exactly. Schweinsteiger was balls and the criticism just, he just somehow overcame them and grew immensely into a solid performer.
I knew Schweni will come good, its Khedira that is impressive for me, stepping up to a world cup is no small deal.
Thanks for some of the comments critiquing Argentina. I'm trying to find some reasons as to why Maradona failed, I know he has, but this thread destroys any reason why we should want him back. Heinze wants him back and to continue playing. When you have generations of failures like Heinze on your team, you future looks black. Thanks for the Messi link! Those stats don't lie.
Argentina have a lot of talented youth coming through. One of your best Pastore didn't even play that much! Maradona was clearly a reason for your failure and the first reason for concern is Argentina's (with all due respect) love for him. Football is as much tactical and logical as it is traditional and steeped in culture. Argentina need to let go of Maradona as the symbol for the country's future success and keep it exactly where it belongs, in the past. Time to move forward, adopt an entire new logic and approach to adapt to modern football. Just look at Dunga and Brazil (Holland match withstanding) and Germany. They are the two best examples of teams being steeped in tradition and emerging to challenge on the world stage. I'm picking Brazil because his team had prior success to the World Cup and I'd like to consider their last match as an anomaly.
The entire team grew tremendously this tournament. Even if they lose against Spain it will go a long way in helping their development and progression as a team. Some of the people on the Argentina thread were in disbelief when I said that 2006 and 2010 so far have been a massive success but they have. We knew before that we had a talented generation of youngsters coming up but the questioned always remained whether they would be able to transform that raw potential on the biggest stage and we can say with a great deal of certainty that it has in this World Cup. Again, future looks bright. Of course, we can't take that for granted, lots of work left to do.
Are you kidding? Look at the state of their national team in 2006 and then Dunga's Copa America/Confed Cup winning team. He changed the mentality from pure flair to progressive thought out football combining the best of Brazilian and European football because that's what got them results when they would otherwise have lost. Dunga realized that you can't win with just star players and he instead creating a system that was more functional. They were the best side in the tournament before they had that incredible and unexpected collapse which pointed out that his team wasn't the finished product. Too bad he won't get the chance to build on it as I'm sure the Brazilian press and fans want to return back to flair only. Shame. This Brazil could have been great.
I think Brazil of 1994 and 2002 were defensive in 1994, Rai was even dropped iirc atimes they even used 2 DM The all out attack Brazil ended in 1990, since then they have produced excellent destroyers like Dunga, Emerson, Gilberto, Edmilson who have been key to their success
Why is this the case when everybody told us that Dr. Carlos Bilardo was doing the real job (like Löw in 2006)? What has Maradona done wrongly and Klinsmann not? Talking about our coaching staff: It seems that Jogi Löw & Co. learned a lot from our friendly in Munich (when Argentina's coaching staff outplayed the German one) and were perfectly prepared for facing this Argentinian team at the WC (I was hoping that Löw would manage to surprise Maradona ... and it thankfully happened). Actually, we played with almost the same line-up & the same tactics (4:2:3:1) ... however, this time all of our midfielders were A LOT better in any aspect (even though Podolski & Müller still aren't real wingers) ... the same with the defence. Kudos for this great job! It really seems that German managers know everything about the opposition during a major tournament ... I could bet even the mobile phone numbers of the opposition players' wives/girlfiends! ) Gute N8
I heard from a show in ESPN Deportes that Maradona was actually going with his gut more and more as the tourney progressed and not listening to Bilardo and his coaching staff. Not sure how much truth there is to that though.
Now I've heard rumblings that Bilardo actually had very little involvement and/or was ignored by Maradona. He is nowhere to be seen since the loss yesterday.
if THAT's true, then thank you Maradona! I have lots of respect for Bilardo and was actually quite surprised how easily Löw outcoached Argentina.
It is just FANTASTIC. And I was feeling depressed before the World Cup and they have helped me feel much better . Really, it is amazing. When had another national team won like that to teams that are among the best?. Hungary and the Netherlands come to mind... and they didn't win the World Cup, which worries me (sorry!). But then, they lost to Germany, lol. Maybe the fact that they had two difficult games (Serbia and Ghana) even losing one, will help keep their feet on the ground and not think that they've won it already.
Yea I was wondering how Argentina looked so unorganized and imbalanced with an experienced coach like Bilardo on the staff. Would make sense.
grow a pair. If a grown man wants to cry over football then I'm certainly aloud to mock him. edit: then I stroll on over to the thread to see that you're the one baiting the hook over there. f&ck off.
There is, mainly in the South of the country. I'm not a part of it though. What made me follow Germany?. Well, I began watching football for the 1998 World Cup (Chile's qualifications for it, actually). Was a huge fan of England then, because I was a huge anglophile... was just hearbroken when they lost to Argentina . But I began to follow Germany as well, I think mainly because people tended to dislike them and wanted them to lose, which just seemed unfair to me. And then also because I'm a huge history buff and Germany's history is particularly interesting, I think, but that might have been afterwards. Plus, they won some game that they were losing in that World Cup, which is always exciting to watch . Actually though, in that World Cup the team that really impressed me , football wise, was Holland. I thought they were just fantastic. I think that the fact that Argentina won to England and Brasil to Holland is a big part of why I dislike both those teams, lol. I do find it hard to like much South American teams other than Chile (simply because it's my country), as they tend to play rather dirty which bothers me. Anyway, in 2002 I still very much like England, probably about equal to Germany. In 2006 I definetly was a Germany fan over the other teams. Not sure why the change... probably a mix of having studied some German, of interest Germany's history and admiration for the resiliance I think it shows... adn of course for the history and resiliance of the German team. Plus some of the English press as well as some English fans being so obnoxious, was a put off. Continues to be.
Cool. I lived in Ecuador (my mom is from there) for some time and I was always amazed at how so many people were saying that after your country is eliminated, Ecuador - in this case, you had to follow the "other" NT's from South America because we are all "hermanos" and it was my duty to support them. I just found that funny since Argentine media used to do nothing but trash Ecuador on Fox Sports Americas. That really bothered me. It was like me having to support France because I am also German and we are both in Europe. Just never made sense to me. As far as history is concerned, it was European history that made me choose my major to be Poli Sci...I love history. By the way, this is what I meant by "NSR". Glad to have you onboard....
Looking back at this match I think Schweinsteiger's performance, considering the importance of the match, was arguably THE individual performance of the tournament so far. Any others stick out for you guys?
Eh, not necessary. Not his role. Pirlo and Xavi only scored a goal each in the last two international tournaments, Senna none, and all three were MVP candidates.