goldeargentina
01 Jul 2006, 02:06 PM
Mine - Argentina.
Let me begin by saying that as someone who has grown up watching the Argentinian squad since I was a baby, I am no different than the rest of so many others who are in a state of mourning today over yesterday's loss. My disappointment stems from so many reasons and I want to list a few now.
The potential -
This squad was, by almost anyone's standards, loaded with talent. Looking especially at the attack and midfield there are few teams who had as many options as this one with a mix of both young and experienced players to choose from on any given day. It all seemed to be coming together. If you wanted quickness and flair with some balls you had Tevez or Saviola. If you wanted a quintessential striker type with speed and a killer touch there was Crespo. If you wanted a player with pure class who you could set any attack on any team up with there was Riquelme. If you wanted the prodigy to come in and run the attack through while being wowed with individual skills there was wonder-kid Lionel Messi. I could go on, but I wont on this topic. The point is that the options were virtually limitless and it was a matter of putting it all together, something this team seemed to be doing. This is amplified by the poor showings in the last two cups with teams full of riches obviously lacking the stuff in the middle that changes a bunch of solid bricks into a house of gold. Everything looked different this time around and there was actually credible evidence to actually believe in the potential for greatness.
The lead up -
This team was playing a quality of football seen by both casual fans and extreme fanatics as pure class. There were games that weren't necessarily pretty but they had to win - Ivory Coast - and even these games had flashes of brilliance (Riquelmes thread to Saviola and into the back of the net). There was domination - a 6-0 slaughter of a team with a stout defense in Serbia and Montenegro. Most of all though, there were guts. You could not watch that game against Mexico and not walk away with respect for the effort put forth and you could not walk away after that final clash with Germany without realizing that you had watched a team that played with every ounce of blood and bone it had. I have never watched a world cup in which the Argentinian squad garnered such respect from traditionally spiteful fans of opposing countries such as England and yet this cup was different. One could hardly argue that the lead up to this squad's finish made the early exit somehow expected.
The final bow -
The match against Germany was a clash of the titans. This deep squad from Argentina with quick passes and an attack built through the midfield out and this German squad of bulldozers with players unquestionably at peak physical fitness and height playing with the winds of hometown expectation at their backs. There was appropriate hype before this one and in my mind it was all met. Yesterday had every element of an epic. There was skill with two goals in regular play of the highest quality. There was luck, both good and bad depending on perspective, including an Argentinian keeper, who had gone from unfairly maligned to revered within the span of a cup, having to be substituted off due to an injury that happens when two teams are fighting with everything they have to win. Lastly, there was controversy and perhaps this is the part that leaves me the most upset.
Tactics can be debated until the end of the time, but in my book, the best evidence is winning; the worst evidence, losing. The Argentinian team led 1-0 at minute 49. The idea that Argentina could hold off Germany from scoring for 41 more minutes could not have seemed more unrealistic to me, another was clearly needed. Argentina pressed and tried to score for about 20 more minutes and then the demise began. First there was the substitution of the keeper, hardly a good sign with a German squad fighting for its life - however bad luck is bad luck and this could not have been changed. Then the questionable moves began. Taking out the captain of the attack - Riquelme -in a game of this magnitude when only leading by 1 goal is not without reasonable questioning, but bringing in Cambiasso instead of playmakers such as Messi or Aimar, to me, is a grave mistake. Cambiasso is a good player with positive showings in qualifying and in the cup, but you cannot run an offense through him. Then, 6 minutes later, the striker of the squad, the one man you can count on to put the ball in, Crespo is taken out for someone who many think should not have been on the team to begin with - Cruz. At this point the attack was dead. There was no organization to the charge with lobs to the struggling Tevez the only hope - fighting for his life, for his team's life. Two minutes later with a header by Klose, I knew it was over. The only hope was to go to penalty kicks and for what? To kick without players that normally score your goals. To defend with a keeper who had just played his first brief minutes in the cup. To beat a team with a whole home country at its back. Impossible.
If there is a lesson to take from this tragedy it is this one - a winner, a champion, plays to win the game, not to not lose the game. Argentina was stricken by a bit of bad luck, poor tactical decisions, and a decision by a manager to try to last instead of to try to strike a defining goal in for assurance's sake. There will be another world cup in 4 years and several young players from this Argentinian team will be back. They have built a solid foundation upon which much more can tower, but for this cup there are now only questions surrounding hypotheticals that will change nothing. Someday I hope to be on the other end.
signing off from this one - goldeargentina
Let me begin by saying that as someone who has grown up watching the Argentinian squad since I was a baby, I am no different than the rest of so many others who are in a state of mourning today over yesterday's loss. My disappointment stems from so many reasons and I want to list a few now.
