These are heady days for Argentine rugby. In October they reached the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup, losing only 33-10 to eventual champions New Zealand after beating Scotland and giving England an almighty scare in the pool stage, and next year they will join New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in the enlarged Rugby Championship, world rugby’s toughest annual competition.

One man who has been a key element of that World Cup success and in the rise of the Pumas to the world elite over the past decade is captain and outside-half, Felipe Contepomi. Aged 34, Contepomi was playing in his fourth Rugby World Cup after making his debut for Argentina against Chile as a 21-year-old in 1998.

After starting his career in Buenos Aires with Newman, Contepomi has subsequently played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Bristol, Leinster, London Irish, Toulon and current club Stade Français. His thrilling play with ball in hand and coolness under pressure as a goal-kicker have endeared him to fans wherever he has played, not least to those of the national team with whom he won the bronze medal at the 2007 Rugby World Cup where Argentina beat France to earn third-place in the tournament.

Contepomi’s talents do not extend solely to the rugby pitch, he is also a qualified orthopaedic surgeon and earlier this month has been appointed to the Athlete Panel of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The Argentine captain recently took time out of his busy schedule in Paris to talk to The Indy about the recent World Cup and his time playing for the Pumas.

AI: Felipe, how does Argentina’s achievement at this year’s Rugby World Cup compare with four years ago in France?

FC: It is not comparable you know, they were two different teams. In 2007 we arrived with a team that knew each other very well, we had a very good start of the World Cup when we beat France in the opening game and that put us into a good position for the quarter final to get something more acceptable. This one we arrived with not many people thinking we could do well, we had a very young team, an inexperienced team and I think we did extremely well in building up a team that showed great courage, we played some good rugby against England and Romania and scraped a victory against Scotland and played a good sixty minutes against the All Blacks, and so overall it was a good World Cup.

AI: You have had a long and successful career with the Pumas, some commentators have pointed to the win in Cardiff over Wales in Cardiff in 2001 as being pivotal to Argentina’s rise to the elite of world rugby. What do you think was the turning point and why?

FC: I think it was a huge victory for us because we played a great team and we had the chance to beat them for the first time ever in Wales, the following week we went on to Scotland and beat them at Murrayfield, and then the following week we only just lost against the All Blacks in Buenos Aires, so those November tests of 2001 were huge in giving us belief.

AI: For many years you played together for the Pumas with Agustín Pichot, what was the secret to your successful half-back partnership? Did it help playing together at Bristol?

FC: We’ve enjoyed playing together on the pitch and we both have a similar understanding of the game, therefore we understood each other really well. We’ve also become very good friends and obviously that made it easier as well.

AI: What was your strangest experience with the Pumas?

FC: I don’t know if it was the strangest, but one day to forget was when we lost to Australia in Buenos Aires in 2002, I had a shocker with my kicking boots.

AI: Your family has strong connections with the Pumas, what was it like playing alongside Manuel for Argentina?

FC: I’ve always said I’ve been very lucky in my rugby career, because playing for your country with a brother is nice, with friends is great, but with your twin brother and best friend all at once is unique. We’ve played many years and three Rugby World Cups together and those were my highlights of my career.

AI: Looking ahead to the Rugby Championship next year, what do you think it will do for the profile of rugby in Argentina to play the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks year in, year out?

FC: It will only help the rugby profile back home but also will help to develop rugby in Argentina and for the Pumas to become more competitive against the best.

AI: The development of young Argentine talent through PladAr and victory in the Vodacom Cup bodes well for the future of the Pumas. Who among the youngsters excites you, and who are the players of the next generation to look out for?

FC: It would be unfair for me to speak about specific players because I am still playing with them, but I think Argentinian rugby has been breeding really good players through the past few years and there are good ones coming along.

AI: Do you think Argentine players will gravitate towards Super 15 (Southern Hemisphere provincial competition) rugby in the future, rather than Europe as they do now?

FC: That’s still a dynamic that we will have to wait and see what happens in these transition years.

AI: During your time at Bristol and Leinster you completed your medical studies, do you plan to return to Argentina and practice as a doctor once your professional days are over?

FC: Yes, that’s the idea.

AI: That being the case, would you consider going back to play for your old Buenos Aires club, Newman?

FC: It’s hard to say it now. I’ve always said I’d love to finish playing in Newman, but I don’t want to make myself illusions, I’d rather wait and see what happens.

AI: Finally, as a fan of Independiente, would you like to play a test match for Argentina in their new Estadio Libertadores de América?

