Argentina vs Colombia Copa America 2021 Semi-Final: (July 6th)

Oh how I wish we had Quintero taking a pk against this punk ass keeper

he would have made him look silly

 

I tough this when the change was made...but chara was a good change.....

Muriel had to play......frustating that never was properly used by rueda.....a lot of chances to zapata that wasnt dangerous almost never and very few to.muriel and never as 9...

Imagine if it was bacca or rodallega the guy that has 8 continue matches in nt without scoring...

 

I'm glad that Rueda seems to be finding a team and that a few players have found such high form (Diaz, Barrios, Cuellar). On the other hand, I'm frustrated by the call up including many players that don't belong, and by some of his tactics, including his poor use of Muriel, who was basically on fire the whole season. Overall, the most frustrating thing is how we seem to concede very early too often and how that makes the team spend too much energy trying to fight back.

I think that the PKs were horrible and that the selection order was lazy, and that on top of that, the guys had just spent too much mental energy fighting back for the draw, not to mention the previous game going the same route. There's some hope, but the WCQ will be a long and suffered journey.

 

My primary comments:

1. Why was chara a sub choice over Muriel? With that said, chara wasn’t bad

2. We need to practice penalties. Are Davinson and Yerry really our top kickers?

3. Díaz is a star. Hope he can carry the load going forward. His foot work is out of this world.

4. Barrios is a machine. MVP for Colombia

5. Glad Muñoz played this tournament, not sure what I think of him. Had a bonehead move that could have cost us the game and doesnt attack much like Arias/Medina do. Still want to see more of him going forward

6. Why did we have to wait 5 and 1/2 games before finally playing Fabra? Rueda biding his time?

7. Upset that Uribe regressed this tournament, I think Cuellar is the go to guy for now. I still hope we can call up Cantillo and give him a try.

8. Unlike his predecessors, Rueda adapted and changed the dynamics of the team after the Peru/Venezuela disappointments. The prior two managers would not have done so.

Excited to see what we do in qualifiers next

 

positive is

Diaz finally fking took his chance. He is the starter.

I think Munoz took the spot from Medina not sure if he will take it from Arias.

Fabra came in for Tesillo and changed the game we could attack from the left! Still a better LB is needed

Barrios had 2 goal line saves and he hit the cross bar with what would have been one of our nicest goals

we won a pk shoot out haha

Negative
None of our strikers scored on open play

we played with no MF for 8 games now. Since Cuellar and Barrios are very defensive we need an 8 like Alzate.

we will probably finish 3rd but could have been 2nd or 1st if we had James, Quintero or he’ll even Andrade

we won 1 game with a fluke off side goal. Then won 1 on Pks. This cup is a joke and this fact needs to be remembered.

Argentina scored 3 times in under 15 minutes. Wtf happens to our defense around them.

 

Muñoz

If you complain fo chara and perez called ups....so dont ask andrade and alzate...in this moment 4 horrible options...the creators over 30 and alzate doenst play in england...he almost never play after chile match.

Cuellar barrios can play some matches depending the rival...for defensive teams cuellar touch will be magical to broke lines....i hope rueda have realized that....in that position we have atuesta and cantillo waiting for a chance

 

I am pretty sure Falcao would get more shots on target than Muriel and Zapata from thr start of thr qualifiers to now....also the only reason he didn't come was because he told the coach himself that he wasn't 100%.

Look like it or not James is essential for the time being as his career is only good up to the 2026 world cup cycle at best. We dont exact have a flow of promising talent of such a young age that is keeping him on his toes. Also I am gonna be blunt and say that we sadly would have done much better had James been in this. I legit wanted to be optimistic with what we had but honestly the entire copa was underpeformance to a great extent without such influence.

For Diaz I can kinda agree but considering how our new coach has managed these players I think he would have gotten James and Diaz to play together somehow. Honesty I am just happy Diaz grew confidence especially when we faced Argentina.

At least Q is healthy and is still important in the eyes of our coach. I am opened to seeing him again but I was prepared to never see him again considering his move to China.

 

Like many here, I prefer Fabra over Tesillo but Fabra looked 10-15 pounds heavy. Just not in optimum shape. Besides not making it to the final, you guys are all smoking crack if you don't see how this manager has given this team a higher bar of competitiveness. With CQ, we looked awfully disorganized in every line and his constants subs confused everyone. We have a great base of players to compete, sprinkle in some youth, maybe James/JFQ and we have a solid team to make it to the WC.

 

It's embarrassing that Cardona and Chara are coming off the bench when we need a goal and a guy who had one of the highest goals/assists per minute who tore up some of the best teams in the world this season was left on the bench. I think we played with a lot of heart and gave everything, but almost all of our attacks were give it to Cuadrado and cross. It's shit soccer, we need to get back to playing well and moving the ball through the middle etc. Defensively other then the goal we were pretty good, but I don't understand how Muriel doesn't even come off the bench and especially since our two players who play every week together and combine for lots of goals isn't given more time in a must win down a goal.

 

Yeah muriel didnt receive proper chances....

