Getafe vs Barca Preview

La LIga will be back to full swing after a week absence due to international matches. Barca will be travelling to Getafe to carry on with their excellent start of the season. Marquez and Iniesta are both declared fit for tonight's encounter. There are rumours that Pep Guardiola has already dropped Marquez from the squad. Iniesta also is not expected to start the match but definitely will get some playing time in the second half. Messi and Alves has only arrived back to Barcelona on friday and both are expected to be rested for this encounter. Messi's confidence after Argentina's disastrous qualification campaign should be very low. Meanwhile Getafe temporarily occupy the top spot in La Liga after their victory last week. Getafe is going through a great run of victories and will definitely like to continue on their good run. For Barcelona complacency will be a great factor which will decide the match. Getafe always is a difficult place for Barca to visit and if the player are going to be a bit complacent we could be in real trouble.

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Maradona's Boys Digs Their Own Grave

On a night when European Champions Spain and England booked their place in next year's; Argentina added more worries to their cause by losing against Paraguay. A well below par Argentina went down to a solitary goal against Paraguay; this victory sealed Paraguay's place in South Africa. Argentina lies in fifth place with 22 points. They are out of the automatic qualifying spot and looks utterly dis-organised in their last three matches. Meanwhile Dani Alves started in Brazil's 4-2 destruction of Chile. Nilmar scored a wonderful hat-trick and Baptista added a fourth. Meanwhile Sweden won their match against Malta with an own goal. Portugal also won their match against Hungary and now lies in the thrid position behind Sweden. Thierry Henry scored in France's 1-1 draw against Serbia, France were reduced to ten men in the match. France lies second in the group with four points behind Serbia.

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Barca Fans in India to Miss on La Liga Action

There are reports emerging there is a high chance of the La Liga fans in India missing out on this season's actions. ESPN Star network had the right to telecast La Liga last season. The fans had already missed the opening day matches but was pinning hope of ESPN-Star network bagging the rights late on. But now it looks like that is a non-existent option. ESPN STAR Sports paid 1 million/ year last season for the telecast of La Liga action. In most times they showed deferred and truncated matches; but still La Liga fans were satisfied as they could catch some actions of the same. La Liga matches start late in the night in India and ESPN STAR Sports has decided it does not make economic sense to air the same. Now the only Barca action we will be hoping to catch will be the Champions league actions, which will be aired by Ten Sports and Zee Sports.

In India Cricket has more priority than football. Actually a minority watches football matches. Cricket survives because of India and that will be given priority ahead of any sport. The difficulty in succeeding in a game which is played all over the world is the reason why football never gets any huge fan following. As far as cricket is concerned only nine countries plays it properly and so there is high chance of success. This season the major stars of the game is playing in La Liga and the non-telecast will be determental for the promotion of the game in India. The only option will be to stream it on internet if you have an unlimited broadband connection. Sites like Justin.tv and myp2p.eu will help you in that.

Messi and Ronaldo, No Match to Maradona's Greatness

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has been compared to the Argentinian legend 'El Diego' throughout their career. Messi has been brought up as the natural heir to Maradona's throne, while Ronaldo has always maintained the view that he is above all in the world. As far as I am concerned these comparisons are futile and I have stated the same many times earlier. By comparing Maradona to Messi or Ronaldo we are doing a great injustice to the greatness of Maradona and at the same time we are also putting unwanted pressure in these two upcoming stars.

The recent showing of these two geniuses in International Matches serves as the perfect example of why we should not compare them to the Legend. At this moment Argentina and Portugal lies in very precarious position in their respective qualifier group. Argentina is dearly holding on to the fourth position but Portugal looks very lost in their attempt to go to South Africa. As far as I am concerned there is a higher chance of Argentina qualifying than Portugal; but there is an equal chance of both countries missing on him. It will be a determental for the World Cup success to have both Ronaldo and Messi missing.

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Maradona in Deep Trouble; Will Harry Redknapp Take Notice ?

Diego Maradona's term as Argenita's coach ran into deep trouble after his side lost a vital home encounter against arch-rivals Brazil. Brazil defeated Maradona's boy by a score of 3-1 in Rosario. Argentina lies in fourth place at this moment, but Columbia and Ecuador lies just two points behind. Argentina can ill-afford to draw a single of their last three matches now, let alone lose. Argentina's task is made much harder by the fact that they will be travelling to Paraguay and Uruguay for these matches. They will be facing Paraguay on Wednesday and Maradona cannot afford to get his selections wrong there. Messi was the best Argentinian player on the field but was constantly kept under check by a Brazilian defense. Argentinian defense practically looked non-existent and the midfield is struggling in the lack of a creative midfielder. Maradona's only option now looks like using Messi in the midfield to create some moves and having Aguero, Milito and Tevez in the front to finish of those moves. With Heinze in it will be disastrous to use a three man defense. Meanwhile Dani Alves came in as a substiute in the second half.

Spain comfortably won their match against Belgium. Spain put five goals past a hapless Belgium side. Pique, Puyol, Xavi and Busquets all started the game for Spain. Pique scored once while Valencian pair of David Silva and David Villa scored twice to complete the rout. The new Barca boy Zlatan Ibrahmovic scored a vital injury time winner to defeat Hungary at Budapest's Ferenc Puskas stadium. Sweden lies third in the group behind Denmark and Hungary but above Portugal. But the best player of yesterday's qualifier was Giovanni Dos Santos. Dos Santos scored a screamer and created two goals in Mexico 3-0 victory against Costa Rica. Dos Santos has been in great form recently especially in the Gold Cup but is destined to be cast aside by Harry Redknaap for Totenham Hotspur in the bench. Harry Redknaap looks in no mood in using this talented youngster and it is yet to be seen how he will get through these times.