FC: Yes of course. I had the chance to play there last June against the French Barbarians and it was a great party, hopefully there will be more games there.

The Brazilian Supreme Court is investigating sports minister, Orlanda Silva, for corruption allegations. Silva is heading the preparations for the 2014 World Cup, which Brazil is set to host.

It is suspected that he has spent public funds of around $23 million dollars, to benefit himself as well as giving money to the country’s communist party. This is according to the well-respected Brazilian Veja magazine.

Silva has denied the allegations, but the accusation may cost Silva his post.

The saga is seen as an embarrassment for the country’s reputation as well as shining a dim light on Silva’s ability to stage the World Cup and the Olympics.

In the last year, President Rousseff has cracked down on corruption within the government with the layoff of four ministers.

Lionel Messi arrived in Argentina today to join the national football team in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Argentina will be playing against Chile on Friday, a game that is believed to be tough and demanding for the Argentine team.

The team captain stood in front of photographers and journalists at Ezeiza international airport and stated: “We all know what Chile is like. It’s a team that likes to put us under pressure. They play faster when they have the ball. When they are losing, they try to recover fast and asphyxiate you. So it’s going to be a very tough match.”

The Barcelona player also warned that the national team “still has a lot of work” ahead. The game will be held on Friday at 8.10pm at El Monumental stadium.

The recent Copa América in Argentina ended with victory for Uruguay in the final held at River Plate’s Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires. Having beaten favourites Argentina in the quarter finals en route, they have now won more Copa América tournaments than any other team, and, having reached the semi-finals of the 2010 world cup in South Africa, few can argue Uruguayan football isn’t on the ascendancy.

Indeed, it was Uruguay who hosted and won the inaugural world cup in 1930, having been selected as hosts due to their being reigning Olympic champions from 1928 and to commemorate the country’s 100th anniversary since independence. The infamous Estadio Centenario was built especially for the tournament, and, with a capacity of over 100,000, it was at the time the largest stadium outside of the UK. Having been described by Jules Rimet as a “temple of football”, it acted as an intimidating fortress for the Uruguayan national team. It led Francisco Varallo, an Argentine who played in the final, to remark: “I can still remember the euphoria that reigned in the stands. It was a blow I’ve spent my entire life trying to forget.”

In 19 years time is the centenary of the first world cup and humble back-room discussions of it being played once again in Uruguay began to take shape in the early 1990s. The first formal discussions took place in October 2005 when FIFA president Sepp Blatter visited the Uruguay to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the 1930 world cup. He met with then Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez who suggested the idea of the country hosting the tournament jointly with another Mercosur (a regional trade bloc) nation.

Sepp Blatter said of the meeting: “The president told me his dream of seeing this tournament hosted in the region. I told him that today’s dream could be tomorrow’s vision, which in turn could become a proper initiative and finally a project.”

The 1930 competition was a much smaller affair compared to modern times as many European teams refused to make the journey to Uruguay. A total of 32 teams played 64 matches in ten stadiums in the 2010 tournament in South Africa – significantly more than the 13 teams who competed in 18 matches in 1930. And in only three stadia were used – the Centenario, Estadio Pocitos (a small ground with capacity for just 1,000 supporters) and the Estadio Parque Central with room for around 25,000 fans.

Two years later, in October 2007, Julio Grondona, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), accepted an invitation to be part of the project: “The AFA unanimously approved applying for your initiative to jointly organise the FIFA World Championship 2030. Undoubtedly, to crystallize this purpose will lead to further deepen the friendly ties that forever bind the two countries, and hence sports and government officials on both sides of the Río de la Plata will work together in order to meet the final goal of hosting the 2030 World Cup.”

Later that month, support was also received from CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation. And in June 2010, a day before the start of the 2010 World Cup, the bid was officially proposed to Sepp Blatter in Johannesburg.

Further support was received earlier this month as the discussions were taken to the highest level – it was discussed at a presidential summit between Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and José Mujica.

Working closely together and taking the opportunity to build closer relationships between the countries was the main motivation here. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner commented “One of the keys is not only dialogue and integration, but also association, because being a member helps all sides win,” while José Mujica sees a point the countries need to prove: “For too many decades we have lived with our backs turned to each other in Latin America, always looking toward Europe, always admiring what’s far away. Now the time has come to take notice that our future will be determined with our neighbours, that we suffer from the same difficulties, and that we escape them together or not at all.”

