Word: batistuta
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Forgive him for appearing distracted. Bielsa, 46, was searching for the answer to a conundrum that would make even a brave man bury his head in the sand. In the next five days, he would have to leave one of two outstanding strikers?Gabriel Batistuta or Hernan Crespo?on the bench. The pair would make any rational list of the five best goal scorers in the world, and either man would find a place on any other World Cup team. But Bielsa's game strategy won't accommodate a pair of out-and-out strikers. There can be only...
...Highlander movie, the two men would fight to the death?but dueling wasn't among Bielsa's options. Finally on Saturday, he announced his decision at J-Village, Argentina's sylvan training base in the lush countryside of Fukushima prefecture: Batistuta would start Sunday's campaign-opener against Nigeria. It was a choice he could only have made with a heavy heart, and the knowledge that he had outraged half of his 37 million countrymen...
...make a judgment call as tough as the one that confronted Bielsa. The question has consumed Argentina for months on end, splitting the soccer-mad nation down the middle. "It's not possible to have a conversation about football and not get into a raging argument about Batistuta versus Crespo," said Guillermo Resnik, 26, an accountant from Buenos Aires who backpacked his way across Asia before arriving in Japan in time for the World Cup. "Half the people, the sentimentals, want Batistuta. The rest of us know Crespo is the right choice...
...their part, both players have discreetly avoided mentioning the topic; by all accounts, they enjoy a cordial relationship in the locker room, despite the efforts of Argentina's media to goad them into a bloodier rivalry. Bielsa, understandably, is fed up with fielding Batistuta-or-Crespo questions at every press conference. In the run-up to the Cup, he agreed to address the issue only once at any length. Even then, after outlining their relative strengths, the coach concluded, "It's a difficult choice." Thanks for the insight, Marcelo...
...Batistuta, dubbed "Batigol" by his fans, is the most successful striker of his generation, having achieved mythic status at Italian club Fiorentina in the 1990s before moving to AS Roma two seasons ago. In the modern game, a deadly forward is one who scores once every three games. Batistuta's average for Argentina is better than two in three. With his shoulder-length blond hair and soulful eyes, he looks a likely lead in Jesus Christ Superstar, but he has the instincts of a cold-blooded killer. Bielsa notes that Batistuta is "more comfortable in the last third...