Diego Maradona's time as Argentina boss cannot exactly be called successful. Yet. The Guardian's Richard Williams has his take on the Argentine legend, as the country gears up for one of its most important games in recent memory - against Uruguay for the final automatic qualification spot for the World Cup.

''It was a travesty of football management, but one of the greatest pieces of sporting theatre imaginable,'' he begins. ''Maradona had done just about everything wrong. In fact he has been doing almost everything wrong since he was appointed head coach 11 months ago. The chances must be that he still has a few more wrong moves up his sleeve, perhaps tomorrow, when he sends his side out in Montevideo to get the result against Uruguay that will secure their place in South Africa.''

The boss famously said he wishes he was young enough to play. But Williams claims that is part of the problem:

''So fixated is Maradona on history that you almost expect him to call up Antonio Rattín or Alfredo Di Stéfano, or even to raid the cemetery of La Chacarita in his home town to exhume Angel Labruna and Adolfo Pedernera, members of the River Plate and Argentina forward line of the 1940s known as La Máquina - the machine.''

Meanwhile, the Independent's Chris McGrath says it's time for African stars to rid the globe of its ignorance.

''Perhaps the first World Cup on African soil will help us to see the continent through African eyes. To see, that is, African footballers finding the same pride and dignity in representing their respective homelands as Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres or Gianluigi Buffon. African teams will not be there to share a brief, pathetic kinship with privileged Europeans; nor as some gesture of defiance, against famine or dictatorship or corruption or witchcraft. They will be there to win football matches for the people back home in Accra or Abidjan.''