Aside from the opportunity for the world cup to be jointly hosted by one of the oldest football rivalries, other benefits to the countries have been highlighted.

Hector Lescano, Uruguayan tourism and sports minister, said: “Organising a World Cup gives a chance to promote the countries, to promote tourism, culture, to boost infrastructure, transport, communications and nowadays it would be impossible for Uruguay to do it on its own, but jointly with Argentina, it’s different and a great chance.”

Uruguay’s Tourism and Sports minister Hector Lescano said: “Motivation is very strong: its none less than the centennial of the first world cup, which had as finalists our two countries. This should be an unbeatable argument for hosting the event.”

A potential competitor for the 2030 world cup is an ambitious consortium of the ten south-east Asian countries that form the ASEAN regional body. “This is a good way to boost our unity,” explained ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan. The idea does resonate with FIFA’s aim to take football to new parts of the world and ASEAN have been quick to point out that football is already well-established in Latin America. ASEAN also denounce logistical issues as problems: “I think we will be integrated as a region by 2030. I am optimistic that distances won’t hamper our ambitions.”

Only one other world cup has been jointly hosted – the 2002 tournament held in Japan and South Korea. Both countries initially pursued separate bids but joined forces shortly before the vote. The tournament was hailed as a success and raised the profiles of both countries, but due to initial difficulties regarding decisions of where to hold the important games and the naming of the tournament, FIFA declared joint bids would be accepted in the future.

Mixed messages have been received since then. The Libya and Tunisia joint bid for the 2010 tournament was disregarded out of hand. But then joint bids from Belgium and the Netherlands, and from Portugal and Spain for the 2018 and 2022 world cups respectively were accepted by FIFA.

With explicit support from FIFA, and the fact that Grondona is both close friends with Blatter and a senior FIFA vice-president, would appear to put the bid in good stead. But, money will have to be spent on infrastructure.

The average stadia capacity in South Africa was 51, 500 with an average match attendance of 49,500. Compare this with the average capacity of the seven Argentine stadia used for the Copa América of 40,250 and it becomes clear that facilities will need to be expanded to cope with the additional fans. Even the Estadio Centennial can now fit only 66,000 fans, while there are just another five stadia in Uruguay with a capacity over 20,000.

A previous attempt to host the centenary of a major global event in the first host country went awry in the 1990s. Athens, founder of the ancient Olympics and the location of the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896, lobbied furiously for the competition to be held there in 1996, but the decision controversially went in favour of Atlanta in the US. Greece had to wait a further eight years for the Olympics to return home.

However, this time it appears Uruguay and Argentina have set out their stalls early with FIFA and have high level support both domestically and across Latin America.

In 1930, Uruguayan captain Jose Nasazzi said: “In the days leading up to the final, you could already tell the Centenario would be completely packed. We knew it was our big chance to beat Argentina, with whom we enjoyed a fierce rivalry at the time. And that’s what happened. The atmosphere and our fighting spirit overwhelmed the Argentines.”

This passion among the fans and players remains both in Uruguay and Argentina. A world cup based around the Río de la Plata would be a mouth-watering prospect. It is too bad we will have to wait until the end of the decade to discover if the bid is successful.

Neighbourhood organisations and the Popular Committee of the World Cup and the Olympics have warned about the high public debt and forced displacement of poor communities. They indicated that there will be consequences for the running of the events.

The organisations also indicated the rising cost of living, the parts of the project which will be unusable and possible cases of corruption.

Rio de Janerio is experiencing a process of displacement each day, where slum dwellers are being moved to housing complexes in surrounding areas.

It is estimated that in Rio de Janeiro 25,000 people have already lost their houses.

In many cases, the families are allocated to zones far from their jobs and children’s’ schools.

Brazil will be the host of the football World Cup in 2014. It has also received the Olympic Games in 2016.

The Popular Committee of the Cup and the Olympics de Rio de Janiero denounced that this process as violating living rights. They also criticised speculation and issues of public access to information.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar

If Argentina’s football team has been a disappointment in recent times, their female hockey counterparts, Las Leonas, will be out to show that Argentina continues to be amongst the very best in the world as it hosts the FIH Women’s Hockey World Cup in Rosario, on the banks of the Paraná between 29th August and 11th September.

