FIFA World Cup 2018: Argentina vs. Croatia - June 21 [R]

Yeah its not bad but not what I’d prefer. I thought the 4-2-3-1 was fine and just needed some adjustments to make it work. No need to revert to another system to make things work.

 

Wow, if thats true, He must have read this board or somethin...

 

Im not sure how Im gonna watch thursday's game. In World cup time, I watch all the games i possibly can and enjoy them a lot, love watching the games. From this WC the game I enjoyed the most was Portugal-Spain, what a thrill! But Argentina games...in world cup...i suffer a lot. I can barely watch. When there is a lot at stake, mostly, i suffer a lot. Ill probably get a heart attack on thursday. Damn.

 

I totally understand. I haven't felt this nervousness since the WC Qualifiers against Peru in 2017. Like it will against Croatia, we needed to get a positive result vs Peru to ease our mind for the last game. Man that total panic leading up to the Ecuador game was horrifying and I really do hope we don't experience that emotion again vs Nigeria.

 

Is there a device to skip this next 48 hours? I barely able to wait...

I'm trying to picture the worst scenario.... if Iceland win and we draw, that means they gonna leapfrog us to 2nd place with 4 points , same as Croatia. Assuming Croatia and Iceland draw each other in last game, they both will have 5 points.

If we beat Nigeria in last game that also means we would have 5 points but we will have to score a bigger win than Iceland victory over Nigeria to finish 2nd place and we still able to finish 1st if we score a bigger win than Croatia victory over Nigeria (2-0).

If Croatia and Iceland beat each other, than one of them is going to be eliminated as long we beat Nigeria.

So while a draw here isnt an elimination, it will surely put an bigger huge preasure going to the last group game.

 

I think that whatever result we get vs croatia, we got to pray that nigeria beats iceland. at least with that result, we can still control our own destiny.

 

Isn't that three man backline way too short to deal with Croatia? Mandzukic is just going to get free headers. Don't think there was anything wrong with that 4-2-3-1 formation, but rather it was the personnel that was problematic. That 3-3-3-1 looks like a nightmare waiting to happen in defence. But at the same time Samp is the coach for a reason, hope he understands it at least......

 

This. Thursday can’t come soon enough for me either. I go to sleep thinking about this, and wake up thinking about it.

I know it shouldn’t be this way, but I am not able to help it.

I have got some extended family members as well who are hoping that Argentina and Messi fail just so that I become miserable.

They have no interest in anything but to see me miserable, it seems.

Obviously, along with being an Argentina fan, I am a Messi fan as well, so I pray that he does well as well.

Have heard and read so much mocking of us and Messi these past few days...has not been pleasant.

 

Perez is also great defensively, he certainly alot more active than Biglia, which would be the key difference in big tournament. Mexico beat Germany even though they couldnt finish their chances to save their life. However, their player are actively chasing and running during the entire match. We sacrifce two points in first game by playing with 10 players.

 

I have many relatives but most of them aint into football. However, my dad and younger brother are both Argentina supporters, even though my brother isnt a big fan of football in general.

Most of my friends though, they're not Argentina fans. They mostly support Germany, England, Brazil and Spain (only since Barca golden generation). A few support Portugal merely because of CR. I believe Singapore has the biggest fanbase of Argentina in Asia. Everytime I went there, I would see people wearing Argentina jerseys in random places.

I havent seen them many buzz on social media in recent days , thanks to those unexpected results.

 

A 3 shifts into a 5 when they're under attack. That is why you need high energy guy likes Toto and Acuña who can run across the lines, plus, Sampa can shift back to a 4 man backline, if he takes off Toto and brings on somebody like Fazio and Mercado and Nico shift back into their FB positions. We just have to wait and see how it plays out.

This is the problem when you begin with a draw, but at least not everybody has points in the group. Had we won, we would've been far more loose and comfortable about our destiny. We just need to get a W. Initially, I thought Croatia's GK was Handanović from Inter, but I guess it was the wrong former republic I was looking at but I just hope their GK doesn't have the game of his life.

As for a the next 48-60 hours... Well, you can always go on a rager and wake up in some odd hotel room with no pants on. .

But this is what I hate about the World Cup, you have to constantly worry about games, and as I stated before, outside of the first game, you've got to deal with nerves for up to a month. I just want us to win our next two games and move on.

