Korea are an embarrassment. Diving around, faking injuries. Just two attempts on goal. We should batter teams like these. But the team was poor, played without tempo from the start and were casual. Only Sosa emerges with credit from this game. Mopped up everyones mistakes and distributed the ball well. I am wary of Batista. There were cracks against SA, Portugal have flattered to deceive and his player selections are mind boggling. To not even play Maroni or Alemendra beats me. And to leave Balerdi, Garre and Colidio out is stupidity personified. Balerdi and Perez are two shining stars of the future already mature beyong their years. Colidio is superior to Gaich and Garre is clever with his use of the ball and actually has intelligence to change how he plays between the lines. Barco with three on him can only go laterally and did not once leave his spot on the wing to drop deep or move centrally. That is his fault and lack of IQ. And also the coach for not changing things. Alvarez came on ? He should have kept Chancalay on with Gaich as they can play off each other. And while you're at it bring on de la Vega to get to the byeline and deliver quality ball. It is a disgrace to lose to a mediocre team like Korea who were beaten by the might of Saudi Arabia in the AFC qualifiers.
I didn’t see today’s game, but usually his long range accuracy is impressive. He only has a handfull of games in Primera, yet he has scored maybe 3-4 long range shots plus a few freekicks. In those games he only tried at the goal a few times, in others those were his only attempts and they went in. To give you an idea.. Like I said, can’t comment on his performance with the U20, but his trademark characteristic is a fantastic long range finish. To be honest that’s probably 90% what got him a spot in the WC roster.
So if things pan out we are due a golden generation of CB's and GK's and a couple of very decent CM's But no sign of any strikers of someone who can control the tempo of a game. And still no sign of a top class FB. Weigandt was shocking.
The players in the previous u20 teams had more IQ. And looking at the way some of the u20's trapped the ball their first touch is not great. This is a shocking indictment of coaching at junior levels. It is always about technique. And it is what Argentine football and players are known for. It was what set them apart from the bullies of Europe back in the thirties when the style was being developed. Medina will never be anywhere near a top class CB or Centurion. They can barely control it. But Balerdi who can having been a midfielder while young and Garay who has been trained well at Castilla are nowhere to be seen.
That’s fine and dandy. But he was god awful today but to be fair so were most of the team. This team lack intelligent players. They played so slow and predictable it was frustrating. We should not be losing to SK, ever. Maybe the players thought they would through no matter what but it was a shit show all around. I just hope this is just a hiccup and we play better going forward. I am looking at our side of the bracket. We play Mali then if we advance the winner of Poland v Italy. The other four teams on our side of the bracket are NZ v Colombia and Panama v Ukraine. It is somewhat wide open, but we can get to the final but we need to play a lot better than that.
Well to be fair, I think Ferreira may be overrated from what I’ve seen so far. He’s still young, so I wouldn’t rule him out of having a great future just yet, but from what I’ve seen from him in River he kind of just fades out the game for the most part. However, he is known for having a deadly long range shot, so the last thing I was surprised to hear was that he scored from outside the box today. That is all..
Lautaro is 21ish...? His potential is sky high. But who knows who can pop up and was overlooked in the Sub departments. Players always come out of nowhere. And we do have a good generation of defenders in our midsts. GK as well, Musso, Benetiz appears to have quite a bit of talent. We will be fine, we always will be but my concern is the same as yours, some of this kids appear to dumber than a box of rocks. Hopefully, Aimar is fixing that at the U17 level. He was a brilliant player with a high IQ.
He’s still young, I get it. But around 19-20, you would think players are progressing and you see signs of their intelligence. I was just frustrated by our display. Mali will be a test. Big, strong and fast. Our boys better be weary of the counter or we’re gonna get our asses handed to them. Granted, they didn’t look all that good v France but the French team are head and shoulders above anybody else right now. They are the African champs, Mali not France, so they’ll be up for it.
