Copa America re-visited

[Abebe]

Greetings all,

I just re-watched the final, but just looking at Argentina. I am a Brazil fan. I know you have discussed the team and players ad nauseum.

You have really a very good team. Even in the final, watching the movement of the forwards and midfielders, you have a great nucleus of players. They looked dangerous and excellent.

What is woeful though is your backline and Veron. They all looked past their due date at this level and playing them was the big tactical mistake that your coach apparenty made.

I like Cambiasso; he does a lot well.

So, if you have four young, strong, class defenders, and replace Veron, I think this team is still probably the best in the world. The skill and movement in the offensive players is better than what I have seen from Brazil thus far. A young and vibrant defensive line will launch your offensive more effectively.

Nice group of players. This post is redundant I am sure, but I wanted to check out what happened to your team more closely; they were better than I thought.

[bsas]

Thanks for your appreciation. It's nice when we can see past the rivalry between our teams.

As you said, it has all been discussed a lot, but I maintain that our left 4 were not that bad. They surely didn't have a great day, but any back 4 would have had problems with fast counter-attacks by talented guys like Robinho and Baptista. We should have played more defensively against Brazil, by bringing down our midfield guys as well.

These 4 defenders have done an incredible work against some very good teams like France (in the recent friendly), so I think they are quality. But in this case, it was like the whole of our team was attacking, and just these 4 were left behind, vulnerable to some fast counter-attacks from guys who certainly know how to shoot on goal...

Regarding Veron, I was not one of his big fans for this tournament, as you can find out in my earlier posts, but I thought he worked his ass off in this final. So I don't think he was really a handicap. Of course, as soon as Maxi Rodriguez is fully in shape, he'll take up that spot.

[rios]

Veron was not suited to the position he played. Or you can say the position did not suit him. Especially in attack, besides not able to support Roman, his long lobs and long shots proved to be ineffective as well.
Also, as VIPnerd had pointed out, he wasn't reliable when he was on defensive duties.

I think the backline was ok defensively. What it lacked was support for attack. If defensively there was a weak link, I guess it would be Milito. In the 4-3-1-2 Basile played, our defense need to press to support midfield and provide lateral definition. Gabriel Milito's speed was insufficient for CB in such strategy.

I thought Heinze did ok, although he wasn't good at supporting offense and providing width on the left, which is desperately needed because Roman leans left.

Ayala looked sharper in the beginning of the tourney. This is why old people should not play in international tournaments. They recover slow. Zanetti for that matter, will be almost 37 in 2010, I think we should drop him soon as well.

Brazil did shut Roman down, but they did so by blocking Roman from the forwards so there wasn't direct route between them. In other words, the players really got contained were Messi and Tevez. Because if Roman was the target, then we should of seen more cooperation directly between Cambiasso, Veron and Messi, Tevez.
At the same time, the lack of sufficient offensive support from Cambiasso and Veron didn't help. We basically had 3 players playing DM roles for majority of that match, while 2 of them weren't natural defenders. When those 2 found some ways to go forward, they did create some threats. Veron gave Roman the ball for the shot that missed by a little, Cambiasso had a chance too.