Argentina against Venezuela – Match Thread

By
Roy Nemer
-
134
Javier Mascherano Argentina training
Photo courtesy of Twitter

We are less than an hour away from Argentina playing Venezuela and this is the official match thread!

Results are going Argentina’s way. Bolivia with a 1-0 win against Chile and Colombia drew 1-1 against Brazil. What does that mean? It means that a single point for Argentina (which would not be ideal) would put them ahead of the Chileans. Colombia are currently in second place with 26 points and a win for Argentina would take them level with the Colombians (although goal difference would be a factor).

However, at the moment of writing, Peru are currently leading Ecuador 2-1 and if the Peruvians get the three points, they would be ahead of Argentina (who currently have 23 points) as they would have 24 points.

A massive game up next for Argentina where three points should be added to the table for them. As we reported yesterday, here’s the starting eleven for Jorge SAMPAOLI’s men:

ROMERO; MASCHERANO, FAZIO, OTAMENDI; ACOSTA, PIZARRO, BANEGA, DI MARIA; MESSI, ICARDI, DYBALA

or (different formation)

ROMERO; MASCHERANO, FAZIO, OTAMENDI; DYBALA, PIZARRO, BANEGA; MESSI; ACOSTA, ICARDI, DI MARIA

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

134 Comments

  5. My mistake, if not around the subject. I had a little embarrassment. I randomly lost my essay and I urgently desire to create a brand new 1. I can not create with my own strength, so I wanted to apply towards the essay writing service for funds. Discovered a number of web content about this, but I usually do not know when you can trust these web sites. Has anybody heard of the http://www.phareglobal.com/high-quality-critical-essay-help-online-5/http://fayprint.com/best-admission-essays-the-way-to-enter-into-the/ ???

    I also wanted to ask, did someone encounter such an issue? And what will occur if they find out that my essay was purchased, and not written by me

  8. 1) This team is psychologically broken. No formation//tactical adjustment will solve this. For all of the brilliance of a coach, the chalk-board can’t win games without GROWN MEN to carry out the plans. Argentina need GROWN MEN to see this through. Dejen de joder, ya. VAMOS ARGENTINA, CARAJO!
    2) Mental fitness aside, playing Fazio as your center back is never going to end well (Masche is good for some criticism too, but he was a stopgap, he’s not going to be in this team going forward). Also, what is the point of having an offensively unbalanced team if Messi has to drop back and do everything. If Messi is going to have to drop back too then drop one of your forward moving players and solidify the back/middle of the park.
    3) It’s great to give this team new direction given the precedent of the last 1.8 years. But the priority should have been to qualify first and experiment later. What do I mean? 1) Play a back 4. 2) Don’t play Acuna out of position 3) Higuain is a proven goal scorer (even if he has botched 3 important goals in finals).
    4) I was optimistic about Sampaoli and while I’m aware of his aggressive style of play, I expected him to be a little more measured. Instead he’s put on a show with smoke and mirrors and produced very little through 2 games. I don’t expect him to revolutionize the way Argentina play overnight, but I did expect that as a serious coach he would realize that his first objective would be to stabilize things with respect to classification.
    5) That being said, the players have responsibility here too. And that second half performance against Venezuela at home is a disgrace. Icardi, Terrible. Pizzarro terrible. Acosta, missing in action. Dybala? Might as well have been spotted on the back of Milk Carton.
    6)For all of Di Maria’s faults, his absence in this team is the most significant after Messi (and previously Maschernao). No Messi, no Party. No Di Maria, no Party.

  9. I’m not surprised at all of the outcome of this match today.This Argentina is the worst team of Argentina of all time and into all aspect. Therefore I think coach can’t change anything as long as we still have these same losers.
    Although I don’t think it’s a coaching problem. Just remember the last time Argentina lifted a trophy it’s a shame for Argentina where everyone says we have generation this generation that those losers won’t be remembered.
    Honestly I have watched Argentina game because it’s in my DNA otherwise I have been fan of this national team since I was 7 years old so I am stuck.
    I am going to request that from fifa to let the Argentina players to wear their club’s jersey when they play for Argentina ideally they might be having a better performance.