 

Btw, do you think its possible that we might need a the third or fouth rules of tiebreaker in order to quality? In that case I'd hope that the result for Nigeria vs Iceland will not be a highscoring draw .

 

If we win our two games, we will qualify. But in the unlikelihood that we will need the third and fourth tiebreakers, then it is somewhat out of our hands. Nigeria and Iceland have the benefit of having one extra day off and they'll know the score and know what they will have to do. Iceland could become a bit more adventurous and they'll play more. Their entire plan against us was to get a point and then they'll deal with Nigeria and Croatia in a different manner. They cannot expect to qualify for the KO stages with 3 points.

Also, they(Iceland) could also be in a must win v Croatia and once again they could be attacking more and maybe it could leave them vulnerable but who knows? If Croatia loses to us and Iceland manage to get 3 points v Nigeria, they could make it difficult on Croatia on the final day. I can play-out a dozen scenarios, but I don't want to go crazy over this, I just want us to get a positive result so I could take a sigh of relief.

And honestly, the way Nigeria plays (with their defense being all over the place), if we cannot score more goals than they do, do you believe we deserve to go through?

 

Sure, the most important thing would he to win all our games. We can still top the group by doing it .

But in worst scenario, its still better to qualify rather than not. I mean, just look at Portugal in Euro. No win at group stage and they ended up winning the whole thing. Even if do end up playing like crap, with some luck, we can still progress far like in 90.

Beside , other big teams hasnt been at their best so far.

This is why I think scoring plenty would be important. Even if defence turn out to be disasterous again , a highscoring draw against Croatia can still have some benifit.

I think we will beat Croatia 3-1, Kun will scores again.

 

That makes much more sense then. So for the sub it would likely be Perez for Lo Celso/Banega? I don't know about too much of Perez but im assuming he isn't a DM so Masche would have to stay on. Only concern then would be if Masche could keep up for the duration of the tournament if Argentina progresses since Samp has lost faith in Biglia. Think he might regret not taking Pizzaro at this point for one of the fullbacks? I mean Ansaldi can cover both flanks, then you got Mercado/Salvio on the right while Tagliafico/Acuna on the left. So thats 5 fullbacks including Rojo who can play LB too

 

Bro Asia, in general, has a huge fan base for Argentina, because of Maradona, I'm from India and here in India 60% are Argentina fans and 40% Brazil fans, but the 60% for an Indian population is very huge fanbase....

 

Join the club....lol. I am always that close to a heart attack as well and can barely watch the end of the Argentina games. lol

 

Guys, I have not followed the news this week but are there any rumors coming from the camp about potential line ups changes? I hope and expect Sampa will come to his sense and tweak the team accordingly.

 

I was in St Etienne for England-Argentina in 98 and may have been the only person in the stadium not to watch the PK's.

 

You should send Sampaoli a note...it looks like he managed to skip the last 7 or 8 months without anything whatsoever going through his mind.

 

Better than Diego who left the stadium few seconds before Messi scored that late winner against Iran

 

One of my favorite recent World Cup games...well done! Still have my VCR hooked up to watch the old tape. I remember seeing Mick Jagger dancing in the stands during that game.

 

Messi putting ridiculous amount of pressure on himself, according to sources:

“According to sources, he has been struggling to get over the feeling that his let his team and his country down against the an Iceland team that were expected to be the group D whipping boys.

“He is very bad. He almost does not talk,” one unnamed source at the squad's Bronnitsy training camp in Moscow was quoted as saying by the popular website 'infobae’.

Not sure if true, but his family is coming to Russia to support him.

I hope he channels his anger/disappointment in the right way.

 

Sampaoli is telling the truth when he said WC is like a revolver pointing to his head.

Messi looked anxious throughout the first game and it showed on his face and also affected his game.

I still wish Dybala could find way into the team and takes some freekicks.

 

Stick Otamendi on Mandzukic at set pieces. He should be able to deal with his physicality. Even thinking about this match gives me butterflies in the stomach. I even felt nervous tension when playing Iceland. My heart rate almost doubles to eighty when watching my beloved team play. Cannot enjoy a second. Last time I relaxed watching us when we beat Serbia in 2006 and the US in the last Copa.