News and Reading Before the Weekend

The international break is over and we'll soon be back with all your favorite European Leagues (and well how about that, the MLS never stopped! Two DC United games simultaneous with two USA World Cup qualifiers in one week, wonder which games I watched).

A lot is being made of Argentina's precarious qualifying position, well the Telegraph chimes in on the Maradona comedy roadshow. The picture alone is enough to make you laugh, and then cry when you realize this is one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. ESPNsoccernet follows suit. Of course, HalaMadrid was leading the way prior to Wednesday's matches, examining the many reasons Argentina is doing so poorly. However, the Guardian takes a different approach to examining the Argentina mess, noting that the Argentina Football Association and the Argentine press have created such a poor working situation that every major coaching candidate has stated that they want no part in the job, so firing Maradona could actually make the current mess a full blown disaster.

Of course Argentina isn't the only team struggling right now, with a few big guns in Europe also in danger. One squad is France, who actually played well in managing a 1-1 draw at Serbia while a man down, yet still looks likely to find themselves in a second place playoff spot rather than an automatic qualifier. Apparently what's happening is that Thierry Henry is staging a coup and taking over the team from puppet coach Raymond Domenech, much the way Zinadine Zidane also apparently did in 2006 when he inspired that aging team to the World Cup final.

Now on to the club stuff. HalaMadrid is expecting big things from this latest version of Madrid's galacticos, but one madridista finds much to be worried about, seeing through the rose colored glasses and the blinding light shining off the perfectly gelled coif of #9.

Don't fret though, you can now ridicule Barcelona for the absurdity of signing 7-year old future wonder adolescent Kais from Lyon. I don't have much else to say about this one.

Finally, this may be in Italian, but supposedly it says that Juventus may be preparing to swoop in for Benedict "Giuseppe Rossi" Arnold. I know this because Goal.com confirms it. That's real journalism right there. Anyway, Rossi, who has expressed a desire to return to Italy, has been linked with Juve in the past, and Rossi didn't do much to quelle those rumours other than saying he has a contract with Villareal. With Trezeguet set to leave after the season, and Del Piero on his last legs, this would be a good signing.