Argentina looking 'to put on a real show'

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND v ARGENTINA (Aviva Stadium, 7.45, tonight) ON TV: Sky Sports 1:DURING THE World Cup in South Africa Maradona press conferences were among the tournament's hottest tickets with so many Argentine reporters trying to gain admittance that a good few would generally be left, cursing, outside while the rest of us resigned ourselves to getting second hand accounts of the manager's carry on.

It was, predictably, all a little different at Carton House yesterday where scarcely two dozen reporters, most of them Irish, turned out to see Sergio Batista step up to the plate for his first pre-match event since succeeding his former team-mate – at least for the short term.

Maradona’s reinstatement looks increasingly unlikely at this stage but to say that the situation is not quite resolved yet would appear to be something of an understatement with Batista apparently set to take part in what will be a long, drawn-out process akin to tendering by candidates anxious to take the post on a long -term basis.

The AFA’s first meeting to consider the matter seriously will be in October but no decision is expected until at least December with all of the contenders expected to present plans not just for the improvement of the senior team after their hefty defeat by Germany in South Africa but also, as is traditional since the mid 90s it seems, for the development of the association’s youth structures.

Batista, a former defensive midfielder who won 39 caps for his country including one in the 1986 World Cup final when he played alongside Maradona as Argentina beat West Germany 3-2 to lift the title, is well qualified on that front having coached the country’s Olympic team to the gold medal in Beijing.

Still, convincing wins tonight and in the forthcoming friendly against Spain would clearly look good in the power-point presentation and there was much talk yesterday of the reaction he expects to see from his players to the fairly calamitous way they exited the World Cup quarter-finals.

The highly critical views of some of the country’s other internationals were put to Batista yesterday in such a way that the coach might well have claimed to have inherited a mess that would take more than two games to sort out.

He did express a clear desire to be judged “on the basis of a project that could go all the way to 2014,” rather than results between now and the end of the year but he mounted a dignified defence too of his predecessor, insisting that the speed and ferocity with which so many commentators had turned against his former team-mate, was unfair.

“I don’t think you can dismiss a manager for having a lack of nous based on just one game,” he said.

“Maradona was a great player and knows as much about tactics as anyone else. He just came up against an inspired German team that day.

“Before that, Argentina had played some great games but Germany were on top form and caught us on the break a couple of times which made things very difficult. I think it’s a bit excessive to talk about Diego like that: he was chosen to coach the team, he got Argentina to the World Cup and he did a good job.”

Batista, though, does feel that with so many of the same players here in Dublin for tonight’s game, the team will want to reassert themselves in a way that few sides attempt to in friendlies.

His players are spread across many leagues, however, and so varied is the extent of the preseason work they have under their belts at this stage that yesterday morning’s training session consisted of different groups working at different levels of intensity.

Gabriel Heinze, in fact, is the only likely starter the manager describes as being genuinely match fit and while Lionel Messi is in town and expected to play, he had not risen from bed by lunchtime yesterday after having arrived in to the team hotel at 2 am from South Korea via Barcelona. Despite all that, he reckons his players can spoil both FAI and Robbie Keane’s party this evening.

“I think it would have been easy for many of the players to say they were injured or didn’t want to come,” he says, “but they have all arrived with smiles on their faces and that says a great deal about how they view this game.

“We have spoken about it privately; that we want to get that game against Germany out of our system. We will look to put on a real show, I’m sure both teams will. I think the fans will be in for a real treat, because we want to put that result out of our system.

“We know it is a special occasion for the Irish and for Robbie Keane who we respect greatly – for any player to achieve 100 caps is a wonderful achievement – but we have come here to win and so we hope he will not be celebrating too much at the end of the night.”

Gutierrez and team-mates refocused for the new post-Maradona regime

AS LIONEL Messi hurtled past in the background on a golf buggy, Newcastle United midfielder Jonas Gutierrez insisted yesterday that tonight’s game against Ireland is being taken very seriously by an Argentinian team still hurting the wake of their dramatic World Cup exit, writes Emmet Malone.

“We had a very good group at the World Cup and we could have done better,” he said as he made his way into training at the team’s base just outside Dublin, “but it is in the past now.

Germany played a fantastic game against us, they beat us very well, theres nothing we can do about it now except prepare our best for the next challenge.

“Its very good for us to come here to forget about the World Cup, its a good game for us to have after what happened. So we have to be prepared because we know its going to be a hard game.”

Asked about the departure of Maradona in the wake of the tournament, the 27 year-old expressed sympathy for the former coach who was forced out after refusing to agree the changes to his backroom team demanded by the association.

“Its hard for the players after he went because in South Africa we had a very good group, but these things happen and now we have to think about the Copa America and to play our best for (caretaker coach, Sergio) Batista.”

The winger seemed a little bemused to find his former team mate, Shay Given, in every newspaper after his comments regarding his determination to play first team football this season at Manchester City despite the presence of Joe Hart.

“I read something about Shay Given having some sort of problem at Man City. Its difficult because I know Shay and he is a fantastic keeper. But these things happen in football. It will be good to see him again.”