VS. Friday, July 1st, 2011 8:45 pm ET/5:45 pm PT Estadio Unico Ciudad de La Plata - La Plata LIVE on Telefutura, Univision.com, YouTube Árbitro: SILVERA Roberto (URU) 1er. Árbitro asistente: NIEVAS Miguel (URU) 2do. Árbitro asistente: ALVARADO Luis (ECU) 4º Árbitro: VERA Carlos (ECU) Probables alineaciones: Argentina: 18-Sergio Romero, 8-Javier Zanetti, 4-Nicolás Burdisso, 6-Gabriel Milito, 17-Marcos Rojo, 14-Javier Mascherano, 5-Esteban Cambiasso, 19-Ever Banega, 11-Carlos Tevez, 21-Ezequiel Lavezzi, 10-Lionel Messi. Técnico: Sergio Batista. Bolivia: 1-Carlos Arias, 4-Lorgio Álvarez, 16-Ronald Raldes, 5-Ronald Rivero, 3-Luis Gutiérrez, 6-Walter Flores, 15-Jaime Robles, 21-Jhasmany Campos, 10-Joselito Vaca, 9-Marcelo Moreno, 7-Edivaldo Rojas. Técnico: Gustavo Quinteros. Match Preview
Argentina is the obvious favorite but I'm intrigued in the conservative scheme that Bolivia has implemented in their friendlies... hopefully they can manage something more than being the piñata in such a festive inauguration.
15 minutes in... boring game so far. Bolivia playing farther up the field than expected... Argentina looks uncomfortable.
Argentina needs to slow it down and move the ball around. They're pushing to hard and then not having a clue when they get in front of the box.
Yeah, decent play by Bolivia. With a little more like Gutierrez could've scored. Nice run on the right flank by Vaca just now. Like I said, Argentina looks disoriented but Bolivia is leaving plenty of space for runs at the back since they seem to be going forward more confidently.
I gotta say, I've been a fan of Jhasmany Campos for a while... hopefully he can do interesting things in this tournament.
precise pass by Lio on that one. Banega started well. Ha desaparecido. Bolivia is surprising me. Going forward and all...
La primera de Pablito Ramirez: "La tiene vaca...da un pase mmmmooooooooy largo" EDIT: Bracamontes just called Argentina "la celeste"...craso error!
It's so interesting how Bolivia tries its best to keep its defensive line at least 1/3 up the field, not far from the half field line. They are leaving Argentina no room to create except on the counters.
So at times like these I have to wonder... WTF is Batista doing there with 3 5's? Surely Pastore or Di Maria can provide a little more creativity or at least an unexpected moment of genius... Messi looks too isolated as the creative mind of this team.
Just saw the first half of Argentina vs Bolivia. Big mistake of Baptista, a good coach, to try to keep to a central midfield attack a la Barcelona. And three forwards, no way. They need Di Maria and Pastore on the wings, they murdered Canada with that last year, Maradona was a poor coach but at least he recognized qualit on the wings.. Take off Lavezzi Tevez (yellow, good with the ball when he has it, but too slow and fat after FA Cup celebrations) off now and one of the mifielders like Rojo and put on Di Maria and Pastore to braoden up the attack and add speed. Not going to be a high scoring match unless they do that.