FIFA World Cup 2018: Argentina vs. Iceland - June 16 [R]

It's an awful mistake. If you are good enough it does not matter about your age or experience. He looks like he can handle the pressure, has great ability which will only get better as he plays more and more. He has learnt about and is learning about the roles in central midfield. He has some big egos to contend with at PSG. Does not look out of place. You pick on form as well. He has been one of the top three players each time in the games against Spain and Haiti. He is the sort of player that is willing to commit the opposition or play over the top instead of going side to side a la Mascherano for most of the time. Biglia as usual side to side or backwards.

It sends out the wrong message as well. It does not reward good performances just means those that took his place Biglia and Banega think they will get picked regardless. Lo Celso is a key part of the seleccion going forward along with Tagliafico. Biglia needs to be consigned to the dustbin ASAP.

 

We should have had 3 penalties in this game, replay clearly showed that.

 

I didn't think the handball was intentional but you could make the case. I'm upset they didn't even go to VAR once.

 

If the AFA and the criminals that ran it had not taken all the money and run then we could have afforded their salaries. This is not hindsight but I wanted Pochettino and Zubeldia as youth coaches several years ago when Pochettino was at Espanyol and Zubeldia at Racing both of whom have a keen eye for young players and developing them.

But then again the idiots at the AFA would be continually interfering no doubt. It was hard to stomach seeing Tapia sitting alongside Infantino like some overweight warthog without an ounce of any administrative ability or experience of football at a high level or any insight into developments of the modern game. A dinosaur.

 

The second one was a strong handball though. Still, if those two handballs are awarded a PK, I can see Messi pulling a Palermo, missed everyone of them.

 

Coaches I think football ones in particular seem to develop bizarre fixations and ideas which bear no sense to reality and which then often undermine them. But most coaches are too stubborn to admit they are wrong. Always pick on form. Not on reputation or a players name. Icardi should have been in ahead of Higuain in all respects.

And it was Sampaoli's job to make sure he is integrated into the system and personal differences dont intrude if there are indeed these due to his relationship with Wanda Nara.

 

It comes to the point where changing manager dont matter anymore because they ended up starting the same core of players. Di Maria, Masche, Biglia/Banega, Higuain, Rojo, Biglia. How is this happen? I cant explain.

 

Messi was really bad today and im sure he is the most eager to get right back . what would be really interesting is if Neymar also has a fantastic game tomorrow. That would be a nice test to see if Messi can really Step up.

dont want to turn this into an individual glory argument, but these guys are humans too. Impossible for dignity and self-pride to not get involved. If Messi sees all other superstars playing at the top of the world, it will really push him to give his all

 

If you're Argentina supporter, then why it has to be Messi? I dont care if we win the game from Otamendi's header or Aguero shot or Cabellero's goalkick.

I've been supporting Argentina 15 years before Messi played his first game in NT. It doesnt have to be about Messi.

 

Perhaps Sampaoli can arrange a quick telephone call from Guardiola to Messi.

And do they have a team psychologist with them ? Mental conditioning and strength is just as important as the physical side of things. Especially in a team under immense pressure. Something that needs to be taken in hand with the best young players from the u16 onwards.

 

Also for those questioning Messi, keep it coming. Guy lives off pressure. To get to 2018 #WorldCup, Argentina had to beat Ecuador in a stadium 9000feet in the air where arg hadnt won in 16yrs. 1-0 down in 1st min Messi responded with a hattrick. Holding his best till last, trust.

— Eli (@ElMengem) June 16, 2018

 

yeah it doesnt have to be but reality says otherwise. this entire board has been screaming for somebody to step up other than Messi for eternity and what do we see? everything still running through Messi. The moment players get the ball they try to find Messi and wait for him to produce magic. how many managers has argentina gone through and its still give the ball to messi. When you have a player of his stature you simply cant escape having him as the face of the team. So whether we like it or not, the narrative will always be about him and unless something different happens on the pitch it will continue to just be Messi and friends.

Aguero for one finally stepped up today, but what about the rest of the team? Until Pavon came on not a single player did anything to show that they wanted to make a difference. so we can hope that its not about Messi. But when was the last time we ever saw the team score with Messi not involved?

 

At least Messi does not win the worst penalty kick of the tournament medal. Cueva with a shocker.

 

So it was you who cheered for pekerman when he put on julio cruz instead of messi against Germany?

Are you guys kidding me? Lo Celso is a must have. Why the ******** is he even here?
Biglia, mascherano, banega are shit. Lo Celso has to take over.
He is the only one who can feed the strikers. Having messi in the midfield is a pain to watch.

 

I agree but why then does most of the ball go through Messi? How does that work then if he commands the ball 80% of the time and doesn't show up? He had 11 shots, I believe. He's human indeed but here lies the problem when the game plan treats Messi like the team's only savior.

 

Not to mention, the pressure is off you when the penalty is awarded 5 minutes into the game and the score is 0-0.

Every now and then Messi will hit a perfect penalty, more times than not he just hopes his kick goes the opposite direction.

But this was one of the worst games I saw Messi play but credit has to be given to the Icelandic defenders. They've probably prepared since December how to nullify him. He had some moments but he had 3-4 defenders around at all time with zero support. But he was guilty of not passing the ball at some times when we got on the break.

I wish we would've gotten Iceland as our second game where they had to play for something rather than just sit back and hope to take 1 point off us and then play v Nigeria and Croatia.

 

Fatso...

 

Meza seemed to get his place in the squad based on a good 45 minutes in a 6-1 defeat. Selections appear, from the outside at least, to be completely random. So Rojo gets picked even though he has not been first choice Man Utd for ages, but Garay doesnt get a look in. Biglia gets picked even though he has been poor for a long time. But Icardi, Lamela, Pastore get none or very few opportunities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying if we had selected those playerswe would have won the world cup, ultimately we don't have a good enough squad to win it, but on what basis are selections made? We picked Masch and Biglia to protect our defence (against Iceland!!!) but the defence was still totally chaotic. We have an old team so we drop the 1 decent young midfield player we have. None of it makes any sense to me.

 

The Pastore ship has sailed many moons ago. I don't understand why his name is being brought up. Are people still thinking he's at the level he was at Huracán and Palermo...? Or he should be called up because of that one goal he scored v Chelsea in the CL.

 

He could have won the game on his own and he missed a penalty kick. In this particular instance it WAS about Mess I. Otherwise, I completely agree with you. I'm sure one of the reasons sampaoli is reticent to play dybala is because dybala doesn't give a sh1t and doesn't deem it necessary to go through Mess all the time. Which ironically is the exact IMO, that Messi needs out there.

 

It's not so much about Pastore, I'm just using that as an example, but if you say he is not good enough why is Rojo starting? I guess what I'm saying is the selection policy is not merit based in which case wht not Pastore? Anyway, I'm only going to be positive now, we will beat Croatia and Nigeria.

 

the stupid referee didn't use VAr or we could have had the second penalty for pavon, iceland were just too lucky that messi shot missed the post, but this is what happens if you happen to have an arrogant and adamant coach who can just feed into the ego of goat and keep his friends into the system instead of feeding the system with the best players. Somehow the dark color isn't lucky for us and so is higuain he lost the wcup for us and he coming in for us today was not lucky either. stupidity at best playing rojo and biglia, pavon along with dybala should have played.... somehow have a feeling unline in 2014 that this team like in qualifying struggling hard and maybe be just scraping in or just missing the next round, unless messi makes his mind of not fielding his friends and sampa considering messi as part of the team and not the team it will not help arg, another thing sabella onctrolled the system last wcup and not messi unlike now, sablella has balls unlike sampa