I think they were complacent because they onew they were through to the next stage . Mali will be really tough, but get through that and it's wide open on that side of the draw. As for the other teams France look good.
Ok, can we stop with the 'ha, ha, France have a lot of black players so they must be champions of Africa' crap, ffs.
Pablo Aimar MD. Or could have been. I hope so too. You can coach some sense into players by making them look at videos of themselves or senior professionals as what to do in certain situations. The other learning comes from playing genuine competitive football. The rest is innate. Is coaching not good enough ? Do they not play first team football enough ? Applies to quite a few. Coaching must focus on teaching and on field intelligence. Generally that will beat passion and organization ninety nine times out of a hundred. But there is a lack of technique in some and yes their footballing IQ seems not that high. Worrying as msi always used to point out. Part of the issue is the constant changing of managers and the pressure at times to not let kids play unless financial measures force it.
Of African descent, just like Argentina have lots of players of Italian descent, doesn't make them Champions of Africa.
I agree, some aspects you are born with. I’m just shocked by how dumb some of these kids when it comes to the fundamentals of the game. I am not sure if it is because of the world we live in nowx where every youngster is on social media or what but there is a gulf between the IQ of some of these players v a couple decades back.
If France wasn’t a power in the game, they’d be playing for the country of their parents. A lot of these players are first or perhaps even second generation. And lone and behold, then you have a bunch of them who aren’t good enough to play for France down the road play for the country of their parents or grandparents. And some who are good enough still play for the country of their parents, even if they are good enough like Aubameyang. But I’ll leave it at this.
Maroni was fine at south american championship but he's been mediocre for Talleres. Almendra is awful for Boca, I rate Moreno much more. Colidio was poor at south american championship but should have been called still. Gaich IMO is untouchable in this team, he's the first defender of the team and annoys opponent defense. Today he was subbed in and the team instantly improved. As for Balerdi... It's a mystery why he wasn't called, but maybe Dortmund didn't let him come? Clearly the weakest point of the team is defense, Pérez holds all of it from falling apart. The goalie should be replaced, it's already 3 games showing insecurity all the time.
Disappointing showing but hopefully this will serve as wake up call. S Korea pulling this kind of result in last game seems to be a trend for them. We certainly need a lot of luck along to way to win the whole thing. Then again, the 2005 winning team started the tournament with a lost.
Uruguay lost to Ecuador and if we beat Mali, we will face Italy in QF. Italy has only conceided 1 goal in 4 games, although they only scored 4 goals . I expect our team to beat Mali comfortably. 2-0 or 3-1.
What is with the scheduling btw? How is a team playing on the last day of the R16 playing against team that played on the first day, giving the latter two extra days of rest?
Really, beat Mali comfortably, i think it will be a tough game, but as long as we win i don't care if it's by 1 goal or 3.
Ecuador needed a couple things to go their way to make the KO stages and it did. Now, they’re making the most of it. I think Mali’s physicality and speed will be something to be weary of. We cannot go behind, I don’t think we’ll do well if we chase the game. We saw that v Korea. There was nothing creativity going forward. I believe Mali will try to sit back and counter. The defense is a bit slow, if we’re being honest. But we are the more talented side and we need to go in and stamp our authority on them. They are not a disciplined team. They’ve had 9 cards in 3 matches. 8 in the last 2 alone. They’ve also allowed 7 goals in 3 games but also scored 7.
I just hope the team will not imploding once they conceided. The players hopefully will shows nerve and doesnt panic unless we conceided first. When Argentina won in 1979 & 2007, they actually conceided first in those finals but ended up winning 3-1 & 2-1. However this u20 lost their last game in Sudamericano which cost them the title because they simply lost it after conceided first, and started those long range galore (10 shots without goal). They showed that kind of mindset once again against S Korea , so I certainly hope they gonna scores first. As already been mentioned, they're not a discipline side so I'm quite certain we will get some clear chances like we did against Portugal and hopefully we really make it count .