  12. I love this situation…you will know what kind the coach of this team…and…i hope next peru game the weather get heavy rain ..thats cool..memorizing moment..

  13. A lot of people here went insane after these years of Argentina failure. How can these people bashing Benega this time? He is the only reason the midfield is effective. The problem is our wing is not deadly anymore after Di Maria out. Acuna is good but he is not deadly on wing so as Acosta. Both cant run channel when it needed. Yes this team need to run and play fast football but it doesn’t mean Benega should not be in the team. He is the only one who deliver ball left to right. Acosta has pace, Acuna has pace but they are not in right place in right time. Let’s see how Sampaoli will solve this thing out. Every Coach need time to fix the team but sadly not much time for Sampaoli. We need Lavezzi type of player in the team now maybe Salvio?

    • Yes Banega was shit. Being a CM means more than just having good feet controlling the ball. Nowadays it means giving the team balance. It also means doing a lot of off the ball hustling as well as moving the ball to open attacking players fast while they are open. I didn’t see Banega doing any of that. And he disappears in physical games usually.

    • Banega is slow and he only perform horizontal passes. he does not know how to deliver a forward vertical passes to the strikers. unfortunately we do not have a replacement.

    • True Banega was the only reason messi didn’t have to drop back to create all the time.
      We created enough chances to win but pathetic finishing and pathetic subs and formation lost us the game.

  14. We lost cutting edge as soon as Di Maria went out. And it reminded me of the sad feelings about last wc final – we always lose him when it matters. Sadly though there’s hardly any better replacement for him.
    Banega disappears after a good 30/40min spell. We need good wing-backs and an alternative for Banega to make this system work. Taking off Dybala was a bad decision.we had a good game overall but we are running out of time.shouldve been 4-0 up after first half. Icardi,Dybala,Messi played fine. Its the wing-backs/winger and Banega positions we need to improve.

  16. 1. 3-4-3 was not working at all for the last two matches. Sam needs to find a solution to it for the next two matches.

    2. We need to play with players that are mentally strong for the next two matches. The two subs were not that type of player for tough match.

    3. I really like Acuna and I think Banega also did a fair job.

  17. SAMPAOLI HAS FUKED THE TEAM UP.

    The though of him being the coach this team needs is going down the big drain.

    1. Icardi for pastore???? the guy who just scored a goal is taken off wen we need a goal???
    2. Laturo Acosta was the worst player not counting subs. He did virtually nothing all game and yet he plays every important game. fucking worthless nobody.
    3. 3-4-3 is the worst fgormation to play. why would u play this? this team has never played this and we don’t have players for such formation.
    4. Over and over again he fails to realise or see the bad players on the pitch and keeps playing the bad ones. His subs are always awful.
    5. Romero – what can I say about this loser. this guy has nothing YOU KNOW WHY?>???coz he plays 3 times every 6 months for his club. sick of this politics just play the players who play regularly for their team.

    FUK SAMPAOLI. another retard who has bought nothingness to the team. if anything previous team under bauza with messi would have beaten this Venezuela.

      • You have just take the last reason for people to keep positive thoughts about Icardi. For people here one goal is changing everything. If that was Icardi goal by just touch people will criticize Sampaoli for benching him. If it’s not of him he must have been poor and useless. I mean people here sway with the wind.

        For me he did another game nothing but it doesn’t mean I’ m going to give up on him after 2 games.

  18. It is what it is. Sampaoli that I doubt Sampa’s tactics but he needs to be honest to himself and accept that he needs to overhaul the aging team. The likes of Banega, Mascherano, Fazio and Pastore are not players for his style. They don’t have the energy his style of play requires to make it effective.
    It’s now evident that most of Messi’s agemates do not have the lungs and legs to compete with young teams like Venezuela. Lanzini, Paredes, J Correa, Acuna, Battaglia, Nacho Fernandez, Salvio and Mamanna are better suited to Sampaoli’s football.
    Another problem is the obsession with attacking from the flanks. It gives defenses time to regroup. It will only work with overlapping flankers who can run behind and stretch the defense line but not with conventional wingbacks or wingers crossing aimlessly.

