Yesterday I had the great pleasure of seeing La Liga game-match between Valencia & Valladolid, two playmakers were in full display, although Valencia’s Ever Banega truly has no equal, and deserves to be on the NT setting up Diego Milito & Messi, I was also somewhat impressed with Valladolid’s resident Uruguayan enganche, Nestor Canobbio, who should have been given a courtesy call-up by Tabarez on the NT sometime in the last year or so. But then at the end of the game’s conclusion, as the announcers threw in their two cents and muttered out-loud that Banega should be playing on the Argentinean NT, as this very astute argument was laid out almost as an afterthought, it was then that I thought that the chances for Banega or Canobbio even playing on their respective National Teams is really an argument that is null and void. Continue reading →

-writing this article as I drink my afternoon coffee- don’t be too hard on my English.

Nacho? Pacheco? El Pollo? maybe Lodeiro? Just to name a few.. gimme more ideas. Maybe can we simply play without a midfielder such as these? But then the aficionados start complaining about the lack of a fluent and sweet style of play. Therefore, the time to address that problem has officially come. Continue reading →

   

As per FIFA, our Group rivals (France, South Africa & Mexico) have lined-up multiple friendlies to prepare them for the World Cup while Uruguay’s only confirmed friendly match as of today is still the one set for March 3rd against Switzerland. Should someone ring the alarm and start wondering out-loud what’s going on with La AUF?  Mexico has 8 friendly matches lined up and all we could muster is 1 and maybe 2 more? Depending if you believe the rumors that Uruguay will play Chile & Belgium sometime in May. Something aint right here. La AUF does realize that the World Cup is being held this year and not in 2011? right? As of today all we have is one game and we should consider ourselves lucky that we have that friendly lined up but the truth is that Uruguay is still unable to secure quality friendlies that are worth a damn. Continue reading →

On 15 May 2004, South Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup. As part of a new FIFA policy (later abandoned) to rotate the event between football confederations, only African nations had been allowed to bid. Continue reading →

Watching Atlético Mineiro take on América-Mineiro, I was expecting to see Fabian Carini behind the posts but once again La Facha has been demoted to the bench. Vanderlei Luxemburgo (Atlético-MG’s coach) is auditioning the spot, unsure if to go with Carini or Aranha (see picture). Who are the fans behind? Believe it or not Carini. After América-MG scored on Atlético, the fans began chanting for Carini who was watching the game from the bench. I couldn’t believe it myself. Continue reading →

It’s that time again… time to play mad scientist and draw crazy formations using our beloved Celeste. This time though I’m using 3 formations that are ultra-defensive with an eye on the 2010 World Cup. So I’m going with a 5-4-1 formation, a 3-3-1-3 formation and finally a 4-6-0 formation. Sure these are bizarre formations that will never see the light of day, but they should be pondered nonetheless. Continue reading →

Mourinho used 4-5-1 @ Chelsea

Supposedly, in the first international match played between England and Scotland, England played a 1-1-8 (or 1-2-7) while Scotland played a 2-2-6. In the first World Cup played in 1930, Uruguay won playing with a 2-3-5 formation and in the 1950 World Cup, Uruguay played with a 4-3-3. It would appear that as the sport has evolved, it has seen a reduction in the number of forwards. Consequently, some consider the 4-5-1 as the next step in the evolution. Some would classify the 4-5-1 as “ultra-defensive”, perhaps because it has been used successively by the Italian team which has a reputation for defensive play. Others would argue that it provides the right balance between offense and defense.

There quite a few variations of the 4-5-1: Continue reading →

Although reported by Quenonino, this story was originally announced on todosobrecamisetas.blogspot.com, it seems Uruguay has finally settled on the official World Cup jersey they’ll wear in the 2010 World Cup. Puma is still the brand the Celeste will slap on their shoulders… but it seems to me a retro-design inspired by the jersey, Uruguay wore in the 1990 World Cup? Continue reading →

“The horror… the horror”

That famous line from Apocalypse Now is what some of you will be muttering after reading this entry, as promised though, I came up with a rudimentary “B-Team” made up of mostly players from the Local League (although Gonzalo Sorondo, was my cheat inclusion from the Brazilian league). And just to show you that I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing all week I also went ahead and created the “Non-Call-Ups” eleven side, comprised of players that have zero chances of being called up by Oscar Tabarez in June. Continue reading →