Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

Suriname plays Mexico on the 23rd. Maybe play them on the 27th? Are the Saudis available?

 

Garnacho unlucky not to score. Got around the goalie but the defender cleared the ball when he shot it.

 

Despite some of his flaws in recent WC, Scaloni still decided to put another forward and we keeps attacking in extra time. Lautaro had multiple chances against Netherlands and France, Enzo even hit the goal post right before the final whistle. Lautaro also involved in Messi second goal in final and scored his winning penalty in QF.

Pekerhead would have brought some useless guy like Cruz or Palacio , in this case he'd have brought Salvio and Benedetto instead of Dybala. Afterall he's a guy who actually brought Scaloni and Palacio instead of Zanetti. His team would have lost those games long before the shootout. I dont see corward manager like Pekerman would have attacked France for 120 minutes like Scaloni did. Scaloni learned from previous matches mistakes and decided to keeps attacking in semi and final.
France two penalties were pure individual error.

Pekerman was facing a limited German team who's still from their peak (2014), and he threw away the game intentionally.

 

how the ******** did our coaches put in Lavezzi, Cruz, Palacio and Palermo and leave out all the other obvious choices we had. That pisses me off the most about those times.

Scaloni has a brilliant brain for incorporating players and using them. He should be involved in all of the levels of AFA (along with his world cup team). They are from the Pekerman school with advanced scaloni tactics. What's Mascherano bring except some itinerary.

 

Ironically in 2006 Pekerhead picked Scaloni instead of Zanetti for the world cup squad, now Scaloni is rightfully a legend now, but as a player he wasn't in the same universe as Zanetti, that sums up Pekerhead for me.

 

Papu Gómez: "We had to change to go out for the warm up and we were all watching the penalties from Brazil's match (vs. Croatia). We said "If Brazil loses, it's ours." When Croatia qualified, we started celebrating as if we had won."

If Brazil reach the semi, I believe we probably wont be able to play at our best level in the final due to overwhelming emotion after beating Brazil.

 

I think that we were going to win the WC regardless of who was in front of us. The freaky-deaky Dutch, Croatia and the French were no pushovers. I honestly thought that Brazil, because of familiarity, would've been an easier match for Argentina. We had their numbers and I am convinced that the qualifying game in Brazil was sabotaged by their organization because they were scared. I don't think their players were scared but I think the people in the org were feeling yellow.

 

Lavezzi was good bro

 

He had good moments. A lot of the times, he was mediocre. But you needed Pocho on the team. Papu basically took his spot as the jester of the group.

 

Agree that beating Brazil would have been overwhelming to us, but we still would have beat this French side that forgot to play for the first 78 minutes.

 

He was on fire in the Copa before he got injured like an idiot and then again vs germany before taken out. He was clutch no way in the same category as that rat tail and cruz and Co

 

There simply wasnt anyone nowhere near our level, specially our mentality. Those guys were on a mission. Messi was so focused it was insane. We had Dibu telling his teammates he would get at least two penalties if we get to penalty shoots. We had the young talents that werent scared of anything. Our coaching team was next level smart and advanced, knew everything that was gonna happen beforehand. Di Maria was determined to score and win another final for Argentina.

We were the best even well before this, even when we destroyed Italy in Wembley. Seeing this now, in retrospect, there was NO team capable of stopping us, no team near it. The sluggish spaniards? the frightened english? the erratic french? the mediocre croatia? Come on!

The only one that could potientally scare us was Brazil, but mentally we were a giant and they were dwarfs. No contest. We were the best and would have won this world cup (probably more comfortable many times) a millon times on a row if this was played all over again and again.

There was simply no way of stopping us.

 

Pocho had a longer tenure with the national team than the two you mentioned.

I do not think anybody is saying he was on the level of Palacio and Cruz but I remember plenty of moments finding myself frustrated with Lavezzi.

 

We would’ve beaten Brasil, guaranteed. Guar Annnnn Teeed!

To make it a bit sweeter, I would’ve liked the final to have been v the Germans, which again, we would’ve won. But they failed to get out of the group(again). So, defeating the defending champions was nice consolation prize.

 

Yea, what I mean is that the team would have felt as if they've finished the tournament after beating Brazil. Diego admitted after that game againts England, it was the final for them, but off course they went on to win the next 2 matches.

Speaking of Brazil, only minnows team would have lost to them at KO stage. Asian teams still sees Brazil as if they're still the 2002 version.

Look at how pundits reacted to their victory over South Korea... They basically believes Brazil was ready to win the trophy with that performance .... I mean Diego playstation team beat them with the same scoreline but where's the praise from these pundits?

 

We beat both teams who beat us in previous WC , but we did it in semi & final. Thats already a perfect scenario in itself.

 

After we win the Copa 2024 against Uruguay, we can beat Germany in the Eurocopa to finish off the last remaining multiple WC winner in a 5th straight final…that is, if they don’t choke in the Euros on home soil.

 

Exactly this. The other BS boards have been pretty amusing trying to downplay this team as either not being the best in the tourney, or being the worst champion of the 2000’s. I don’t care if it took penalties in every game, this team wasn’t losing to anyone. As much of a team of destiny as I’ve ever seen in any sport at any point in time.

 

Its a trend for host to choke at home soil. Portugal 2004, Brazil 2014 & 2021, France 2016, England 2021. Even us in 2011 lolz but we could see that one coming miles away since we had zero midfield.

 

Portugal won zero games at group stage at Euro 2016, statistically only won 2 matches the whole tournament. Does it matter for those at Portuguese board?

Look at how pundits and bandwagon jumper praising Croatia who reached semi by winning just a single game without counting shootout.

 

Those who are crying about our victory would not hesitate for a single second not to be in our shoes. This victory will be with us until the end of time.

 

That is the best comparison actually. This Brazil team was very reminiscent of Argentina 2010. All forwards, one DM (masche, Casemiro) expected to solve all the disbalances. I was a little affraid that Tite would take a clue and put a midfield with Casemiro, Guimaraes and Paqueta. Far from world beaters, but at least cohesive.

I remember being mad watching them stomp over Korea when Uruguay could give them a better fight. In restrospective, that was great. They were deluded as much as Diego after beating Mexico in 2010. I almost lost all friends at the university at the time telling (screaming) them Diego needed to take Tevez out.

We would've beaten them anyway, agreed. But not without another epic battle and suffering. And we had enough of that, didn't we? I'll take the walk in the park named Croatia. We deserved a game like that.

 

he literally put his name along those in the hall of shame. Di Maria was even more frustrating probably but look where we are

 

Yep, but this Brazil team lost to Cameroon , Diego's team went 4-0 which gives us a big false sense of security. I remember the first game against Nigeria was 50:50 but we managed to sneaked in early goal , and second half against Mexico was another 50:50 game. Against Germany, if you watch the highlights again, you could see every our chances / shots came after individual attempts. We almost never put any strings of passes to build up the attack. No different than our terrible qualifier performance.

 

This is why I think Arg. is the favorites for Copa 2024. Midfield is probably the most important area in football and the midfield can only get better. Only concern is that De Paul will be 30 by Copa 2024. It's fine for 2024 Copa, but after that tournament, the team should either start looking for a suitable replacement or play Palacios a lot more to play the De Paul role.