Thank god Maradonna is a shit coach!

And with both Argentina and Portugal now in dangerous positions in their qualification groups can Messi and Ronaldo be missing from next years World Cup?

Argentina have dug themselves in such a hole before. They will still make it if they simply perform decently. I'm not sure Maradona has done any harm to the team, but he hasn't solved any problems, either. They used to be notorious for their "no-quarter" defending, but not anymore. They used to be winners. Not since the mid-1990s...

Portugal was saved in the last minutes in Denmark, but, if they want to make second place and play-offs, they MUST beat Hungary both at home and away, and pray that the Swedes lose in Copenhagen. If they don't win in Budapest this Wednesday, it's curtains for them.

Unlike Messi, Ronaldo needs a miracle. As much as I hate Ronaldo's character, great tournaments need great players. To sit and watch the Swiss and the Scots fight it out in South Africa is not my idea of fun...

You missed 'cheats' off from the list of Argentian attributes!!
I am with you on the scots and the swiss, there are far superior teams that deserve a finals birth more.
In fact the European play-offs are starting to look like a very dangerous place to be again.
I must say, I think that the amount of the places the UEFA nations get from FIFA in the finals does not reflect the Worldwide standard of football.
There will be far worse teams at the finals than some from European nations who will end up staying home.
Whether that is an argument for more finals places or not I am not sure.

Oh my, British-Argentine relations are a minefield, you fought a war not so long ago, I don't know how strongly you feel about this, but let me say this from my own experience of your rivalry: I used to live in England during the 1998 World Cup, and, as I grew up with a love of both Latin flair and English speed and lack of cynicism, I remember the reports very clearly. In the build-up to the game, no journalist failed to remind their readers of the long Argentine tradition of cheating and diving, as evidenced by Maradona's punch in 1986. If aliens landed on the planet at the time, they would believe that English players were some sort of followers of some medieval chivalrous code of fair play, while the Argentines were nothing short of "animals" (no Argentine coach has ever called the English players "animals" as Ramsey did to the Argentines in 1966).

Then the game takes place, and we have two fair-play-related incidents. Simeone falls down after Becks' childish kick as if shot by a machine-gun. And Michael Owen obviously dives and gets a penalty. The following day, Simeone is seen as further proof of Argentine slime, while Owen is glorified and his theatrics swept under the carpet of the need for a national hero.

While cheating is everywhere, I think that the debate about cheating nations is becoming more and more obsolete, with most teams having multinational rosters. National stereotypes become more and more relative, if not irrelevant, and even those differences that were true and not the product of prejudice tend to be flattened out. The meanest player I've seen is none of all those really cruel Argentine defenders of the 70s-80s, but Roy Keane. The most amazing act of fair-play I've experienced in the Premier League was di Canio's grabbing of the ball in front of an empty net, because he had spotted the goalkeeper's injury. And di Canio was no saint and often dived himself! Messi is tiny and rarely dives. Drogba is a giant and falls like a tower of cards. Certain "tough" defenders tend to dive as much as "soft" attackers. It's an extremely fluid world, and I think that each player has to be judged on his own.

You make a superb argument mate!
I think you are right, we are conditioned in England to look on the Argies as cheats. but I suppose it is based on the fact that Maradonna whilst super talented tainted his reputation with acts of blatant cheating.
Oddly there are certain Argentinian players that are looked up with great fondness here such as Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa.
I agree with you that the globalization of football has eroded the traditional stereotypes that were once associated with nations and their traits.
I would however add that the main World club leagues do have styles of play that continue to this day.

A European Super League as some of the big clubs and officials would want could spell the end of that.