Argentina Humiliated, Spain Marches On; International Results

The second leg of world cup qualification has just gotten over. There were some extremely surprising result. Again I will start with my favourite, Argentina. Argentina equalled their worst ever defeat at the high altitude of Bolivia by a score line of 6-1. Yup, you read that right! It is six goals against one. This is Maradona's first defeat as the national team coach. Maradona's after match comments reveals the extend of dissappointment - "“There are no excuses. They thoroughly beat us and there is nothing else to say except to give credit to Bolivia. Whenever they attacked, they scored. And each goal that they scored was like a dagger through my heart." Bolivia lies 9th in the table and did a world of good to their qualification quest by this victory. This lose coulkd be good for Barca as Messi would be eager to forget that with some sensational performance. With Brazil winning against Peru by 3-0, Argentina now moved to fourth in the table. Dani Alves started in the Brazilian line-up and did provide the assist for Fabiano's and Brazil's second goal. Luis Fabiano struck twice in the first half and another goal from Felipe Melo completed a comfortable victory for Brazil. Martin Caceres' side Uruguay held on to a valuable goalless draw against Chile away from home. Chile lies third in the table while Uruguay lies fifth.

Mexico minus Marquez (who is suspended) lost to Honduras 3-1 away from home. This defeat has raised more questions about their chance of qualification and also on Errickson's future. While in Europe, Spain continued their relentless march with a late victorty againt Turkey. Semih SENTURK put Turkey ahead in the first half but Xabi Alonso equalised just after the hour mark from a spot kick; Riera then grabbed the winner late in the injury time. FC Barcelona players Xavi and Pique started in the line-up, while Busquets made a second half entry. In another match Hleb's Belarus overwhelmed Kazakhstan by 5-1. Kazak's opened the scoring through Renat but Hleb equalised in the 47th minute. After that two goals from Kalachev and one each from Stasevich and Rodionov sealed the match for Belarus. Meanwhile a solitory goal from inform Ribery gave France a valuable victory against Lithuania.

FC Barcelona may go after Peter Cech

In my last post Victor Valdes fights for a Better Contract I have mentioned that in all this contract fight Victor Valdes could be the biggest loser. With a chance of Valdes moving out, there are reports emerging about FC Barcelona looking seriously for a replacement. And the first named to be linked is not some small one - it is Peter Cech, the current Chelsea custodian. FC Barcelona was interested in signing the Czech some years back; but if the MundoDeportivo is to be believed, they have not yet given up on the pursuit of him. Peter Cech is widely regarded as one of the best in Europe. Currently he is 26 years old and has so much playing time left in his career. But it is still difficult to imagine Chelsea letting him go. In 2007 when quizzed about a move to Barcelona, Cech did sound a bit positive and that fact should give hope for FC Barcelona establishment. But the chances of signing him at this moment remains very slight and cannot see the bosses going all out after him. FC Barcelona management would like to keep their pursuit as secretive as possible, true to their management style.

Peter Cech could be one of rare goalies who has some kind of record in wherever he played. He holds the Czech professional league record of not conceding a goal in 855 competitive minutes. He also has a club record at his former team Sparta Praha, having gone 928 minutes unbeaten in all competitions in 2001—2002. During the 2004-05 season, Cech went 1,025 minutes without conceding a goal - a former Premier League record until Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United bettered it. Wikipedia says that "Cech started out as a midfielder/striker for the youth team of his hometown club Viktoria Plzen, occasionally taking the centre forward position in games.He started playing in goal when there main goalkeeper couldn't come anymore." Now that's going to make Barca fans more happy. But as I mentioned earlier - he would be a great signing, but difficult one to complete. In other news The doctor who performed operation on Milito's Knee sounded confident of about Milito's return to competitive football this season. It's almost a year since he played last. He has slowly returned to normal training but when he will get to play is still a mystery.

Victor Valdes fights for a Better Contract

Victor Valdes attempt to get himself a new much improved contract is not new. Actually few weeks back he has kind of issued an ultimatum and that resulted in Barca looking for a decent option. But recently there were reports emerging that FC Barcelona were ready to offer him what he demands. Aparently the Catalan establishment has come to a decision that "Valdes is the best of the available lot". Many of Barca fans could be annoyed with such a finding, For the fans Valdes has been the weak-link in a near-perfect side. But I always believed that he is the best we can have. My previous post emphasise on that - Being Valdes. Nobody can dis-respect his contribution to the team - especially two one on one saves he pulled up against Henry in Champions League final and another splendid save against Real Madrid earlier this season. But between these remarkable feats he has performed unbelievable blunders and that worries the fans. With Valdes we all feel that we can be never sure about a low scoring victory.

There is no doubt that a club of Barcelona's stature needs a better Goal Keeper - Someone like Buffon, Iker, Cech, Van der Saar etc. But none of these exceptional goal keeper's are available. Once you take them out of the lot, we won't be surprised why Barcelona technical team came to the before-mentioned conclusion. Victor Valdes is one of the best available when you take the Buffon's out of the pool. But Valdes' agent Gines Carvajal does not agree with me. He rated the player with the likes of Buffon and Casillas - ""He has demonstrated over the years that he is at the same level as Iker Casillas, or [Gianluigi] Buffon, or any others. I have no doubts.” I have no doubts. " It will be quite difficult for me to find people or fans who would agree with that statement. He also has hinted a possibility of Valdes moving out of the club if the disagreements over the contract could not be resolved. What will be Barcelona's reaction to such a move is not yet clear. But I feel that the club would not be too sad seeing him leave. The club has made it clear that they would like to retain the service of their current shot stopper; but I believe they would like to do that in their own terms. If pushed much they would definitely prefer to let go off the player. For the club the immediate task would be to negotiate the contract terms of two African players - Eto and Toure. But in the eventuality of Valdes moving out I believe we can find many decent replacement - Diego Lopez, Sorensen, etc would definitely relish a chance to be with one of the best club in the world. As a fan what you guys think of Valdes - Should he be retained? If no, then who would be the ideal replacement?