bosque though.
Meanwhile, Italy and Germany occupy joint fourth place with Russia in sixth and England in seventh. Fabio Capello's side can qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa if they beat Croatia at Wembley next week.
Argentina, Croatia and France make up the rest of the top ten while Australia occupy their highest ever ranking of 14th having lost just one of their eight games in 2009. The Socceroos have already qualified for the World Cup finals under manager Pim Verbeek.
It's one of the fiercest rivalries in world football. Two giants of the game who have never seen eye to eye, don't like each other and cause a heated atmosphere whenever they meet. No, not Argentina and Brazil; but Diego Maradona and Pelé.
Maradona and Pelé in 2005: Rarely seen together.
They may have missed each other by around six years on the international playing circuit, but the two players who immediately leap to mind when "Greatest of All-Time" debate is raised have clashed many times in the media and ahead of Brazil's trip to Argentina for a World Cup qualifier this weekend, it has been no different.
The always controversial Maradona has raised the intensity of the rivalry in recent times, saying things like "I was a better player than Pelé was" and "Argentina have better players than Brazil", but it takes a lot to provoke the Brazilian legend, who hit back with a ferocity usually associated with one of his shots ahead of the game in Rosario.
"I'm confident in Brazil, most of all against teams who we have always been superior to, like Argentina," he said this week. ''Beating great rivals like Argentina gives you a different feeling. However, we all know who Maradona is. We cannot take into consideration anything he says.''
The two famous number 10s are figureheads for their national sides and you would expect no less from players who are so passionate about their country. Yet one will have more of an impact on the result. Maradona, unlike Pelé, is actively involved with his side and, as head coach, will help determine the outcome of the game.
However, despite being viewed as a deity in his homeland, some of the results since his appointment last October have not been up to the required standard. Argentina have been dogged by criticism since the 6-1 defeat to Bolivia at altitude and currently sit fourth in CONMEBOL's qualifying group, five points behind Brazil and only two ahead of Ecuador - a side who beat them 2-0 in June - in the play-off spot.
Jorge Olguin, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1978, has claimed that Maradona doesn't have a clear idea of what he wants from his team, and that is why they have struggled since his appointment.
"Football can be played well, average and badly, but the most important thing is to have a way, a style, a concrete idea," Olguin told Diario Popular. "Diego has yet to transmit a clear idea about what he wants. In this sense he has yet to define things. Well, he hasn't shown this with the national team. I don't know how Maradona wants to play. Up until now there have been signs, but it hasn't functioned."
It hasn't helped that injuries have robbed the side of various key players, with 30-year-old midfielder Rodrigo Brana, 35-year-old striker Martin Palermo and 36-year-old defender Rolando Schiavi added to Maradona's squad for the qualifiers against Brazil and Paraguay, seemingly out of desperation.
"Yesterday, when I met up with the players, I said that I'd give anything to be 20 years younger and be able to play myself," a deflated Maradona told Radio Del Plata. "But after all these problems we have to move forward. The ones who can't play will just have to wait for the next game and the ones who can will have to be decisive on the field."
Indeed, Argentina's attacking options with the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez seem strong, but strikers Diego Milito and Lisandro Lopez, plus midfielders Juan Veron, Jonas Gutierrez and Sebastian Battaglia, are all doubtful for the vital qualifier and the lack of physicality in the frontline has been a cause for concern.
Gutierrez's injury has upset Maradona's plans the most. Having planned to use him to stop the attacking forays of Brazil right-back Maicon - both in tracking back and also through speedy counter-attacks - Argentine fans will not be pleased to hear that Olguin's criticisms appear founded in truth as the coach himself said: ''We don't know which alternative to try.''
Maradona needs to keep his focus on the Brazilian side.
Maradona knows how to beat the old enemy. It was his run and flick that set up Claudio Caniggia for the only goal in the 1990 World Cup that sent Brazil crashing out in Turin; but he will not be buoyed by the fact that the Argentine senior side haven't claimed a victory in the derby in their last three attempts, including a few heavy losses, the last of which in the 2007 Copa América final.
He will now have to conjure up something special again if he is to prove to Pelé that nowadays it is not Argentina that are the inferior side and the fact that the game will be staged in Rosario rather than in Buenos Aires should help his cause.
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The South American country have won their past nine games under head coach Dunga and on Saturday face rivals Argentina in a World Cup qualifier.
