River = Vida

A highlight of the FSC schedule for me is the weekly game from Argentina.  It’s late in the Clausura and this past weekend Estudiantes moved past River Plate into first place.  Things sound a little tense on the River side:

With few second-half scoring chances, the match ground down uneventfully with River fans insulting their players and River coach Diego Simeone expelled in the 86th minute for shouting at the referee.

That’s too bad — I was lucky enough to catch River’s fans on a better day, when I saw a game at Estadio Monumental back in ‘04.  It was a wild affair in front of a huge and passionate audience.  I even got a preview of Marcelo Gallardo, now with DC United, back in his days with Los Millonarios.  Read on after the jump!

Like a “little red bug”

One of DC United’s multitude of new South American imports this season is Franco Niell, a forward on loan (presumably with an option to buy) from Argentinos Juniors in (duh) Argentina.  He’s of the small pesky type and, based on his initial few games, plays like a “rambunctious gnome,” as I believe someone on bigsoccer described him.  His nickname translates as “the dwarf,” which makes sense since Franco appears to be around 5-3. 

He’s been okay so far, impressing more with energy than skill, but came up with a goal as a substitute against Pachuca Wednesday at RFK.  Some may wonder what an Argentine kid like Niell is doing in MLS.  Why not live at home in Buenos Aires?  Well, the economy in Argentina — and thus its league — have some issues.  And, as someone who has seen Argentinos Juniors play, RFK may feel like a step up.  For more on my visit to Estadio Diego Maradona, home of Argetinos Juniors — known as the “little red bugs” — and first professional home of Argentina’s beloved #10, read on after the jump.

Overkill, but that’s a good thing!

The US starts World Cup qualifying in June with a two-leg preliminary series against either Barbados (ranked #133) or Dominica (ranked #182).  Should be a formality before the semi-final round of regional qualifying later in the year. 

Still, we need to make sure our team is sharp and has some practice in advance of those games, given the tremendous costs of a hiccup in qualifying.  So the Federation is scheduling some friendlies to get the team warmed up.  What teams will we play?  It’s looking like:

England at Wembley on May 28th.  At Spain on June 4th.  And Argentina on June 8th, perhaps at the Meadowlands.  That would be three of the top 11 teams in FIFA’s rankings (such as they are).  That’s a string of three games — two on the road — with maybe one-third of the countries that can claim with a straight face to be contenders to win the World Cup.  Yeah, I know England just choked out of Euro 2008 qualifying and Spain routinely blows it once it makes it to an international tourney.  Still, that’s a murderer’s row of games.  That should quiet the bigsoccer types who complained about our weak friendlies in advance of the ‘06 Cup, much as I enjoyed a second opportunity to see Latvia play in person.

Yeah, our team might be ready to play mighty Barbados after that trio of games.  If they survive.  I can’t imagine what the Federation will schedule as a warm-up for the final round of qualifying next year.  Maybe Brazil and road games in Italy, Germany, Holland AND an African tour to play Ivory Coast and Ghana?  Yowza.