Maradona atones at the last

As most of you know, Diego Maradona was dismissed as Argentina coach yesterday. But in his final act as manager he atoned of his worst sin as manager: the exclusion of Pablo Zabaleta.

On August 11 Argentina play the Republic of Ireland in a friendly at the new Lansdowne Road (known as the 'Aviva Stadium'.) And while Maradona will not be in charge for that game he has picked the squad for it. The list contains 17 of the World Cup 2010 squad (including Carlos Tévez, of course), and another six: including Emiliano Insúa, former City target Fernando Gago and our very own Zabaleta.

I'd rather Zabaleta had been a regular feature of Maradona's Argentina, of course. But there is something dignified in el Diego realising the error of his ways just before his demise, and atoning for it with his final act. A bit like Ed Harris in The Rock.

Fortunately for Zabaleta the new interim coach is Sergio Batista, who coached him to Gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Tévez off to winning start

The first current Manchester City player involved in the World Cup was Carlos Tévez, who played in Argentina's 1-0 win over Nigeria. He started in a fluid front three along with Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuaín, tasked with working the defenders to free up space for his compañeros .

He did this fairly well, as Argentina started brightly and created chances, going 1-0 up through Gabriel Heinze. But as the game went on Argentina seemed to lose some of their coherence, and the chances they did create owed more to Messi's individual brilliance than any cohesive team play. As Veron tired Tévez started to drop deep and centrally, as he does for City, to create chances. He put one perfect ball through to Higuaín in the channel inside the left back, but the shot was saved. And later on he carried the ball in a four on two break but put Messi in when Ángel di María might have been a better option.

But it was a decent game from Carlos and a fine attacking performance from Argentina. They face a fiercer test from South Korea on Johannesburg on Thursday lunch time.

MCFC Academy Graduate Dickson Etuhu played in midfield for Nigeria, and couldn't lay a finger on Messi.

Tévez books ticket

Carlos Tévez came on for the last five minutes of Argentina's 1-0 win in Montevideo last night, which secured them fourth place in the CONMEBOL 2010 World Cup qualification standings.

Even under Maradona's management, Tévez can be pretty confident of making the final 23. Pablo Zabaleta, on the other hand, has got quite a bit to do.

Pablo flying home

His hamstring injury meant that he couldn't make either of Argentina's crucial qualifiers this week, so he's coming back to Manchester this evening:

"Pablo is coming back this evening," said Hughes, "he's been with the Argentinian FA who have checked him out, as after the game last Monday he said that he had felt something with the last kick of the game. He'd felt a slight strain in the hamstring, but he needed to travel to Argentina to get it verified.

"It's a disappointment for him. Argentina have two crucial games and he wanted to be part of that, but it wasn't to be. He's played very well of late and that was flagged to the powers that be in Argentina. It would have been great for him to get the recognition for his good form, but it is unfortunate that he's going to miss out.

"He'll be back today and once we get him scanned hopefully it will not be as bad as feared at the moment, but as it stands you have to say that there is a real doubt that he would be available for our game at the weekend."

Pablo at centre of AFA row

Last week I blogged about how the AFA were keen for Carlos Tévez and Pablo Zabaleta to sit out of the game at Villa Park on Monday night, to ensure their fitness for Argentina's two crunch qualifiers against Peru and Uruguay.

Just when it looked as if the two had come through safely, Zabaleta picked up a hamstring injury in the last minute. He is likely to miss both matches, telling the Ole newspaper:

'It is not a major injury, but I am not likely to be able to play. Sometimes, it is down to luck. I usually don't have these problems, but it is frustrating for me. There is nothing I can do.'

He still has to fly out to Argentina, but the chances are that he will fly straight back and begin rehabilitation for our trip to Wigan Athletic in ten days' time. Naturally, this has gone down badly in Argentina. National coach Diego Maradona was very keen that Tévez and Zabaleta sat out on Monday night - both were due to start - and he demanded that Albiceleste General Manager Carlos Bilardo make it happen. Bilardo failed to convince Hughes, and now Maradona is without his new right back of choice. Maradona is so angry he is threatening to quit.

It's a sad story, really. Like all football fans I am rooting for Argentina to make it to the World Cup, and like all City fans I am rooting for Zabaleta to play a big part in the side. This was his first call up for a year and now he's going to have to wait longer.