Maradona has the best — but toughest — job

DIEGO Maradona’s first match as coach of Argentina eclipses even the latest chapter in the long history of Germany versus England confrontations.

The football great, whose “Hand of God” goal against England 22 years ago helped Argentina to a World Cup triumph, is now trying to work his magic from the bench and starts out against Scotland in Glasgow tomorrow .

The football powerhouses of Europe and South America break off from World Cup qualifying this week to either maintain form or experiment with new players. But the outcome is that some of the biggest stars — from David Beckham to Ronaldinho — will not be in action tomorrow .

The schedule in Europe includes 25 friendly games and a single World Cup qualifier between San Marino and the Czech Republic in Group 3. That’s the last European- based World Cup qualifier for this year . The Czech team, next-to-last in the group, need to win the game to make ground on pacesetters Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia.

Maradona is the latest to try his hand at what should be one of the best jobs in world football, but has turned out to be one of the toughest.

A series of coaches have failed to lift a hugely talented Argentina squad to World Cup success and now it’s the turn of the nation’s greatest player.

He arrived in Glasgow on Sunday ahead of his first match tomorrow against Scotland at Hampden Park, and now he waits to see which of his stars — from Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez to Juan Roman Riquelme — will arrive fit for the game.

England are riding high after winning their first four World Cup qualifying games. Coach Fabio Capello wants to maintain that form, having inherited a team low in confidence after failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

“I think we are a very good team .” “We can play against all the countries at the same level.”

But he is forced to face the Germans in Berlin without several injured stars, including Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard. He has also chosen to leave out striker Michael Owen because of a lack of fitness and form, and Beckham because he has been inactive since the Los Angeles Galaxy’s failure to reach the American MLS playoffs.

Despite the stakes — England- Germany matches have a rich history of drama, disputed goals and amazing comebacks — Capello has called up Chelsea’s defender Michael Mancienne, 19, who has never played in the Premier League and is on loan to League Championship leader Wolves.

While Capello has won over the England players with his methodical approach to training and restricting their showbiz lifestyles, Germany coach Joachim Loew has had disputes with Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings over the extent of their injuries. Neither will face England .

“England is the team of the moment,” said Loew . “They have left an incredibly strong impression [under Capello]: compact, moving quickly forward, technically very good. I haven’t seen such a strong England team for a long time.”

Among the other highlight games are Brazil-Portugal, France-Uruguay, Netherlands-Sweden and European champion Spain at home to Chile.

AFP

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