Copa America 2015: Argentina vs Chile Final

But you can't blame the entire team unless they all played rather poorly. Do you really think that Otamendi, Romero, Garay, Mascherano and Demichellis under-performed given their capabilities? Their job was to neutralize the opposition attackers or stop the supply from deep and most would agree that they were phenomenal. We didn't win that many free kicks or corners for them to make an impact offensively either. If we kept a clean sheet for 118 min last year and another 120 min this year, I find it hard to blame the more defensive players. If we had lost 0-3 or worse than yes, let's blame them.

Even Leo gets a lot of flack. He's a terrific player but he's human. Having 3 defenders mark you match after match after match, getting kicked every few min and not getting much protection from the ref or coach must take its toll. Look at Ronaldo, Neymar and Suarez and what they start doing when they get the kind of treatment Leo does. All of these 3 are likely in the next tier after Leo and they've all received red cards or bans for their action.

 

This I agree with. I think Lavezzi should have taken the shot. He had a decent angle, space and time but he lacked something very important - balls. Otherwise he wouldn't have dished it to Higuain.

 

He scores those kind of non-pressure goals, but he's one of the biggest chokers of our time. In span of one year:







Failed 1on1 against Dnpro which would have put Napoli in road to CL from EL, and penalty against Lazio which would put Napoli to CL from Serie-A.

And that's the exact reason why Real Madrid got rid of him, he's not confident enough to play at that level.

 

No one denied that he choked but you can't tell me the guy ever gave anything less than 100% in the seleccion, yet i see people on here completely destroying forgetting the important goal he scored or that he has 1 in 2 ratio for the seleccion. he's also hardly the first player to miss a penalty, i recall david trezeguet missing a penalty in 2003 champions league final and 2006 world cup final, arjen robben screwed up two 1v1 in the world cup final in 2010, missed a penalty for bayern at home in CL Final, Maradona once missed 5 penalties in row, which cost boca the championship. Enzo Francescoli missed a penalty in the supercopa final vs. san paulo, i can think of countless other examples from great players. Again not saying higuain didn't choke, just saying he doesn't deserve the treatment he's getting, nor does messi for that matter on anyone else on the team. You need luck to win a tournament, you're basing 4 years work on 7 games, where as in a copa libertadores or champions league you play 6 matches in the group stage alone.

 

I don't think he gave 100%. That run up to that miss before the 120 min whistle is indicative of that. Not seeing that he's going into an offside position is another.

Maradona, Trezeguet etc. have missed penalties and choked as well but they've made up for it. Robben is a very good example of someone who has learned from his mistakes. The same can't be said of Higuain.

 

what does Higuain have to offer to the team that Disanto and Hernan Barcos cant??
I just realized that Julio Cruz was not the worse forward who played in the team in the recent years.
I now have to appologize to Julio Cruz

 

I think Disanto must be given another chance. He is much better than Higuain. In case Icardi will not be called for some reason

 

I do not Blame Mr. Rattlehead for his opinion about Higuain. I too cant bear seeing him wearing the shirt again

 

If you think Pipita is terrible, wait till Di Santo becomes our #9.

Icardi will be called. For all his flaws, he is the future. A player who can score with either foot, lethal in the air, cares about fitness. He will do fine.

Higuain as already played in 4 major tournaments for us. He doesn't deserve to be ever called up again.

 

Really bad news: Seems like Tata Martino is continuing.
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From Yahoo Sports:

Coach Gerardo Martino sees his own team, brilliant in a 6-1 demolition of Paraguay in the semi-finals, as a work in progress towards the ultimate goal, the World Cup in 2018.

"The defeat doesn’t mean anything with respect to the future," Martino said. "I’ll carry on with these 23 footballers plus some who weren’t here.

"I imagine tomorrow exactly the same as today in terms of the search ... Today we carry on, as these same lads did after the World Cup final in Brazil. I’m with this team to the death."

 

Well, there are AFA elections in October so there wouldn't be a decision until then. After, it completely depends who is elected president and what kind of plans they have for the national team. Hopefully, a serious candidate appears and we're not just stuck with Segura or one of Grondona's other cronies because not only does Martino need to leave ASAP, but Humbertito needs to follow him out the door. Sadly, I think its most likely segura continue, but a lot of politics will go on between now and then

Its also no surprise he is going to stick with the same 23 footballers considering he did the same thing after the world cup in the germany match calling up the same even the horrible ricky alvarez and palacio.

 

Against Germany in friendly, Higuain was one on one with goalkeeper and he rounded the goalie to scored. In World cup final, he must have seen a Titanic ship infront of him.

Oh speaking of scoring from tight angle? he's capable... in friendly, no preasure.

 

That history remember me about messi....that scored two awesome goals with barcelona against neuer

and in the final , he missed a one to one aginst neuer....

 

Yep, Maradona was sent off in 1982 and dominated the next WC . He missed penalty against Yugoslavia but against Italy, he kicked the ball the same way and to same direction like he did against Yugoslavia. This shows strong mentallity of a player.

 

Both while being marked by Boateng. He puts on Barcelona jersey, you've seen what happen to his marker, RIP.

 

Higuain scored a lot of goals in wcq and in wc 2010.....

My concerned is why anyone talks about aguero he have been a ghost in wc, wcq and in copa....

 

Aguero scored 3 goals in 4 matches in previous Copa, 3 goals in 5 matches in this Copa. Never play full minutes like Messi. Aguero was only a sub in 2010 WC, didnt even play until 85 minutes against Germany when we were down 4-0 already.

Messi was scoreless in 2010 WC and 2011 CA, and there's always people who defend him by saying its the fault of his team... well its only half true because Messi himself hardly play with same confidence like he did for Barca.

The worst part of Higuain is the fact that he's only 27 but he's already look chubby and run slower than Demichellis. Cant compare him to his 2010 version. How slow he would be by the time of 2018? unimaginable.

 

That's good that he s not f

Wasn't Messi involved in almost all the goals in 2010? He created or participated in lot of them atleast from what I remember. Higuain adds height to the team, which is needed, but if he out of form it doesn't matter. Icardi should be given a shot as center forwar.

 

I prefer maxi lopez over icardi

 

The biggest problem for this team is that when a goal does not come early on they shrink. Once a goal comes then the team grows. The longer the game is prolonged the more they suffer. Had Colombians been any good at taking PK's we'd probably be out since Biglia and Rojo both missed, back to back PK's. The semi final, when we scored first it was as if it was burden lifted from the players and they could play care free. It was Higuain 3 touch on the ball when he scored. No pressure? No problem. His problem is over thinking. His goal vs Belgium, had no time to really think, bam goal. Had a 1 v 1 vs the GK he hits the crossbar in that same game. He just isn't mentally strong enough. I can't stress this enough.

That is why I'd like to see Icardi, pressure doesn't seem to get to him. He was standing and arguing with the Inter fans. He went over to give the Inter fan a shirt, as an apology for the loss and they threw it back in his face.

Pressure gets to some players and not to others as the PK proved. It is a damn shame that our best PK taker is an defender in Garay. The guy does not think about it, just goes and does his job. Had Chile missed their second PK prior to Pipita then who knows the pressure wasn't that grand. But toughness is not something that can be taught to players who are getting to become 30, either you have it or don't. And it looks like most of these players don't and it starts from the manager.

 

Icardi once missed a penalty and he still dare to pulled a rabona. Higuain blew what would have been a World Cup winning goal and then missing a goal that cost Napoli, and then now another crucial miss in major tournament final.

Some people still defend him by saying Lavezzi's pass wasnt good enough, then watch this carefully.



Feels dejavu now?