This will be the twelth edition of the World Cup which was staged for the first time in 1974 in Mandelieu, France and which is rivalled only by the Olympic Games as the pinnacle of the sport. It will be the second time Argentina will have hosted this prestigious event, with Buenos Aires having had the honour in 1981. A brand new hockey specific facility with capacity for 12,000 spectators has been built, confirming Rosario’s status as Argentina’s hockey capital having previously played host to the Champions Trophy in 2004.

Over the past decade Las Leonas have been a constant presence on the podium at hockey’s biggest tournaments, winning the 2002 World Cup in Perth and the past three editions of the Champions Trophy, most recently last month in Nottingham, where they defeated the Netherlands, ranked number one in the world, 4-2 in the final.

Their never-say-die spirit was immortalised at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney when the lioness emblem first appeared on the team’s jerseys, and the legend of Las Leonas was born. Many of the best players in the world of the past decade have donned the famous kit including Vanina Oneto, Magdalena Aicega, Cecilia Rognoni and the team’s current captain, the legendary six-time world player of the year – Luciana Aymar. Most featured in a short film launched last week celebrating 10 years of Las Leonas, timed to coincide with the unveiling of Argentina’s new adidas strip for the tournament.

Las Leonas will be full of confidence going into the World Cup following their success in Nottingham, boasting an experienced team who have literally seen and done it all at international level. Four players; Aymar, Alejandra Gulla, Soledad García and Claudia Burkart have each represented Argentina over 200 times, whilst the younger legs of Rosario Luchetti, Carla Rebecchi and Giselle Kañevsky provide the power in the engine room, and in Noel Barrionuevo they have arguably the most prolific short-corner specialist currently playing international hockey.

It is fair to say Argentina have been treated kindly by the draw, with three of their biggest rivals for the World Cup - Australia, who will have the mercurial talents of Madonna Blyth at their disposal, Germany, captained by the vastly experienced Natascha Keller, and the Netherlands, who welcome back joint 2009 World Player of the Year, Naomi van As after missing out on the Champions Trophy - drawn together in Pool A. Las Leonas begin their challenge against South Africa on Sunday before then taking on Korea, Spain and China, concluding their Pool B matches against England on 6 September.

It will be a major shock if Argentina fail to finish in the top two and qualify for the semi-finals, however they do have a worrying habit of starting slowly and dropping points to lesser opponents in the opening matches of tournaments - most recently in Nottingham where they went down 1-0 to England despite Las Leonas dominating play for most of the game – and surrendering top spot in the group would almost certainly land them with a tougher semi-final match as a result.

This is something coach, Carlos Retegui, is patently aware of. After beating the Dutch in Nottingham, he warned of the dangers of looking too far ahead, saying: “All the teams are threats, at this level twelve teams have a chance of winning, for example in this tournament we were beaten by England, they then only came third.”

For captain and the team’s inspiration for over a decade, 33-year-old Luciana Aymar, the World Cup will mark an emotional swansong to her international career, and The Argentina Independent caught up with the midfielder nicknamed la maga – ‘the magician’ - in Nottingham and asked what resonance playing the tournament in her home city of Rosario had for her. Aymar replied: “I am really pleased it’s going to be played in my home town, obviously it’s good for me. I am going to train as hard as I can and try and make sure it’s a good tournament for me and the team.”

With a partisan crowd of 12,000 roaring them on, the atmosphere for Argentina’s matches at the state of the art Rosario Hockey Stadium is sure to be electric, and there will not be a dry eye in the house, if on 11 September, Luciana Aymar crowns a glorious career by lifting the World Cup in her final appearance for Argentina.

For more information on the World Cup and how to get tickets, visit www.hockey.net.ar

Lead image: ’4-2′ by Chelmsfordblue

Argentina’s blind football team, Los Murciélagos (‘The Bats’) finished in a disappointing seventh place as they sought to retain their title at the Blind World Cup that concluded in Hereford, England yesterday.

The five-a-side game played with a ball containing ball-bearings to enable players to hear the ball as it moves, has seen Argentina at the pinnacle of the sport for more than a decade. World Championship runners-up in 1998 and 2000, Los Muciélagos were crowned champions in Rio de Janeiro in 2002, and again in Buenos Aires four years ago.

As defending champions, Argentina were red hot favourites along with 2008 Paralympic Champions, Brazil, to progress from Group B into the knockout stages, but were sent to a shock defeat in the opening game by France, going down to a last minute Frederic Villeroux goal.

Argentina recovered somewhat in their second game, as captain Silvio Velo gave a virtuoso performance against Greece, scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win that could easily have reached double figures.

