Dan Colasimone (@ArgentinaFW on Twitter) is an Australian journalist who lives in Buenos Aires. Dan has an informative website called Argentina Football World which covers Argentinean football for English-speaking enthusiasts. The Guardian of London named Dan's site in their top 100 football blogs last year. He also hosts Hand of Pod, which is a weekly series that features a team of Buenos Aires-based journalists. Dan will be covering the Copa América tournament from various venues and I asked him to provide us with his insights in a few areas:

SA: "Ganar, gustar y golear" is an Argentinean expression that carries more than a literal meaning. Could you please translate and describe that particular mindset from the Argentinean footballing perspective?

DC: Argentines in general are a hard bunch to please. Despite living in a beautiful country with a great deal going for it, they can almost always be found complaining about something. When it comes to football, they are especially pernickety. For many fans, it is not enough for their team to simply win. It also must play nice football and score lots of goals too. To win, to delight and to score. To condense it even more, it is the concept of La Nuestra. Our way.

This philosophy harks back to River Plate’s wonderful La Máquina team of the early 1940’s and even further to the great Huracán teams of the amateur era. The focus is on skill and fluid passing movements – attacking, attractive football. Menotti won Argentina’s first World Cup in 1978 playing with a similar ethos. When Argentina won it a second time in 1986, despite Maradona’s individual brilliance, the coach Bilardo was very much a pragmatist who focused on results rather than style.

Ever since, debate has raged among fans and in the media about whether Argentinian teams should stay true to the footballing traditions of flair and trickery, or practice a more direct, results-driven style of football. “Ganar, gusta y golear” is, in a way, the belief that results and finesse are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Current coach Sergio Batista, when he was first appointed, made it clear he wants his team to continue the tradition of La Nuestra. He has identified modern football’s incarnation of this idea, the Barcelona of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta, and is attempting to recreate La Selección in its image. Whether his is on the right track or not, we will find out during the Copa America.


SA: Given the early departure by Argentina at the 2010 World Cup, how much pressure is on the host nation to win this tournament?

DC: The last time Argentina won a senior international tournament was at the Copa América in 1993. A period of 18 years is an extremely long time to remain trophy-less for a nation which regards itself as one of the powers of world football. For that reason, and due to the fact that the tournament is being played at home, pressure on La Selección will be high. Looking long term, it probably would have been wiser to use this competition as an early form of preparation for the 2014 World Cup by testing out young players and different formations. However, I think the priority will be to win the Copa América in front of the home fans. Anything else will be considered a disappointment.

SA: For soccer fans used to European and World Cup tournaments and perhaps new to a South American competition, how will Copa América be different in styles of play and stadium atmosphere?

DC: The Copa América still has an air of volatility about it that other major tournaments are lacking in the modern era. It may be cliché, but when Latin American teams play each other, you sometimes get the impression that any sense of calm professionalism gets left somewhere outside the stadium. Games are often played with the heart and not the head, and this makes for cracking entertainment. These teams play each other so often and this tournament has such a long history that every match is a grudge match. Every match is a derby. That, and the natural attacking tendencies of most teams mean that in the heat of battle, tactical discipline can fall by the wayside. That can often result in lots of goals, lots of red cards, unpredictability and sumptuously enjoyable matches for us spectators. In terms of stadium atmosphere, at international level, one would expect that much of the nastiness that sometimes pervades club football here will not be so prominent, so all the positive aspects; the color, the singing, the passion, will all come to the fore.

SA: Five of the eight venues at Copa América are at various levels of altitude. Uruguay was the only South American side to reach the semi-finals last summer in South Africa. In your opinion, how much of a factor will altitude, along with the winter climate, have at this tournament?

DC: Many of the competing countries will be used to be playing at altitude, I would expect, so I don’t think it will have a huge impact in terms of results. However, many South American players are not afraid to shoot at goal from seemingly ridiculous distances, so don’t be surprised if we see a few of those Exocet missiles, aided by the thinner air at altitude, hitting the target.

SA: You watch and cover many of the Copa Libertadores matches (a continental competition similar to the UEFA Champions League) in South America. Who are some of the lesser-known-names to viewers outside of the Americas who might raise their international profiles during Copa América?

DC: The teams who are expected to go far in the Copa América are likely to be dominated by European-based players, but there could be a few guys who make an impression coming out of the continental leagues. Look out for the veteran defender Dario Verón for Paraguay, who plays for Pumas in Mexico. They also have Rodolfo Gamarra, a 22-year old forward who has done well for Libertad in the Paraguayan League. Enzo Pérez has been brilliant for Estudiantes for a couple of seasons and may shine for Argentina if he gets some game time.

Colombia has a couple of strikers, Dayro Moreno and Teo Gutierrez, who will be itching to prove their worth. The locally-based players who are likely to have the biggest influence on the tournament, though are Brazil’s Ganso, if he can recover from injury, and the phenomenal Neymar, whom most people have no doubt heard of already.

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Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, book reviewer and translator from Washington, D.C. He is the publisher of World Football Commentaries and The Soccer Translator. You can follow Steve @worldfootballcm on Twitter.

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