  19. It’s not easy to come in in late minutes and play in game under so much pressure. I mean Pastore might did a lot of things wrong for that reason. The more Benedetto was throwing into deep water as debut in such oppresive minutes.

    But I can’t forgive Banegas faults. For me he has played shit all the game. Shouldn’t play for NT.

    • what game are you watching? Banega was brilliant all game running the midfield. It was that pathetic mother fucker pastore that was fucking up everything.

      everything that loser touhes turns to shit. fucking faggot doesn’t do anything good.

      • Was not Banega the one who lost the ball and provide to cenceeed goal? He or Messi. I’m not sure but Banega was losing a lot of balls.

        • That was one mistake. but he was brilliant, if we had able defenders that goal would have never happened. But Sampaoli the moron likes to play with losers.

          FUCKIN bring in Garay and mussachio. sick of this bullshit 3 defender.

          mascherano is over and shit now.

  20. I don’t know what some of you are calculating, but I easily see Argentina in 6th place if we do not win at least one game.

    Peru will easily win against us. And somehow Argentina always suffers in altitude, too much rain, too much sunlight etc. etc.

    I can see us losing both our games

  22. There are fundamental issues in Sampaoli’s formation and the players selected. Fazio and Otamendi are too slow to stop counter attack. We have the worst keeper in the SA qualifications. Every team will park the bus and counter attack. We were lucky that only one goal was conceded. We have 2 of the worst players to be selected for Argentina and they were given full playing time today: Pizzaro and Acosta. They just do not have the skill to play international football. First half was much better. Not sure why Banega played out of position in the second half. He was playing on the left away from Messi and there was no one supporting Messi on the right. Substitutions were out right pathetic. This formation will work only if we play fast passes. We just do not have the right players. It is clear that players are absolutely down on confidence and it is going to go to the wire. With this set of players and system we will struggle to get past Peru and ecuador who are very physical teams

    • We need better defenders … fazio was kicked out from spurs because he was too mistake prone and too slow… we need a rock solid centre back.. Icardi.. dybala doing far better than dimaria higuaina nd aguero…

      • Garay and Mussachio or funes mori. All 3 are top defenders especially garay with whom we went to world cup final.

  23. It was Messi’s unnecessary dribbling and eventually losing the ball create that chance for Venezuela to score…OLD Mascherano couldn’t keep up the pace with a young striker!! I never like Mascherano except..2006 and 2014 that save!!!

  24. It’s Mardaona’s 2010 all over again.

    Sampaoli needs to forget about 3-4-3 it doesn’t suit us,we need to play with full backs , the reason we didn’t win both matches it’s because we didn’t have any overlapping runns and our wingers didn’t have any 2 against 1 sitiuations.

  25. If Argentina beats Peru and Chile beats Columbia at home , Argentina is on the WC (at least playoff), because last round will be Peru-Columbia, in this case ARG 27 points, Columbia 26, Peru 24

  27. Peru will kill us. They will beat us quite easily. People who are saying we will win against Peru is going by reputation not by current ability.

    Pastore and Banega strikers? And this Benedetto plays professional football? It should be Icardi and Higuain over Benedetto.

    Anyway, if we are lucky we will get 2 points from remaining 2 games and hope to qualify. Sampaoli is better than Bauza but his teams do not score much goals. They never really did.

    Today Dyabala and Icardi should have stayed. Take Messi out. I don’t like him taking absurd free kicks from crazy angles.

    • We are playing like shitt right now but… peru will be in great pressure against us.. the only way peru can beat us is if higuain.. aguero and dimaria all three start…. if icardi had stayed instead we could have won it..

      macherano should stop acting like he is riquelme..

