With friendlies like these...

Argentina's Leandro Somoza wonders why the hell they're even playing. Ask Villar - he'll tell ya.




Few things in world soccer stir up as much trouble as international friendly matches. With the jam-packed calendar already exhausting players, the last thing that either the players or their club team coaches need are a bunch of exhibition matches to make matters worse. So you can imagine that when Spain and Argentina announced a friendly match in Murcia, no one was all that pleased. Sure, it's a mouth-watering match-up, especially with both teams going through a difficult phase; the former coming off back-to-back losses in Euro 2008 qualifying, first to Northern Ireland and then to Sweden; the latter adapting to a new coach Alfio Basile and Juan Roman Riquelme's surprise retirement. But for the most part, friendlies fail to live up to their billing (last year's England-Argentina match in Geneva stands out as a recent exception). All any fan can hope for is a decent game, some attacking soccer, and no major injuries. Unfortunately, none of the above were the case yesterday. Spain won 2-1 and outplayed the Albiceleste for much of the match, but no one really cared. The victors' coach, Luis Aragones is still under fire (funny how pre & post-World Cup he was full of promises about stepping down if that was what the public wanted...and now, when 90% of the country agrees that he must go, he steadfastly refuses to leave). The losers really learned nothing about what their new squad, save that Pablo Aimar needs to be included. What stole all the headlines is the long-term knee injury suffered by Argentina's Maxi Rodriguez. The man who scored the golazo to beat Mexico this summer went down in the first 20 minutes, no surprise because of the atrocious state of the pitch. See, the match was the inauguration of Murcia's new stadium, the Nuevo Colombino, and the pitch was by no means ready for action. In fact, it was so bad that both coaches agreed that it'd be better not to play at all. But no, not when the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) is involved. Angel Maria Villar's administration makes Bush's look competent by comparison. Not only does Villar oversee the worst group of referees in Europe (seriously, for all their corruption, I'd sooner trust Italy's refs), not only does he clearly favor Barca's Joan Laporta in every way imaginable, but he also has totally botched his handling of the national team by failing to accept Aragones' resignations or force the ole man out of his post, despite three losses in their last five matches, a totally unacceptable losing streak for such a star-studded selection. Now he's even found a way to screw up Argentina's national team. Maxi will be out for six months, leaving Atletico Madrid without their star winger and Javier Aguirre without a key cog in his lineup as Atleti look to make a run at the la Liga title. Just the other week, they outplayed Real in the Bernabeu, but they will be hardpressed to duplicate that form without the talented Maxi. All because of one meaningless match that no one really cared about. But no matter - rumor has it that Villar is in talks to schedule another Spain-Argentina friendly next month...