Re: Argentines in Portugal The talented DiMaria, wants to leave the shit club Benfica. http://goal.com/en/news/91/portugal/2009/05/12/1261841/angel-di-maria-wants-benfica-exit-report
Re: Argentines in Portugal Farias loaned out to Cruzeiro from Porto http://www.mediotiempo.com/futbol/i...brasileno-kleber-y-envio-a-farias-al-cruzeiro
Re: Argentines in Portugal Aimar! He undressed the GK, it is pretty funny. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fi10TukFsU"]YouTube- Benfica 3 - 1 V Guimarães, Golo, Aimar, 16m, 1 - 0[/ame]
Re: Argentines in Portugal Goal.Com is crap. They say he has been not so good for Benfica? Haha, one of their more influential players. Ripped apart Everton. He will do good where ever he decides to play.
Re: Argentines in Portugal Aimar scored today in Benfica's win the UEFA Cup Belluschi scored for Porto yesterday!
Re: Argentines in Portugal Injury time in football. Mariano Gonazales out for the season. The last remainder of the Argentine power house (formerly Lisandro Lopez, Lucho, Mariano) will have to make due without the Argentine for the rest of the season. http://goal.com/en/news/91/portugal/2010/03/15/1833628/mariano-gonzalez-injury-blow-for-porto http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=197113
Re: Argentines in Portugal Portugal: Pablo Aimar (Benfica) Nicolas Gaitan(Benfica) Javier Saviola ( Benfica) Franco Jara (Benfica) Tomas Costa (Porto) Fernando Belluschi (Porto) Diego Valeri (Porto) Mariano Gonzalez (Porto) Ernesto Farías (Porto) Leandro Grimi (Sporting) Marco Torsiglieri (Sporting)
Re: Argentines in Portugal Hmm. Grimi from playing at Huracán on the second division in a very span of time reached AC Milan, no less, yet he played very few matches in Italy, how's he doing at Sporting?
Re: Argentines in Portugal Didn't he reached AC Milan after his performance in Racing? As far as I know, he played okay in Sporting but not a guranteed starter..
Re: Argentines in Portugal Great win for Benfica 4-1 over Aston Villa . Saviola with 2 goals but Jara was a standout with 3 assists. Looks like they have a nice understanding. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-3S2FD0xg"]YouTube- Benfica 4-1 Aston Villa - All goals and highlights[/ame]
Nicolas Otamendi joins Porto http://www.mediotiempo.com/futbol/i.../23/porto-ficho-al-argentino-nicolas-otamendi
Hey lads, here is an update on the Argies--quite a few, I might add--playing in Portugal: FC Porto: Fernando Belluschi: Was disappointing last year, as he failed to represent an adequate replacement for the departed Lucho 'El Commandiente' Gonzalez, but Fernando has been much better this term as a regular starter alongside Joao Moutinho. Fernando has good vision and movement, and a real ability to score goals from midfield which is an asset in our 4-3-3 system. I'm very pleased with his performances, as he seems to understand his role much clearer this season; last year he was constantly trying to play too high up the pitch, which led to spacing issues with the forwards. This season, though, he's lying deeper, allowing the runs of the attackers to develop, and making good decisions. Nicolas Otamendi: We signed him to play CB, yet we already have 2 solid defenders--Rolando, a Portuguese International, and Maicon, a talented Brazilian--ahead of him on the depth chart. Otamendi has received 3-4 chances to start, and has looked pretty good; he's not a typical Porto CB with tons of height and mobility, but seems to make up for it with good pace, anticipation, and positioning. I'm excited about his potential, but right now he is not a regular starter. Mariano Gonzalez: Hasn't played once this season, and rightfully so. I never understood why our previous manager, Jesualdo Ferreira, liked him so much...no pace, terrible first touch, and couldn't deliver an accurate cross for his life. He's a great guy, but his time at our club is thankfully coming to a close. SL Benfica; Javier Saviola: Enjoying a nice spell here in Portugal, as he is still trickier than ever with his movement and runs. He plays really well off of Benfica's second striker, Paraguayan International Oscar Cardozo, who is extremely tall, and is great at running behind Cardozo and winning second balls. Talented player, and Benfica is lucky to have him. Pablo Aimar: Not the player he was at Valencia, but still his class shines through every once and a while. Scored a spectacular goal on Friday--check OJOGO.pt for the highlight--and is manager Jorge Jesus' first choice at CAM. Aimar isn't as effective last year, though, since he doesn't have options on the wing like he did last year with Ramires and di Maria. Nico Gaitan: He's been a disappointment, no doubt about it. Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect him to directly replace the superb di Maria, but Gaitan has not provided the same spark on the left flank that Benfica had last year. Franco Jara: Hasn't gotten much of an opportunity to play, and rumours claim he might go out on loan in January. Eduardo Salvio: He's also been disappointing, and Atletico might terminate his loan deal because of the lack of playing time at Benfica. Sporting: Leandro Grimi: This guy is just a clown, lacks professionalism and doesn't provide anything in an attacking sense. He no longer starts at LB, and rightfully so. Marco Torsiglieri: No verdict yet, as he's only played once in the league.
