Ossie Ardiles speaks about Lionel Messi, Argentina, and the 2010 World Cup

A set of poor results lately have placed Argentina in great trouble, as a loss to Peru at the weekend would automatically put them out of the South African 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In an recent interview with ESPN Soccernet, the former Albicelestes player Osvaldo Ardiles, also known as Ossie Ardiles, gave the public details on his thought regarding Argentina and Lionel Messi’s narrow chances of qualifying to next year’s prestigious tournament, as well as on Diego Maradona’s game against Peru on Saturday.

“Peru used to have a good team, but not any longer. They used to be quite powerful, actually, but now the players are fighting the FA, the manager is fighting with the players and the manager has offered to resign, but the FA have said no.

“They might be in crisis, but Argentina are in a big, big mess of their own. But Argentina cannot have a better team to play than Peru, right now. If they cannot beat Peru, then that’s it, forget it. Normally in a game like this Argentina would be guaranteed the three points, but not right now. They will have to fight for it.”

“All the time the team is changing, there is so much criticism of the players Diego calls up, so many old players. One year ago Argentina were proudly ranked by FIFA as the number one country. No one wanted to play Argentina, for fear of losing. Now they are a shadow of their wonderful selves of only a year ago.

“The last two defeats against Brazil and Paraguay, who are also a very poor team, has put the country’s qualification in peril.

“Think of the World Cup without Messi. It is unthinkable. It would be a tragedy. A travesty. He is the best player in the world. But he is not the only world class player, they have plenty, Tevez and Mascherano too.

“But they are not a team, just a group of individuals, and Diego has to find a solution to bring them all together into a team. At the moment all these great players are playing well, well, below their true abilities. But the World Cup without Messi! I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

“I am sure Argentina will qualify, even if it’s through the back door and a play-off with Costa Rica, the most likely opponents for a play-off.”

Isaac Asante, LMF

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