I think Mascherano had a huge game had after Schweinsteiger most touches : 78 had most completed passes : 59 had most comitted fouls : 6 Won back most balls : 29 he is leading in every statistic over both teams. Brings me back to my argument that Argentina needed one extra DM to stop this Germany. There was to much work to do for one pesron. What has Di Maria/Roderiguez done attacking wise that justifice one less DM? I think this is a clear mistake by Diego.
They didn't need another DM, they needed another competent center mid. Tevez and Messi had to come back into midfield for half of the game.
I don't agree, but for the toughtprocess do you think of a player like Veron? Should he have made the final 11?
I think the players they needed weren't on the 23 man squad. Argentina played with four centerbacks and a defensive mid in front of them. There was no other player in the center to dictate play. Heck someone like Banega would have helped. Argentina basically won their previous matches with their superior talent up front. Once they faced a tactically superior team it was over. I'm not sure why people couldn't see this coming from a mile away.
It's a question that doesn't get asked frequently enough in any match let alone the world cup! Does player X's offense justify his lack of defence?... Capello never thought to ask himself that question!
Klinsmanns change from the boring old winning mentality German team to the new entertaining winning mentality German team started 6 years ago and has produced an amazing result. His former 2nd, Löw, will now outperform his master. This is Premier League football of the finest sort, hugely entertaining. And its the Spurs, who taught Klinsmann a different world of football. Take a pinch of German perfectionism and this is what you get. Hugely looking forward to the remaining Games. We will see them twice more and I somehow dont think they will play for the 3rd place this time. However, when they meet Holland, they will meet their match and the game could easily go either way.
You act like that is someting that they should be applauded for when in fact, that is what they should do everytime they lose...act civil. But wasn't Maradonna fighting with a bunch of fans behind the Argie bench after the match??? I believe he even had to get his daughter to hold him back.
I agree with the first part of your post but why were German fans taunting a losing coach? Of course Diego's well known bravado aside shouldn't the German fans been...I don't know been a little more graceful in victory? The only thing we know for certainty about the incident was from the Yahoo link. It shows Diego being restrained by his daughter and the banner that the German fans were holding. It doesn't go in to detail as to the nature of the taunts most specifically what the German supporters said to Diego.
Because they are idiots...every country has their fare share. The question is, why would Maradona act on that? I can't see Loew or Klinsman stooping down to their level, no matter how high emotions run.
The sign only said "Bye Maradona". Not that much of an insult, really. What else happened, we dont know. I agree, though, that the german media have stirred up a weird hatred and spite against Maradona, and I find it quite disgusting. I see the main reason for this in Maradonas political views, as the german press is quite conservative. The left wing german papers treat Maradona with the utmost respect. I like the man a lot and admire his integrity. He has had some ups and downs in his life, had some fun with drugs, had some bad times with drugs, health problems, but never lost his social conscience or his passion. He lives and breathes football and love for the poor. I saw him play in Bremen, with Napoli. The crowd was as hateful as it gets. Maradona walked on to the field, kicked a ball as far up in the air as anybody had ever seen before, and caught it on his foot. The crowd stopped jeering. He will always have my respect.
i agree. and yeah, a character like Löw would even do a press conference with an argentina ballboy, telling him how important his job is and drink a beer with him afterwards. maradona is just an narcissistic asshole. always in love with himself. hope he will never forget the name of "ballboy" müller.
I'm fairly certain idiots make up the majority of the world we live in. As to why Diego would respond in the manner he did is simply because that is Diego. It also comes in part from the difference in Argentines and Germans in upbringings as well. I'm not sure how much of this is stereotype but it seems Germans are generally more reserved while Argentines.....well we aren't really all that reserved in fact passionate to almost a fault. I'm sure that Diego coming from the background he did and how hard he had to work plays a small part in it. As Three Stars points out below we simply do not know what was said to evoke that reaction though knowing Diego probably wasn't that extreme. Who knows. Interestingly we don't take Diego's politics in the same manner many parts of the world do. Is he over the top? No doubt and the comedic value aside we simply love him for the player and personality he is. As a coach that is another story. Most of us especially on BigSoccer were crushed when he was hired. Being your teams biggest fan does not by default make you a worthy coaching candidate. Yesterdays loss hurts so bad because we can look back to 2006 and see how little we needed to improve by 2010 and instead we virtually saw an entire overhaul in virtually every aspect of the NT. The next four years will be very long and even longer if things are sorted out by the time we start focusing on the Copa America. As it stands Diego is supposed to be contracted until the end of that torneo.
I think it's pretty disgusting as humans we bring someone's past of homelessness, drug abuse, physical attribute, ignorance with lack of morales from poorly educated background with anyone and in this case with Maradona when the man has clearly shown to be clean in every respect for a long time. I attack Maradona for his current performance and off the field shenanigans. I''m reading all these articles about how Maradona wasn't great nor was he bad. The same press that earlier told him he was a horrible coach to begin with. For me Maradona became worse as the tournament went along, when we needed his leadership, he became more of an ass, when we wanted his focus, he was worrying about other players, when he wanted his direction, he was acting dramas in his press conferences. This man became so detached from the team and his job, he was a flat out failure. He had no idea what he was doing in the Mexico game, he was completely washed up in the German game. A good coach? losses to Spain, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil and Germany in the span of 10 months were clear indications we were not winning any world cup this time.
No, a professional trainer would never behave like he did in 2006. Behaving like a brainless fan. There is absolutely no comparison e.g. Maradona --> Ottmar Hitzfeld. Hitzfeld knows how to behave professional. He's fantastic. btw it has nothing to do with him beeing national trainer of argentina. i think ballack is an arrogant asshole, too.
Last world cup it was, Argentinians play beautiful football and they have the best fans in the world. This world cup, it's Argentinians poor defense and I hate the egocentric Argentinians. Just like the good old days.
Hey, Neg repper...why did Argentina play with black shorts instead of the blue like they did with Mexico? Both teams had black shorts yesterday.
Agreed about Ballack Now what about Diego in 2006 are you referring to? Now to play devils advocate here. Oliver Bierhoff who in 2006 was part of your coaching staff as he is today was arguably a huge catalyst in the post match festivities of 2006 yet why aren't his actions from that black eye ever brought up? Aside from the obvious fact he was never the player Maradona was?
You clearly have a bone to pick. Hey! Perhaps you didn't notice THIS ISN'T WR! Thanks for formatting my post, to something I didn't say.
Do you know why Argentina played with Blue shorts vs Mexico and black shorts vs a team that would be wearing black shorts? I believe Mexico wore green, right?