Thanks for the update. I don't know why you would call Gaitan a disappointment. He basically did nothing at Boca, so I don't see why people thought he would succeed there. I think Portuguese teams need to spend more time developing their own players than buying average south american prospects just b/c they had 1 or 2 good games. Not everyone will turn out to be a di maria
Yeah, I don't know why Benfica was so high on him. Porto definitely has a massive scouting network in Argentina, though, and we've had alot of success bringing in top players. Guys like Lucho and Lisandro were absolutely tremendous for the club, bringing in domestic championships, good European performances and a big profit once we sold them off. Unfortunately guys like Diego Valeri and Sebastian Prediguer were really disappointing, but that's OK since we didn't pay alot for them. Sporting still has the best youth academy in the country and develops top players every year, but we've just decided that there is so much talent in areas like Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil that we can buy 5-7 players from South America every summer for reasonable prices, let them develop, and hope that at least 2-3 of them make it at the club. Then we sell those guys off for huge profit, and the ones that don't make it are just loaned out or sent back to South America, as we don't lose much.
sure, there are certainly exceptions. Di Maria was pretty bad when he first go to Benfica, but he had shown his talent with the Under 20 side. No one ever doubted he was a crack. Gaitan i don't see ever doing anything spectacular for a European, or for Boca, should he return. He's just not that good. He has flashes of brilliance, but for the most part, he leaves a lot to be desired. On the flip side, you have a guy like Falcao who was decent, but never great, in Argentina, but since he got to Porto he is one of the top scorers in all of Europe. Sometimes its a lottery for the European clubs, it is just frustrating to see for us Argentines to lose our players, but in some cases, we sell Gaitan and use the money to sign Riquelme to a 5 year deal... so it works out more for us
Yeah, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to see your top players leave every year for Europe. Since Porto actually isn't one of the wealthier top clubs in Europe, we've compensated by setting up one of the largest scouting networks in South America, so that we can sign top players for great bargains. Plus, we have a great advantage in that the culture in Portugal usually suits Latin players very well. Almost everyone on the team speaks some Spanish, and the climate is very warm, and life is generally pretty relaxed. So we're pretty lucky in that regard, and it's always so fun to see new South Americans come to the club every year since they possess so much talent.
If Gaitan has been taken to replace Di Maria, then there's already a problem even before starting. Gaitan's best performances were when he was playing as a support striker, Di Maria played more on the wings? But, yes he was inconsistent at Boca with some flashes of brilliance but overall left a rather meh impression. However, it seems to me that Benfica is lacking criterium when they buy. I mean why going for Jara (who's similar to Gaitan's profile) then Salvio (while he can play as an offensive midfielder, his best performances were also as a ss)?
Though it doesnt change the fact that most of kids appearing nowadays are much more immature, mentally speaking. Which is why you see much less 16-17y old starting and settling in the first team compared as before. Add to that, the current environment is not really the best for youth development... see what happened to Cañete for example.
Yeah, they signed him to directly replace di Maria on the left wing, where he hasn't looked comfortable or dangerous. They're already talking about buying a left back or left wing in the next transfer period. Definitely agree with you on this point.