08/08/2010: River vs Tigre
15/08/2010: Boca vs Racing
22/08/2010: River vs Independiente
26/08/2010: Independiente vs Argentinos
29/08/2010: Boca vs Velez
02/09/2010: Vélez vs Banfield
05/09/2010: Boca vs San Lorenzo
07/09/2010: Argentinos vs Independiente
08/09/2010: Estudiantes vs Liga de Quito
12/09/2010: River vs Arsenal
16/09/2010: Banfield vs Velez
16/09/2010: Estudiantes vs Newell’s
19/09/2010: Boca vs Colon
26/09/2010: River vs Quilmes
03/10/2010: Boca vs Lanus
10/10/2010: River vs Gimnasia LP
17/10/2010: Boca vs Huracan
24/10/2010: River vs Racing
31/10/2010: Boca vs Argentinos
07/11/2010: River vs Boca
07/11/2010: River vs Boca
14/11/2010: Boca vs Arsenal
21/11/2010: River vs Olimpo
28/11/2010: Boca vs Quilmes
05/12/2010: River vs Estudiantes
12/12/2010: Boca vs Gimnasia

Book your tickets in 2 easy steps here.

Most of last week I was blissfully distant from the election, 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires. It was my first visit and I was captivated by the place. The locals, known as porteños (port people), were surprisingly interested in Cameron v Clegg v Brown. But they were more interested in the consuming passions of porteño life: football, afternoon tea and neurotic introspection.

There are said to be more psychotherapists here than anywhere on earth. Even on a four-day visit, this seemed eminently plausible. There is a seductive melancholy in the air, and more bookshops than in any other city I know: shelves of Lacan, Paul Auster and Thomas Mann, yards and yards of guides to self-analysis. Many shops have a bar, and porteños settle down with a litre bottle of the local beer, Quilmes, served in an ice-bucket like champagne, while they flip the pages and ponder the futility of existence.

All this erudition makes your average citizen formidable company. At a party, the man next to me asked for a cigarette. Making conversation, I asked him what he did. “I’m an intellectual,” he said. I’m planning to try this line here, although I may have to gen up on a few key topics first.

Certainly, the hustlers of Buenos Aires know their market. At the traffic lights on one of the city’s vast, majestic boulevards, a boy approached my taxi, touting something. Was it chewing gum? Flowers? Cigarettes? No. “Solo 20 pesos, señor!” Wooden chess sets, in fetching shades of coffee and cream.

* Anglophilia was everywhere and a fascination with an ancient kind of Englishness. Emulating our glorious past reaches its zenith at the Alvear Palace, said to be the most luxurious hotel in the Americas. In three magazines, I had been baffled to come across articles devoted to the subject of scones, or “scons”, as the Argentinians call them. But settling down to afternoon tea in a conservatory full of society matrons – a marathon session of doilies, silver strainers and three-tier cake-stands choreographed by waiters in starched white jackets – the demand for up-to-date information on small Scottish cakes became much clearer.

* But it wasn’t all Darjeeling and fondant fancies. In Buenos Aires, World Cup mania is already at boiling point, and the more the high-tea tendency advised me against going to a game the more determined I was to do it. With the help of a fearless Spanish-speaking friend, I fetched up outside the ground of Independiente for their grudge match against Boca Juniors, the team that produced Diego Maradona. In fact, all Argentinian matches seem to be grudge matches, which only adds to the danger and excitement.

It took two hours of frankly terrifying negotiations and a 200-peso backhander to get us through the turnstiles. Moody policemen sported pump-action shotguns, machine- guns, handguns; the touts weren’t far behind. Inside, each set of fanaticos massed around a core of 50 drummers and trumpet players, tens of thousands of bodies jumping up and down in unison. As the players emerged through an inflatable rubber tunnel, the downdraft from the police helicopters cleared the yellow mist of smoke bombs from the pitch and the noise induced a kind of delirium.

The match itself combined delicacy, feints and poise with a series of blood-curdling tackles that bordered on physical assault. There were five goals, a penalty miss, a dog on the pitch and a straight red card for a Boca player who hurled his shirt at the Independiente fans. The only way to get him off the pitch alive was to reinflate the tunnel. He finally had to struggle down it holding the thing above his head, flanked by eight girls in red bikinis promoting a local yoghurt drink. It’s a sight I won’t forget for a long time – the beautiful game, indeed.
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SOURCE:
“Argentina: melancholic, but mad for a scone and footie at its fiercest”
10 May 2010
Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/7707082/Argentina-melancholic-but-mad-for-a-scone-and-footie-at-its-fiercest.html

The Argentine Tennis Federation has announced that tickets for the 2008 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Final between Argentina and Spain, held 21-23 November at the Estadio Polideportivo in Mar Del Plata, will go on sale on Monday 10 November.

The best-of-five match series begins Friday 19 November with two singles matches pitting each country’s world No. 1 against the other country’s No. 2 player. Saturday’s schedule features the doubles match, and on the final day of play on Sunday, the two ‘reverse singles’ will take place where the No. 1 players face each other followed by the match between the No. 2 players.

Argentina is bidding to become the first South American nation to be crowned Davis Cup champion and this is the first time that two-time runner-up will host the final. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal is expected to lead Spain’s challenge for a third Davis Cup title.The visitors lifted the prestigious trophy in 2000 and 2004.

Official team nominations will be announced on Tuesday 11 November.

Preview:
This is the third meeting between the two nations and Spain has won both previous matches, played on outdoor clay in Spain. Spain defeated Argentina 3-1 in a 1926 zonal quarterfinal and more recently Carlos Moya clinched the decisive fifth rubber for a 3-2 victory in the 2003 quarterfinal after Argentina had fought back from 0-2 down.
Estadio Islas Malvinas, Mar del Plata
Stadium Capacity: 11,132
21 November – 23 November 2008
Day 1: 13.00 hours local (15.00 hours GMT)
Day 2: 14.00 hours local (16.00 hours GMT)
Day 3: 12.00 hours local (14.00 hours GMT)
Surface: Hard (Acrylic) – Indoors
Ball Type: Head ATP Hard Court The ticket hotline number is +54 115 237 7200.

Ticket prices
(all 3-day tickets) Please note that the US$ equivalent price is subject to the prevailing exchange rate at the time:
Side court upper tier – ARS 990 (US$300)
Side court middle tier – ARS 2150 (US$652)
Side court lower tier – ARS 4100 (US$1243)
End court upper tier – ARS 2960 (US$897)
End court lower tier – ARS 4100 (US$1243)
Corner upper tier – ARS 2500 (US$758)
Corner lower tier – ARS 4100 (US$1243)
Boxes:
Side court middle section box (cost per seat) – ARS 4500 (US$1364)
End court box (cost per seat) – ARS 4500 (US$1364)

Preview
This is the third meeting between the two nations and Spain has won both previous matches, played on outdoor clay in Spain. Spain defeated Argentina 3-1 in a 1926 zonal quarterfinal and more recently Carlos Moya clinched the decisive fifth rubber for a 3-2 victory in the 2003 quarterfinal after Argentina had fought back from 0-2 down.
______________________________________
SOURCE:
Davis Cup Official Website
http://www.daviscup.com