Spain, winners of Euro 2008, have closed the gap under manager Vicente del Bosque though.
Meanwhile, Italy and Germany occupy joint fourth place with Russia in sixth and England in seventh. Fabio Capello's side can qualify for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa if they beat Croatia at Wembley next week.
Argentina, Croatia and France make up the rest of the top ten while Australia occupy their highest ever ranking of 14th having lost just one of their eight games in 2009. The Socceroos have already qualified for the World Cup finals under manager Pim Verbeek.
It's one of the fiercest rivalries in world football. Two giants of the game who have never seen eye to eye, don't like each other and cause a heated atmosphere whenever they meet. No, not Argentina and Brazil; but Diego Maradona and Pelé.
Maradona and Pelé in 2005: Rarely seen together.
They may have missed each other by around six years on the international playing circuit, but the two players who immediately leap to mind when "Greatest of All-Time" debate is raised have clashed many times in the media and ahead of Brazil's trip to Argentina for a World Cup qualifier this weekend, it has been no different.
The always controversial Maradona has raised the intensity of the rivalry in recent times, saying things like "I was a better player than Pelé was" and "Argentina have better players than Brazil", but it takes a lot to provoke the Brazilian legend, who hit back with a ferocity usually associated with one of his shots ahead of the game in Rosario.
"I'm confident in Brazil, most of all against teams who we have always been superior to, like Argentina," he said this week. ''Beating great rivals like Argentina gives you a different feeling. However, we all know who Maradona is. We cannot take into consideration anything he says.''
The two famous number 10s are figureheads for their national sides and you would expect no less from players who are so passionate about their country. Yet one will have more of an impact on the result. Maradona, unlike Pelé, is actively involved with his side and, as head coach, will help determine the outcome of the game.
However, despite being viewed as a deity in his homeland, some of the results since his appointment last October have not been up to the required standard. Argentina have been dogged by criticism since the 6-1 defeat to Bolivia at altitude and currently sit fourth in CONMEBOL's qualifying group, five points behind Brazil and only two ahead of Ecuador - a side who beat them 2-0 in June - in the play-off spot.
Jorge Olguin, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1978, has claimed that Maradona doesn't have a clear idea of what he wants from his team, and that is why they have struggled since his appointment.
"Football can be played well, average and badly, but the most important thing is to have a way, a style, a concrete idea," Olguin told Diario Popular. "Diego has yet to transmit a clear idea about what he wants. In this sense he has yet to define things. Well, he hasn't shown this with the national team. I don't know how Maradona wants to play. Up until now there have been signs, but it hasn't functioned."
It hasn't helped that injuries have robbed the side of various key players, with 30-year-old midfielder Rodrigo Brana, 35-year-old striker Martin Palermo and 36-year-old defender Rolando Schiavi added to Maradona's squad for the qualifiers against Brazil and Paraguay, seemingly out of desperation.
"Yesterday, when I met up with the players, I said that I'd give anything to be 20 years younger and be able to play myself," a deflated Maradona told Radio Del Plata. "But after all these problems we have to move forward. The ones who can't play will just have to wait for the next game and the ones who can will have to be decisive on the field."
Indeed, Argentina's attacking options with the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez seem strong, but strikers Diego Milito and Lisandro Lopez, plus midfielders Juan Veron, Jonas Gutierrez and Sebastian Battaglia, are all doubtful for the vital qualifier and the lack of physicality in the frontline has been a cause for concern.
Gutierrez's injury has upset Maradona's plans the most. Having planned to use him to stop the attacking forays of Brazil right-back Maicon - both in tracking back and also through speedy counter-attacks - Argentine fans will not be pleased to hear that Olguin's criticisms appear founded in truth as the coach himself said: ''We don't know which alternative to try.''
Maradona needs to keep his focus on the Brazilian side.
Maradona knows how to beat the old enemy. It was his run and flick that set up Claudio Caniggia for the only goal in the 1990 World Cup that sent Brazil crashing out in Turin; but he will not be buoyed by the fact that the Argentine senior side haven't claimed a victory in the derby in their last three attempts, including a few heavy losses, the last of which in the 2007 Copa América final.
He will now have to conjure up something special again if he is to prove to Pelé that nowadays it is not Argentina that are the inferior side and the fact that the game will be staged in Rosario rather than in Buenos Aires should help his cause.