Any hopes that the Argentines would be contesting for honours were dashed in their third game against an extremely physical China team, when they went down 1-0 to Zhou Bin Wang’s goal shortly before half-time. Argentina were handed numerous opportunities to get themselves back into the match, but were left to rue five missed penalties.

Los Murciélagos did recover a measure of lost pride when they drew their final group game 0-0 against the eventual tournament winners, Brazil, before going on to beat Japan 1-0 in the classification match for seventh place

Martín Demonte’s side will be hoping to give a better account of themselves when they return to England for the London Paralympics in 2012.

Diego Maradona: the topic on the tip of everyone’s tongue, since it was recently announced he would not be continuing in his role as coach of the national squad. Despite his tumultuous past, Maradona remains an inspirational icon to millions, not just as one of the greatest players ever, but also the most passionate; a man who plays with his heart and soul. To some, that’s all they could ask for; but others might say that technically speaking, Maradona was not the best man for the job.

	Gonzálo, 37, lawyer, Caballito “On one hand, I’m pleased because his coaching technique was not the best. But, I am still proud that he is my coach, I love him, and I fear that whoever follows him could never shine the light that Maradona shines.”
	Diego, 22, operations assistant, Quilmes “What Maradona did during the World Cup was amazing, he did everything right and they should give him another chance.”
	Christian, 34, operations assistant, Quilmes “It’s up to the players too, and they have to want it as bad as Maradona does. And Maradona, as a player and a coach, loves his country and his jersey more than anyone else, he keeps his jersey in his heart.”
	Ezequiel, 21, soldier of the voluntary military, Montechigolo “I think Argentina didn’t advance because they played against a better team. No one thought he was going to be able to do it, and he got all the way to the quarter finals and that’s something to be proud of.”
	Susana, 36, housewife, San Telmo “Because if his past, I wasn’t so sure that he was going to behave himself as a representative of Argentina. But I like the way he presented himself as a family man, and I think he should be given another chance as an example to children today, that they can rise up and change their lives.”
	Nani, 25, circus artist, Boedo “Maradona said football is a mafia, like many things in this country. It’s clear he loves his team and I’m glad he spoke out and expressed that viewpoint.”
Photos by Jessie Akin

The roller-coaster ride that has been Diego Maradona’s tenure as coach of Argentina’s national football team was brought to a halt this week, as the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA) opted not to renew his contract following Argentina’s quarter final exit at the World Cup.

It had been expected that Maradona would continue in the role that he controversially took on in October 2008, however when AFA president, Julio Grondona made his continuation conditional on making wholesale changes to his backroom staff, Maradona found this an unpalatable interference and so the AFA committee voted not to renew his contract.

In true Maradona style, the former coach did not take the news lying down, launching a tirade against his former employers. Venting his anger Maradona complained: “Grondona lied to me.” Maradona says he believed Grondona had given him a green light to continue in the immediate aftermath of Argentina’s defeat to Germany: “Grondona in the dressing room after we had been knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa, told me in front of witnesses and the players that he was very happy with my work and that he wanted me to carry on…on Monday I met with Grondona. After five minutes, he told me he wanted me to continue but that seven of my technical staff could not stay. When he told me this, he was saying that he didn’t want me to carry on in the job. He knows that it’s impossible to stay as coach without my colleagues.”

After an initial run of three victories in a row, including a 4-0 hammering of Venezuela in Buenos Aires, it appeared that Maradona had restored a sense of vivacity to the national side that had been lacking in the final days of his predecessor, Alfio Basile. However, a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Bolivia in the altitude of La Paz had his critics crowing about a lack of preparation, and his problems further mounted when his playmaker, Juan Román Riquelme retired from the national side after Maradona publicly criticised the Boca Juniors midfielder on national television, a void that he was not ultimately adequately able to fulfil.

Further defeats to Brazil and Paraguay left Argentina looking down the barrel of elimination from the World Cup, the former match exposing Maradona’s tactical inadequacy, as Brazil on the counter-attack ruthlessly exposed a lack of pace in the Argentine defence, despite Argentina enjoying most of the position. His favoured 4-4-2 position failed to draw the best from his star player Lionel Messi who was forced to play as an out-and-out striker, negating his pace and passing ability, whilst his persistence with the ordinary Jonás Gutiéerrez and the ditching of Javier Zanetti in favour of playing Nicolás Otamendi out of position in his place smacked of wilful wrong-headedness.