The potential -
This squad was, by almost anyone's standards, loaded with talent. Looking especially at the attack and midfield there are few teams who had as many options as this one with a mix of both young and experienced players to choose from on any given day. It all seemed to be coming together. If you wanted quickness and flair with some balls you had Tevez or Saviola. If you wanted a quintessential striker type with speed and a killer touch there was Crespo. If you wanted a player with pure class who you could set any attack on any team up with there was Riquelme. If you wanted the prodigy to come in and run the attack through while being wowed with individual skills there was wonder-kid Lionel Messi. I could go on, but I wont on this topic. The point is that the options were virtually limitless and it was a matter of putting it all together, something this team seemed to be doing. This is amplified by the poor showings in the last two cups with teams full of riches obviously lacking the stuff in the middle that changes a bunch of solid bricks into a house of gold. Everything looked different this time around and there was actually credible evidence to actually believe in the potential for greatness.
The lead up -
This team was playing a quality of football seen by both casual fans and extreme fanatics as pure class. There were games that weren't necessarily pretty but they had to win - Ivory Coast - and even these games had flashes of brilliance (Riquelmes thread to Saviola and into the back of the net). There was domination - a 6-0 slaughter of a team with a stout defense in Serbia and Montenegro. Most of all though, there were guts. You could not watch that game against Mexico and not walk away with respect for the effort put forth and you could not walk away after that final clash with Germany without realizing that you had watched a team that played with every ounce of blood and bone it had. I have never watched a world cup in which the Argentinian squad garnered such respect from traditionally spiteful fans of opposing countries such as England and yet this cup was different. One could hardly argue that the lead up to this squad's finish made the early exit somehow expected.
The final bow -
The match against Germany was a clash of the titans. This deep squad from Argentina with quick passes and an attack built through the midfield out and this German squad of bulldozers with players unquestionably at peak physical fitness and height playing with the winds of hometown expectation at their backs. There was appropriate hype before this one and in my mind it was all met. Yesterday had every element of an epic. There was skill with two goals in regular play of the highest quality. There was luck, both good and bad depending on perspective, including an Argentinian keeper, who had gone from unfairly maligned to revered within the span of a cup, having to be substituted off due to an injury that happens when two teams are fighting with everything they have to win. Lastly, there was controversy and perhaps this is the part that leaves me the most upset.
Tactics can be debated until the end of the time, but in my book, the best evidence is winning; the worst evidence, losing. The Argentinian team led 1-0 at minute 49. The idea that Argentina could hold off Germany from scoring for 41 more minutes could not have seemed more unrealistic to me, another was clearly needed. Argentina pressed and tried to score for about 20 more minutes and then the demise began. First there was the substitution of the keeper, hardly a good sign with a German squad fighting for its life - however bad luck is bad luck and this could not have been changed. Then the questionable moves began. Taking out the captain of the attack - Riquelme -in a game of this magnitude when only leading by 1 goal is not without reasonable questioning, but bringing in Cambiasso instead of playmakers such as Messi or Aimar, to me, is a grave mistake. Cambiasso is a good player with positive showings in qualifying and in the cup, but you cannot run an offense through him. Then, 6 minutes later, the striker of the squad, the one man you can count on to put the ball in, Crespo is taken out for someone who many think should not have been on the team to begin with - Cruz. At this point the attack was dead. There was no organization to the charge with lobs to the struggling Tevez the only hope - fighting for his life, for his team's life. Two minutes later with a header by Klose, I knew it was over. The only hope was to go to penalty kicks and for what? To kick without players that normally score your goals. To defend with a keeper who had just played his first brief minutes in the cup. To beat a team with a whole home country at its back. Impossible.
If there is a lesson to take from this tragedy it is this one - a winner, a champion, plays to win the game, not to not lose the game. Argentina was stricken by a bit of bad luck, poor tactical decisions, and a decision by a manager to try to last instead of to try to strike a defining goal in for assurance's sake. There will be another world cup in 4 years and several young players from this Argentinian team will be back. They have built a solid foundation upon which much more can tower, but for this cup there are now only questions surrounding hypotheticals that will change nothing. Someday I hope to be on the other end.
signing off from this one - goldeargentina