Pato's deliveries for the NT: 11 October 2005 Uruguay : Argentina 1:0 (0:0) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 8 October 2005 Argentina : Peru 2:0 (0:0) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 7 June 2005 Argentina : Brazil 3:1 (3:0) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 5 June 2004 Argentina : Paraguay 0:0 FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 29 March 2005 Argentina : Colombia 1:0 (0:0) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 16 November 2004 Argentina : Venezuela 3:2 (2:1) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 12 October 2004 Chile : Argentina 0:0 FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 8 October 2004 Argentina : Uruguay 4:2 (3:0) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone 3 September 2004 Peru : Argentina 1:3 (0:1) FIFA WC 2006 Prel. Comp. South American Zone Still think Pato hasn't come through enough? Come ON!
I mostly credit this to our defense. The last great game that Pato had was against Brazil in the qualification. If he plays that way then I am absolutely willing to start him. Has anyone been following the mighty Ivory Coast lately ? They drew Chile 1-1.
It takes 11 players, my friend. And I think with what we currently see, Pato will do just fine against CIV. We'll hopefully win our first two matches, so we can rest against Holland.
six points doesn't guarantee you top spot, which is v important. also, it's better to keep the momentum of winning. i hope we do anything but rest. and of course, we have the matter of two games before holland.
Still... Six points guarantees (assuming ONE tie happens in one of the other teams' matches) a lot more comfort than 4 or 2 or 1 or...
It would be a huge mistake to underestimate Holland. However I also think that if we win the first 2 matches, we can rest our main players. Because I can't see much of a difference between playing Portugal or Mexico (my guess for the 2 group D winners). It's not like choosing between Brazil and Croatia...
Yeah... Group E is gonna be a race to see who can avoid playing Brazil in Round of 16!!! You can bet the tactics will change in the group based on how F does! But back to us in C, we've gotta concentrate on winning the first two. Trust me, Holland is the toughest of the three by ANYONE's measure.
It is hard to speculate about the advantages of finishing first. It might mean meeting Germany in the quarters, and ideally you always want to avoid the home team. Traditionally the home teams always seem to get the 'breaks' to go their way. FIFA wants the home team to go into the later stages. (But of course that also assumes that Germany will win their group.) The important thing is to get through. Obviously beating Ivory Coast is key to qualifying without troubles. I think they are very strong defensively, especially on the right, but they are weaker on their left flank, so a player like Maxi could be key. As long as our defense holds, I think we can beat them because I think we should be able to score against them. If we win that one, then everything will become easier, because we will go into the Serbia match less pressured, and we will need discipline and patience to beat Serbia. If they need the result more than us they won't be able to sit back and try to frustruate us. So, we get Serbia, and then we can begin to worry about Holland, who have a very talented but inexperienced team.
Of course, the tactics change if Serbia happens to defeat Holland. then Serbia might tighten up against us.
People are looking way ahead... I hope the team doesn't do that. Beating IC is key, but does not mean there is no presure. Last wc argentina won its initial game and look what happened. Lets take it one game at a time.
Well, it's fun to look ahead and speculate. Obviously you want to win the first game, and I do believe it is key. But of course as you point out winning it doesn't garantee anything. I remember 1990, when we lost the first game to Cameroon and then we made it all the way to the final. Since then we've always won the first game, at every world cup. And yet we never got close to making it to the final again. Ok, forget the scenarios. Lets just hope to win every match and become champions.
i don't want to speak too soon but it wasn't so long ago we had injury doubts over ayala, heinze, mascherano, tevez, messi and aimar, at least five of whom get into our first eleven. reasons to be cheerful folks
today in training in germany, the ten outfield players who started against angola were divided into a different group from the others. this may have been because they were warming down from the game but it is unlikely because some of them played no more minutes than some other members of the squad. it might suggest the same team starts against ivory coast. which means saviola instead of tevez. it's all speculation of course but you can always trust peker to spring a surprise. the goalkeepers of course train in a separate group so there was no indication of peker's thinking. however, if he is thinking of changing keeper, the ivory coast game would be the best opportunity, because it's (theoretically) the easiest of our games, therefore the best one in which to break in someone new, whereas to throw a new keeper into a tough game would be a bigger ask.
This is just routine. There are still 9 days for the WC to start. However I can sense that Pekerman has a preference or bias towards el pibito. The surprise would be if Tevez does start at this point, sadly. We will see, I hope Tevez plays the whole 90 minutes of course.
well, on ole today, they reported peker as saying the team will be the same as started against angola, and this is why he is training this way. if it is true, then our bench will consist of such talent as: milito lucho tevez messi aimar which is pretty frightening and shows the depth we have. it would also mean pato keeps his place, as expected. quite why peker would announce his side so early is beyond me, so i'm inclined to think it might be a bit of creative reporting. they also said the under-20 team were in germany to help the team prepare, don't know if anyone can confirm this?
That is indeed frightening firepower to have on the bench. I'd like to see Tevez start in place of Saviola. Everyone knows what I think of Pato (which is the same as 99.9% of Argentina supporters) but Peker seems to have a blind spot as far as he is concerned, so he will start.
Yep ... the U-20 that played in Toulon (not the one that played against the NT in Bs As b4 travelling to Europe). It was done last WC too ... among those U-20 that served as sparrings in practice for WC02 was a kid called Javier Mascherano. .
Why Saviola should not start vs Ivory Coast? He had proven in warm-up matches that he was in fit position. I believe that he can make a goal against African team.
Pekerman plans to rotate the team. Saviola might be effective against the Ivory Coast because of his speed which could expose the Ivorian defense. However I still believe that Tevez is the much better and more complete player. If I were Pekerman I would have built the entire team around Tevez. He is a very high caliber player. This would be similar to England benching a fit Rooney. But in our case we actually have more talent to fill in
actually, there is. The captain of that team who plays as CB is very good and he also scored a goal in our last match, but i don't know his name. and there was another small built player who played in Left flank. and i was wondering why our best players are all small built.