      • Sulav. We didn’t play shit today. Well that’s my opinion. If we could have got the goal than we would see a different team totally. Second half the tactics changed but first half was classic. Still can’t figure out how didn’t even a single ball gone inside.

  28. Questionable substitutions indeed. I’m not really sure why he did it.

    And it seems no matter how optimistic I may and try to be, any team now with the commitment and discipline to play park the bus can actually achieve and draw a point against us. With luck, they may just nick the the three points. We are really not as good as we make ourselves out to be. Self-doubt will surely if it is not already set in. The remaining qualifiers, I can just envisage the other teams such as Peru playing out the same script as Uruguay and Venezuela (who has just gotten its eighth point of this campaign). Hold us at the bay at the onslaught of the first few minutes and let argentina’s self doubt do the rest.

    Sigh… what the fish.

  29. Peru is ranked 14th in fifa ranking..it would be touch if this is the playing quality…and next 4 weeks there is a lot of football and if messi and some key playewrs get injured..god save argentina..

  30. We will QUALIFY. Writte this down. I don’t get why some of you bashing Banega. He was stand out performer today. I don’t get which football game you guys watch. Icardi should have stayed. Anyway i know it is hard to swallow and you all angry but calm down and look at the table. It is not that bad. We will qualify

        • Good. We should atleast win one match and Sampoli should stop using three at back and sticks like dimari and pastore should never be allowed to play again. Remember 6-1 to barca last year, these two have no shame.

      • Arg
        There is still chances 200% if we don’t lose. I don’t think we will loss next 2 games. Maybe i can’t explain you all but i know we won’t lose.
        Vik
        What you talking about? Did you miss first half? We played most beautiful and intense football in first half in entire qualifications campaign. We missing goal so badly.

    • Go watch the match again and tell us what did Banega do on and off the ball for you name him the standout performer? He hogs the ball when he has to slide it through with a one touch. As much people say he makes Messi play better, to me he slows down the team play. I want him out for Lanzini. Even CDM Paredes can do a better job in Banega’s position with his mobility.

  31. Another 2 games without win. Still we should qualify but some things and names must change. Now it’s at least obvious Acuna may do better than Di Maria. Also in defence. That should be breakthrough moment to drop Di Maria. Also for his poor muscles that never stand when playing his max.

      • Oh, of course. Easy win by 3-4 goals as you predicted? Don’t be ridiculosus. Everytime when Di Maria was absence here and there you say “if only Di Maria was there”. We know him ver well. In most important matches he is either playing poor or injured. Still the same story. Take him for WC is lost of place.

        Acuna was the one who had assist today, not Di Maria.

  32. Well how do you explain that….where to start?
    I guess we had to eventually drop points against virtually every south american team at home. I am sure thats a stat in itself.
    Static movement all over. There is a way of breaking down stubborn defences and it boils down to increase intensity and constant movement on and off the ball.
    Its such a bitch having Messi in our team now. I am getting vexed having to rely on him. Its that annoying brainy kid in class who keeps his hand up and the teacher is looking for an answer from someone else.

  33. Now every team no how Samp team play all they have to do is park the bus and try to sneak a goal and that’s it I’m starting to believe these players from Argentina don’t have heart

  34. Idk what to think.. i was so frustrated… im not giving up as a fan, but peru is going to be harder than Uruguay and venezuala put together…im so disappointed, the subs were awful, pastore should not be called next time. Di maria was finally playing good and the guy gets hurt… I’m torn…

  37. Relax ya all. We still on 5th and even we stay 5th we will face New Zealand. Yes the exception was something wonderful to happen but luck wasn’t with us. I don’t think Peru will beat us in our home. Now we will only miss automatic qualification if we lose next 2 games. This ain’t gonna happen.