As it was Argentina did qualify by the skin of their teeth. A face-saving dubious injury time goal by Martín Palermo in the penultimate match at home to Perú put them back in the hunt, before Argentina beat old rivals Uruguay in a nervy encounter in Montevideo to seal their place in the World Cup Finals. However rather than just celebrate a job done, the erratic Maradona took it upon himself to berate the gathered press with the now infamous ‘¡Que le chupen!’ outburst, earning himself a two month suspension for bringing the sport into disrepute into the bargain.

With just the World Cup Finals to focus on, it appeared likely that we would witness a new maturity to Maradona’s coaching. Indeed his man management skills were his great strength: he had managed to successfully integrate youngsters like Sergio Romero, Ángel Di María and Gonzalo Higuaín into the starting line-up, and the team spirit in the camp was amongst the highest in the competition, in stark contrast to the splits in the English and French squads. Tactically Maradona also adapted, changing to a more attacking 4-3-1-2 which gave Messi a floating role behind the two main strikers, and which allowed him to incorporate Carlos Tévez into the side.

In the early rounds it all seemed to be working like a dream, Walter Samuel gave the side a new-found solidity at the back and Juan Sebastián Verón pulled the strings in midfield, whilst Messi looked every inch the World Player of the Year as he tormented opposing defences and created goals for his colleagues at will.

However when they reached the quarter-final against Germany, and injuries deprived them of Samuel and Verón, their old defensive frailties against pace and the lack of a genuine playmaker came back to haunt them. Like Brazil before them, Germany ripped Argentina apart by counter-attacking at speed. By the time Germany were 2-0 up, the game was all but up as Maradona had no Plan B to either counter the German threat or ensure that his offensive players were getting more of the ball.

Thus, it was these tactical and organisational weaknesses that Grondona sought to iron out with changes to the back room staff that ultimately did for Maradona.

Alejandro Sabella, coach of 2009 Copa Libertadores winners Estudiantes de La Plata, has been named as Maradona’s permanent replacement, and will take charge for the forthcoming game against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin next month.

With quality attacking players already at the new man’s disposal, the emphasis will be on finding a new playmaker and overhauling the defence, with a new pair of fullbacks a priority, as Argentina seek to win the Copa América on home turf in July 2011.

Argentina’s dreams of becoming World Champions were shattered today as they were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Germany in the World Cup quarter-final in Cape Town. Two goals from Miroslav Klose, and one each from Arne Friedrich and Thomas Müller consigned Argentina to their heaviest World Cup Finals defeat since 1974, as Germany produced a devastating counter-attacking play.

Fielding the same starting eleven as against México, Diego Maradona surprised some by continuing with Maximiliano Rodríguez as the side’s playmaker ahead of Juan Sebastián Verón and deploying Ángel Di María on the right-hand side of midfield instead of the left, where he had been highly effective.

Germany started the better of the two sides, taking the lead just three minutes into the game. Nicolás Otamendi, who was to have a torrid afternoon on the right flank of the Argentine defence at the hands of Lukas Podolski, conceded a free-kick after fouling his German nemesis, from which Bastian Schweinsteiger curled in the ball for Müller to head Germany in front. Argentina tried to get themselves back into the game, but they could not penetrate the German defence and struggled to gain possession. Schweinsteiger was in imperious form in the German midfield dictating the play leaving Javier Mascherano to chase shadows, as he struggled to track the forward runs of Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira.

Argentina started the second half more brightly, having more of the play as Lionel Messi probed for an opening in the German defence and Carlos Tévez harried his opponents in search of the ball. However, their efforts were to no avail, and Germany effectively sealed their place in the last four when Klose doubled their lead on 67 minutes. Again Otamendi was at fault – how Maradona must have rued leaving Javier Zanetti at home – as Podolski again got the better of him to slide the ball across goal to leave Klose an easy tap in.

As Argentina cantered forward in search of a way back into the game, Germany exploited the resultant gaps in the Argentine defence at will, and were rewarded with a third goal in the 74^th minute as Friedrich bundled the ball in from close range. The final coup-de-grâce was delivered a minute from time by Klose as he struck his second goal of the game in his 100^th game for his country.

In the final analysis Maradona, through his tactical and squad selections, was architect of his own downfall. The decision to go into the tournament without a recognised right-back was ruthlessly exposed by Germany, whilst the inability to get any meaningful possession and the inability to penetrate Germany’s defences rendered Argentina’s much vaunted attacking trio neutered for the want of a Verón or an Esteban Cambiasso.