 

*** additionally, i liked how in the second half we were making more passes into space and there was a "change of the guard" where instead of giving the ball to JC11 all the time, Diaz "manned up" and took charge of the midfield. I hope this continues and it helps give Cuadrado some more games

*** overall we need to minimize the number of times our players backs are to the goal when they get the ball.

*** Keep in mind Diaz' goal was a result of a pass into open space by Cardona. but CRZD you bring up a great point about lack of scoring/open play - we have too many good players where we should be taking more clean shots on goal from smart/quick passing rather than scrapping out a shot from a counter attack or forcing a defender mistake.

*** the team from the past two games is night and day from what we saw against Ecuador/Venezuela/Peru...so i am not that upset by the result...

*** we shouldn't hold our breaths for Quintero....James, i would hold my breath for, but not Quintero.... LOL

*** last - our players need to up their fitness levels - hit the treadmills, go for long outdoor runs on off days, better dieting, hire a trainer. i see these euro players go non stop and never look gassed...its' cute that Muriel only can play 30-60 minutes a game, but we need more 90-minute players...

 

Muriel havent be proved as 9...as he plays in atalanta difficult to know his best.....but the reality is that he has less oportunities than duvan...

 

Muriel was our worst player against Peru and our worst player against Uruguay. And he wasn't just bad. It was comical. He played with no urgency at all and lost the ball again and again while trying to draw defenders toward him.

If you watch closely, you can tell his recent success with Atalanta is changing the way he plays for Colombia. It used to be that we could always rely on the guy to give us pace and relentlessly take on defenders. He's not doing that anymore. Especially after his 2-goal performance in the first game of the qualifiers.

Seeing our recent performances, our team has become entirely reliant on our two wingers to give us pace and to move the ball out of our half. It's awful that we are playing like that, but that's what happens when you play defense-first wingbacks and no actual 8 or 10 in the midfield.

It sucks, and Rueda needs to fix this ASAP. But we have to keep context in mind. We should absolutely try to get the best out of Muriel going forward. All the recent data showed he was not the optimal guy for the game we had last night.

I don't think this is a case of Rueda thinking Chara is a better player. I gaurantee you he won't play another minute for us if James or Quintero do come back. I think it's a testament of how poor Muriel has been playing that Rueda went with Chara-who's damn awful--just because he can be relied to give us pace while Muriel cannot.

 

I will give Chara credit his bursts from midfield created a lot of opportunity and could have caused a lot of trouble to Argentina but his final ball and decision making once he got into that space was sub par. I can accept that Muriel had a couple bad games, but we know the guy has quality and we know he takes a good penalty, so having him there seems to make sense and giving more opportunities to those guys makes sense. I can understand why Rueda has gone workmanlike and defensive without some of our best creative talents, I just hope this isn't going to be the norm going forward.

Borre was good defensively pressing from the front, would like to see him in a game where we are attacking more but his work rate is really good. Diaz is a wildcard, that guy will score wonder goals out of nowhere, if he can refine his game a little bit the guy will be a stud. I really hope James can get his shit together, we still have a ton of talent and hopefully we can combine the solid press and toughness we have shown with the more intelligent creativity of James or Quintero because giving the ball to Cuadrado and waiting for a cross and counter attacking is too predictable and won't get us to a higher level.

 

This is the exact reason why Duvan plays, despite not scoring.

How quickly we forget those games where Falcao was getting the life kicked out of him as the lone man upfront while our team plays on its heels for 90 minutes. Duvan is physically up for the abuse our team forces our 9 to take.

Not saying that Duvan is unbenchable. But until our coach--and you can apply this to all of the ones we've had recently--sorts out this team and figures out how to play the ball into our strikers rather than using them as outlets to clear the ball toward, Duvan has TREMENDOUS value.

 

The problem is that duvan in a lot of matches depsite his strong..was outplayed very easy by defenders...argentina in barrqnuilla, venezuela etc.........he isnt connected in the circuit.....

is undeniable he received more chances than every other forawrd...........and honestly dont rememeber 10 continue official matches of rodallega, bacca, falcao teo that they completed without scored..........

I think we showed much dangerous with borja that is not so big....and muriel and borre didnt have chane to play as 9.......and played much less....


hope this doesnt end in a new rodallega toxic relationship....

 

Chara was an emergency player who wasn't even the best emergency option. He's never once been a solid player for the NT to merit a spot on the field or roster above the inexperienced kids we have coming up.

I think James will be back in the next round barring more injuries. However, we HAVE to prepare for the option of not having him. And if Quintero couldn't come to this tournament because of China's quarantine policies...well that pretty much rules him out of all the upcoming qualifiers, wouldn't it?

Campaz NEEDS to start the next match. Not saying he's going to breakout or anything. But Rueda has to start bleeding in other options. The team as is only scored 2 open play goals in 6 matches, both of which probably wouldn't have been scored by 90% of players not named Luis Diaz.

This team has gone as far as it will go on heart alone. At least 2 of Campaz, Santiago Moreno, Valoyes, and Carbonero should be in every call up moving forward, and one should get about 30 minutes in each match until a viable option presents himself.