    • pastore and banega are pure shit, these guys are pros and they cant run worth shit in a running game WTF. SO pissed off, i hate the site of seeing these guys play. WTF are these guys doing representing a country.This is pure shit this Team of messi and bunch of no buddies should be ashamed of themselves

        • did u see the urgency from him? his turnovers from midfield could have cost a goal. jeez man this guy is center mid u cant do a turnover in the engine room and then just fuckin jog and not try to recover and the list goes on and on. like i dont give a give u plays mid as long as they perform. SIMPLE. Facts are facts and i want the team to Win and we need urgency from mid and rest of the team to move as fast as possible. this is not the 90s that you have more time on the ball, those days are gone. Simple. i dont care who plays as long as the engine clicks and moves fast.

  39. Why sub Dybala?? And why sub Icardi?? Benedetto?????? Seriously??? Give me one reason why this team will suddenly be able to beat Peru!!!!!! And the game in Equador…we all know how that is going to work out. Bye bye world cup.

  46. All these fuck** people advocating for local based players, look at them. Shit right? Next time stop bandgwaing them.

  49. Argentina don’t deserve to go to the world cup, no system, no passing scheme, no agreed on player position, Messi by the defence line while Banega is a striker…..I don’t even know where each player is supposed to be in this formation.

  55. Like I said one year ago, we are sitting and watching Argentina getting knocked out of the world cup before the world cup starts. We are cursed.

  56. Dybala and messi combo is not working. I can see Icardi has more spirit for his country’s flag. Dybala’s arrogance is similar to Higuaín’s.

  62. I am so nervous watching this game right now. Can anyone tell me what if we draw in this match? Looks like it is very hard to win, because Venezuela’s counter attack did threaten us somehow. Messi and Icardi are not on the best form, we need patience , faster ball movement, and a little bit luck in the second half! Vamos Argentina!!!

  67. First half was brilliant possession football. Good passing, good runs, good shots, good combinations (Messi-Dybala starting to find each other) and good chances. Only thing missing is a goal. Argentina deserves a win from this one! Don’t stop believing guys!

  72. So sorry, guys…it looks like we are cursed. Chances and good play, but the goals just won’t come. Banega must be subbed off…he will get sent off if he stays on the pitch.

  73. Okay guys, here we go! The game is A must win and we WILL win! We have to be patient. The goals will come. Vamos Argentina!

    That national anthem was quite a questionable spectacle!:)

  75. I have a feeling that Argentina might peak at right time next summer if we qualify. Hopefully Master Sampoali make Argentina tactically flexible to lift the next world cup.

  76. Average age of today’s Atgentine squad is close to 29 years. 28.727 to be exact and without dybala and Icardi, it’ll be almost 29.5 years. Add one year more by the time we play in Russia.

    Too old sqad.

    • So your point is? Argentina have enough talent to win the world cup, last world cup we did not win despite younger squad. So it is pointless to argue that younger squad is the prediction of cup winner, brazil 2002 had pretty olders squad where as brazil 2014 had young squad and we all know the result.

      • Are you serious? The average age of 2002 brazil’s final-match squad was exactly 26.
        I was talking about age, never talent. And you, sadly, missed my whole point.

        • IF Brazil can win with that FAT ronaldo, so we can with the players we have at disposal. I think you are the one missing point rather criticizing the team on every aspect.

          • That fat Ronaldo will school every footballer ever played exept the top 5 Goats.

            Don’t make fun of that guy, not one player except messi can shine his boots.

  80. Peru spoiled everything. Ecuador are so pathetic but watch they will become something else when they will vs us. We need a win today for ease of the pressure. Paraguay should do a draw with Uruguay.

    • Why do you say that? I was hoping for Peru win. An Ecuador win will keep them in competition. Ecuador is almost out now. By the time we play them it could be a dead rubber, if Argentina wins their home games.

      Argentina need to win their games and not rely so much on others. These results are going in our favor. We need to take advantage of favorable conditions and results. We must beat Venezuela now.

  81. Hope Uruguay result will also go in favour…
    I’m expecting a totally better side today. A solid 3_0 or 4_0 win would only be ideal against Venezuela. And it will place us on second top position in table..
    Looking for a very good performance from Albiceleste… Vamos Argentina!

Comments are closed.