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Morning Ticker: Maradona out as coach, Mexican clubs seize advantage and more

Maradona

By TRAVIS CLARK

For Diego Maradona, the message was clear: change or get out. The stubborn and enigmatic manager elected for the latter, ending his run as coach of Argentina.

The Argentinian FA had made Maradona a new offer for a four-year contract that would have seen him lead Argentina at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but several stipulations went along with the offer. They included a makeover of Maradona's coaching staff, particularly the removal of close friend Alejandro Mancuso. Maradona refused, and has since been replaced by youth coach Sergio Batista on an interim basis.

Batista will coach Argentina in its upcoming friendlies against Ireland on August 11, and against Spain on September 7.

Here are a few other stories for Wednesday morning:

Santos, Cruz Azul win first legs of CCL qualifying

While MLS struggles in Champions League play continues, Mexican success hasn't let up. Cruz Azul, runners up in last season's competition, took a step towards return to a Group Stage action with a 3-2 win in Panama over San Francisco. Emmanuel Villa scored a hat trick after Cruz Azul went down 2-1, giving the visitors the advantage.

Santos, another Mexican team playing on the road, nicked a late goal to win 1-0 over San Juan Jabloteh. Rodrigo Ruiz scored in the game's 83rd minute to hand Santos a lead heading back to Mexico for the second leg.

Universidad de Chile grab away draw in Libertadores

The Copa Libertadores is winding down, and Universidad de Chile took a big step towards qualifying for the final with a 1-1 draw on the road against Chivas de Guadalajara Tuesday evening Universidad took the lead early in the second off thanks to a tally from Rafael Olarra, but it was canceled out only minutes later by Chivas' Omar Arellano. Nevertheless, Universidad de Chile holds the advantage heading into the second leg that will be held on August 3.

Raul inks deal with Schalke

Spanish and Real Madrid legend Raul officially completed a move to Schalke, ending a 16-year stint in Madrid. Raul, who scored 323 goals as a member of one of Spain's most storied clubs, agreed to a two-year contract with the Bundesliga side. When the season starts in 2010, it'll mark the first time in his professional career that he'll play for another club side.

He's also the current all-time leading scorer in Spanish history, with 44 international goals, but has been retired since 2006.

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What do you think of Maradona's departure? Will Santos and Cruz Azul make the group stages? Can Guadalajara come back on the road? Will Raul succeed at Schalke?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. At first I thought I read BATISTUTA – as in Gabriel Batistuta. According to Wikipedia (I know, lol), he has interest in coaching Argentina. Thoughts?

    Reply
  2. What are you talking about? On the ESPN frontpage there is a heading for “Soccer: US / Global” and the US options takes you to Soccernet US with MLS stories, etc.

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  3. As we’ve seen before, star players don’t always make star coaches. Maradona is/was one of the greatest to ever lace up a boot, so you can’t take that away from him. On the sideline however he does not have the ability to transfer his skill of the game into strategy.

    Reply
  4. In other news, Ives, have you noticed that ESPN Soccernet has killed its MLS site? In fact, if you go to the website, you’d think that there is no league in the US.
    Any thoughts? Shouldn’t this be a bigger deal?

    Reply
  5. I hear that the Swiss league is really underrated and Adu, given that he appeared in a commerical with Pele at age 14, should be given a chance to start right away, as long as the coahc doesn’t hate him, and I’m sure that he will play well and will be linked with the very top clubs in the Danish or Austrian League and be called up to the USMNT and be a key for us come 2014, I mean he’s ONLY 22. yay!

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  6. “Argentina should seriously consider hiring a Brazilian coach. 24 years without coming close to winning a World Cup should be considered unaccepable by their standards.”

    Really? That would be like Lebron James joining D Wade , Oh wait minute, I meant Kobe becoming a Celtic. Hell will freeze over first.

    On the bright side Gulati can hire Maradona now.

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  7. Galaxy had all the possession in the world, but they just couldn’t get it it the net. The Landon/Lewis show was a boring repeat after a while, and everyone elses’ off the ball movement was nonexistant. LA’s marking could definitely improve too. Bad marking seems to be a theme for them lately, and now that their offense doesn’t supply enough goals to keep the opposition honest, well, you get last night.

    Oh, and go Quakes!!!

    Reply
  8. Im sure Raul would never wanna play against RM and I doubt he’d play in Italy and France is seen as slightly lower to those playing in Spain, England so it was always England or Germany.

    Schalke is 1 of the best clubs in Germany andthey have Kevin Kuranyi. Should make for an interesting partnership.I wonder what his wages will be.

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  9. As a galaxy supporter, I am absoulutely gutted by the loss last night. We expected to handle puerto rico with ease but instead were emberassed by a usl team. before the match bruce was saying that this was a priority but maybe he didnt communicate it to the players because the looked uninterested, uninspired and unprofessional. No leadership from our vets especially landon. Blah.

    Reply
  10. In other news, Freddy Adu (remember him?) has been linked with a loan move to FC Sion of Switzerland. This would be his fourth loan since he joined Benfica.

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  11. — Cause’ your friends don’t dance,

    and if they don’t dance, well they’re

    no friends of mine.

    I agree with Andy… Great job playa, dman and smirking. Thanks for the chuckle.

    BSU SC, you may want to check out the lyrics to the Men Without Hats song “Safety Dance.” The rest of us have clearly dated ourselves.

    Reply
  12. As an MLS supporter (NE Revs) and US Soccer fan, I must admit that I am quite disappointed in the LA Galaxy. How can you send out a mostly 1st team and lose 4-1 to a mediocre USL club? Inexcusable.
    The MLS all stars will probably beat Man U. tonight and everyone will feel good, but this loss and likely elimination from the CCL by one of the top teams in MLS is a huge letdown. MLS needs it’s top teams to represent themselves well in games that matter. When they do, the negativity around the league and its quality will lessen. Until then, the “Eurosnobs” will continue to have their say… Frustrating…

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  13. ummm were they not in the final in 1990 and lost on a penalty in the last few minutes?

    But I do agree with you…

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  14. I have no idea what the comments above are about so I’ll leave that conversation alone.

    I really would have liked to see Raul finish his career in MLS. He still has enough in the tank to have been a super star here. I’m not sure what attracted him to Germany (Schalke in particular) since he has already accomplished everything he possibly could do in Europe.

    Argentina should seriously consider hiring a Brazilian coach. 24 years without coming close to winning a World Cup should be considered unaccepable by their standards.

    I’m keeping my money on Chivas to win the Libertadores.

    Reply

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