2014 FIFA World Cup™ Round of 16: Argentina vs Switzerland|Tue, Jul 1, 12:00 PM

Congrats Argentina, still on target for the epic final against Brazil, hopefully. Great assist by Messi and great goal by Di Maria. well done hermanos. Don' be impressed with naysayers, all teams have shown deficiencies.

 

Belgium will prob bunker too. They will all bunker vs. Argentina.

 

That's fine but I don't see why anybody would expect anything else from this game

 

I feel a bit remiss in not mentioning that this was likely Ottmar Hitzfeld's last managerial effort. Truly one of the most outstanding football minds of his generation. I am sure the Swiss will miss him. I myself find it hard to put this in perspective and with the proper respect. I don't think there will ever be another like him.

 

What is the immigration policies in Switzerland? I've read in an article that they were trying to pass a new law to not give nationality to sons of immigrants

 

They won't. Not because they don't want but they can't. They will attack surely

 

Generally true, but then you have teams like Russia and Turkey in 2008 that made it all the way to the semis and were never heard from again.

Didn't Switzerland make the knockout phase of the 96 euros, which equates to a quarterfinal?

 

They aren't likely to park the bus either and defensively they're quite good too. They're much better than Nigeria who gave Argentina some troubles too. Im hoping it's a better game and it should be.

 

A revision is being debated in Parlament but nothing like you describe. It has more to do with standardization We never have and still don't give citizenship at birth (unless of course, one of the parents is Swiss). Otherwise it's a minimum 12 years of residence with certain years counting double before adulthood is reached. And the citizenship test is not a mere formality. Josip Drmic for example was not part of the U-17 World Cup winning team in 2009 because he failed his test. But to reinforce my earlier point, all of our players have close ties to the country.

 

Argentina approached the match against Nigeria way to relaxed. And ceased to play altogether after Messi was substituted. But I agree that Belgium will not bunker. It's more likely in fact that they will win possesion.

 

Higuain should be the main scorer but his fitness and movement are poor. He's having a nightmare tournament putting pressure to score on Messi.

Gago is not doing much creatively which is putting the creative burden on Messi.

Messi actually led Argentina with 6 tackles in this match. Ridiculous.

Di Maria had 12 shots. WTF? Sabella went inverted winger knowing Messi would be smothered with 2 or 3 players.

 

Another possibility would be to start lavezzi and messi as full forwards and having both enzo or ricky and maxi in the midfield. But sabella will never go for that.

Our bench is mostly crap

 

Can I officially nominate Gago for worst player of the WC? Of course, this only means Sabella will keep playing him (insert :banging head: emoticon).

 

We joke frequently about heart attacks, but tragically, it seems that at least two fans who attended the Argentina-Switzerland and Brasil-Chile games literally died of heart attacks experienced during the match.

Football is serious business.

 

Is he playing? I watched all four matches and couldn't find him.

 

Right. I heard on the news that coronary emergencies peaked yesterday. Didn't post it cause I couldnt find the figures. I just hope I'm not next

 

Heh. Me too. I'm taking it day by day.

Whatever the figures are for heart attacks suffered while watching each game of the World Cup, sum those figures and multiply them by 10 if we actually do get a Brasil x Argentina final.

 

Even if the increased risk of heart attacks is unavoidable, it's a small price to pay for moments like this: