In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, I felt that Argentina had a fantastic team, were extremely good to watch and probably should have won the tournament on these facts, but ultimately, they lost to Germany on penalties in the Quarter Finals. This time around in South Africa, can they be considered as World Cup contenders? Sports retailers were certainly delighted that Argentina only scraped through the South American qualifying section, as they are likely to be one of the best selling World Cup Jerseys and will among the best selling kits next year.

However, I did say scraped through... when Diego Maradona took over as manager of the national side, I didn't really know what to think. On one hand, you have one of the best ever players to grace a football field, an Argentinian and football icon, but on the other hand, you have an ex-drug addict who has been hospitalised many times and is not exactly renound for being very composed. Those playing in an Argentina World Cup jersey in the group stage during the group stage must have thought they were out of the tournament with a couple of games to go. Maradona used over 70 players in the eighteen group games, obviously meaning that he is unsure of his best squad and that the team didn't get a chance to gel at all.

Argentina have a vast quantity of individual talent, including Gabriel Heinze, Esteban Cambiasso, Pablo Aimar, Javier Mascherano, Maxi Rodriguez, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and Lionel Messi. Those players alone should tell you that they have the players to make a challenge for the 2010 World Cup, but will this individual talent alone make that happen? It certainly didn't appear to be the case during qualification, so will there be much difference when it comes to June. Maradona not only used a ridiculous amount of players in those games, but his substitutions weren't logical either. There was one game where they desperately needed a goal, yet he kept Tevez and Aguero on the bench for the entire game.

My opinion is that Argentina's only chance of winning the World Cup is if Maradona is replaced as manager. This is extremely unlikely to happen, so I do not believe they will mount a challenge.

Written by Stephen Whiteford, a sports writer who blogs about the 2010 World Cup.

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