He is. They dominated possession but created four good chances only. To be fair with better finishing and the missed penalty a positive result would have been achieved. The main gripe is playing players out of position and still picking players like di Lollo. I don't like picking on a young player but his positioning is wild a lot of the time. Two gift penalties conceded as well.
For me personally, the under 20 team is a pathway for players to get into the senior squad, whilst it's nice to win, at this level it's not the be all and end all, it's about getting players used to tournament football format, used to the pressure of knockout games etc. There's a lot of players who were not allowed to join the squad for this tournament and that has made a big difference imho. Anyway, hopefully Masch will grow into the role.
The U20s are important. Yes, it’s not a World Cup or a CA Final, but they mean quite a bit. It is a stepping stone for many of these kids. I enjoy these tournaments, as do the people back home. I attended matches in 2001 and the atmosphere was something else. You could see what it meant to the people. I celebrated all of our youth titles in the twenty first century with great joy. We cannot be stumbling like this because it is embarrassing. And more importantly, we cannot rest on our laurels.
I agree, it is always enjoyable to win, but, just my view, winning at that level is not everything, we have had very successful teams at that age group, but then that was never translated into succes for the senior team. It's a pathway for young players to the senior team and also gives them experience of tournment football.
These tournaments are also a good opportunity for senior FIFA reps to meet with the young Argentina players to explain to them how they have fixed it for them to win the 2030 world cup
U20s don't have to win championships but they shouldn't be getting embarrassed in early rounds either.
Paz is a bright spot on this team. A lot of talent and grace in his movement. He’s a step above these players on the pitch. I think Scaloni should give him a call.
Yeah, so a 1-0 victory keeps us in this for now. If Brasil loses; we are out. But anyways, Paz was the best player on the pitch by a mile. Some of these kids are just mindless and that is to be expected at this age.*
I seriously have doubts of what Masch is doing. We clearly have tons of talent in the youth team, more than every team we've faced imo, but we are not clicking.
It is obvious that Colombia is playing for a tie, where they are already wasting time. But our team seems very disorganized within the first 20 minutes.
0-0 HT. Precious little control. Paz also making poor passes. Some moments of secondary sight though. Infantino not too bad. Perrone is AWOL. Play either Infantino or him at the base of midfield. Aguirre has been excellent. Great turns and a couple of decent crosses. Aude galloping down the left. However terrible defensively and when he gets into position to cross the delivery is very bad. Aguilar already on a yellow also pretty bad. Encinas completely absent as well. Puch doing his best but when the tactics are to give the ball to di Lollo and lump it forward what's the plan ? Puch is not going to win those balls. Masche should play Veliz in that case. di Lollo awful again. Whistle rescued him a couple of times. He's making Gomez nervous.
Shocker from Herrera. Routine stop. Straight through. 1-0. This from an awful Paz FK into the box. He's out on his feet but no sub from Masche ie push Perrone up. Brings on Veliz at 65'. He's as clueless as Diego was. No Mundial u20. Half the team are terrible. The rest are played out of position. Tactics Masche has no clue. Bloody disaster. Embarrassing shit show for a nation like us not to even make the final group let alone qualify. Absolute horror show. Shameful.
Mascherano dud. Nothing more to say. AFA needs to look at themselves and how the failed the kids. Like Burr said earlier, they didn't have to win the championship, but not go out like this. Even the bare minimum effort to secure a solid qualification for the Fifa U20 world cup would have been satisfactory. To bow out terribly in the first phase of the sudamericano u20, is egg on Masche.