We have the wood on our familiar foes from Seoul and Montevideo

Pr1mo
What about crappy Serbia finished bottom of the group and littered with Serie A and Bundesliga players.

Diego Maradona says he may turn to José Mourinho for managerial tips as he prepares Argentina for the World Cup's knockout stages.

The Argentina manager said he keeps Mourinho's telephone number "on his bedside" and that he has asked the Portuguese for tactical advice in the past.

"I like Mourinho a lot. I've got his phone number, I might call him," Maradona said. "We spent hours talking about football, attacking and defensive tactics. He seemed to me a guy to take to your bedside table and ask him each time you need something."

Maradona would, however, prefer that his team do not adopt the kind of safety-first tactics that Mourinho used win the European Cup with Internazionale last month.

"No, not that. But it worked for him, right? He won the Champions League," he said.

Maradona added that Lionel Messi, who turned 23 today, was by some distance the best player at this World Cup.

"I have not seen a player at this World Cup who is even 30% [as good as] Messi," he said. "Maybe I will be called arrogant but I've not even seen a player who is 30% of Carlitos [Carlos Tevez]. I love my team."

Maradona believes Messi is ready to end comparisons between them. "I think he's there," said the 1986 World Cup winner. "I believe he's broken the mould and is ready, let's end the comparisons. Leo is ready to go out on to a pitch and leave it [the tournament] with the crown."

"Making Messi happy is everyone's pride, including his team-mates'. Because today you see Messi pulling a joke on [Javier] Pastore, on [Ariel] Garcé and he has never met them before in his life.

"And he talks to [Juan Sebastián] Verón and I spy on them: La Bruja [the Witch] is an intellectual of football, because he knows much more of football than Leo, but they start talking about it and the bastard answers back."

joeb, I agree that Uruguay are a cut above us right now - they are playing some beautiful football - but wouldn't you love to be playing off against them in the next round? We would all fancy our chances on the day.

Villaboy, I know Uruguay and Australia are not in Group B, but we are getting beyond the group stage and I've clearly put this blog in the context of discussion with Argentina, Greece, Nigeria and South Korea. M'kay?

Phutbol, motivation (mental preparation) is part of a manager's job. You really shouldn't need to motivate players for a WC, but maybe the Italian, French and English coaches need to have a good think about it (whoops too late for some)! As for us, Lucas Neill talking up the Germans might not have been so clever, and Pim's moving players out of position and playing a brand new system was obviously not a coaching masterstroke...

... and those comments Pim made, disparaging his squad to the Dutch press after the German game, surely confirm that he didn't have enough faith in his players.

Edited by GazGoldCoast: 25/6/2010 04:43:59 AM

Nemeses? Honestly, does this diatribe even go through a spell checker at the very least before it's publicised?

"I take all responsibility, there are no excuses because when a team comes to a match as important as tonight's with terror in their legs, their heads and their hearts, and don't manage to express themselves, it means that the coach hasn't prepared them in the right way," an ashen-faced Lippi told a news conference without even being prompted by a question.

"I didn't think we could win the World Cup but I thought we would do better."

"I failed to train the team well enough, they weren't ready for such an important match. For an hour and 15 minutes, for psychological reasons I think, nothing worked," he said.