Lionel MESSI, Sergio AGUERO, Javier MASCHERANO and Jorge SAMPAOLI all spoke to the media following the team’s 1-1 draw against Iceland at the FIFA World Cup.
For the first time since the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Argentina have not won their opening match at a FIFA World Cup. However, they went on to reaching the final against West Germany that year and for the team, should they qualify for the second round, it could possibly mean an easier road (on paper, at least) to a potential final. MESSI spoke about his penalty kick and more. Here’s what he had to say:
“We had a hard time creating chances. We’re going to go out there to beat Croatia. We were superior (to Iceland). We tried but it wasn’t to be. Missing the penalty hurt.
“Worried? No, I’m angry and it hurts because I missed the penalty. I feel responsible for not having the 3 points. It would have changed everything. We are calm.
“We don’t have to go crazy. We just started and we know it won’t be easy. It hurts because we deserved to win.”
Sergio AGUERO is also confident about the rest of the World Cup.
“This is just the beginning, there’s still a lot left to play for.”
One of the veterans of the team, Javier MASCHERANO shares AGUERO’s same sentiments.
“This is just the beginning, you are not allowed to fall. Every opponent is different. We wanted to start off with a win but I won’t let it bother me.”
Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli stated that Iceland were well structured but that it is also just the beginning:
“We played against a team that was well structured. This just started, we have to have the strength to play the next match. We will keep working to win the net game.”
Given that croatia will attack and we may need holding midfielders against them and they will also play slightly more open football.
The reaction to Iceland draw may back fire
The team that was used against Iceland may well be more appropriate to play against Croatia
People cheat themselves out taliking the Messi dependece is normal.
Prove?! Everyone here and there knows there are better penaltykickers in our team than Messi but he will always takes the penalties. Monopoly.
It’s just one of many signs of abnormal situation.
he has shared his penalties … its just the forwards Di maria – aguero – Messi know the pressure of a penalty for country .. they chose him … I have never seen Messi crave to take a shot from the spot or behind the wall…
Sampaoli has gone terribly wrong and now he’s got into a place where it’s really difficult to make it through the group…. you can’t win Croatia with biglia…. and you need to find space for world class player..dybala…. compatible and all that is crap…. it would be fine if Argentina had world class midfielders… then you drop dybala…. but we are taking about biglia who won’t make most Asian starting 11 teams…. so dybala well provide more balance simply by bringing at least one player to him….. sampo should have done this… i don’t see any other team leaving any good player out of their starting 11….biglia out and dybala in has to happen…aguero proved why Higuain should be kept away from starting 11… i am a crazy fan of Messi but clearly he has a mental block with penalties… similar to Higuain with one on one chances…. unfortunately Messi is the most talented by leaps but mentally clearly not amongst the best….. but i liked his very matured comments post match yesterday… he’s becoming a bit of a leader which is good…. in all the practise sessions and photos i hardly see Messi with dybala and that makes me suspicious that Messi friend theory is probably true… also samp making cryptic statements such as this is Messi team again and again…. point is the ability is the in the team… they need to come together.. put the best players on the field and hope for the best… hope because they hardly played a fixed 11 in the last 4 years…. so obvious it won’t be a well oiled team…but samp and Messi both better make sure they put the best 11 on the field for the sake of the lovely footballing nation and fur Messi and his fans like me
Mascherano and di Maria need to be dropped
Naah ..look at every match they have played together.. Messi and Dybala .. even on the pitch Messi constantly communicated with dybala… but I think Sampa also has a vision for the team.. spaces he wants covered … plays he wants to make and Lanzini and Meza fit in better.. I would love dybala to stand shoulder to shoulder with Messi and see teams double triple team both… but I also hear meza is a good dribbler himself.. I want the three upfront infront of Messi to look for messi but also identify the times when they need to attack on their own and use the attention he gets…
But back to point… Sampaoli has improved this team.. our passing is decisive but we are predictable and slow… our defense is bad … but it is his team and he is a system coach… let him evolve and he rains those and studies these players .. lets not ride our high horses and be couch managers …
masche was absolutely great last night and here Xahi wants him gone…
hilarious
May be sampaoli will come with 3/ 4 changes against Croatia as per reports that
Pavon Mercado Higuain(I m ok with kun) Locelso may start
………Cabellero (I want Armani)
Mercado Otamendi Rojo Tagliafico
Locelso Masche Banega Pavon
Messi ……Aguero
Mascherano and di Maria need to be dropped . meza pavon and banega should be on starting line
Can’t believe what I saw yesterday.
I didn’t expect it from Sampaoli. Subs were very late and not with impact .Only pavon sparks.Not playing Locelso is no brainer.
Very bad day
I just expect Brazil draw or loss today….
Where are sampaoli’s tactics ??
Very Average performance by us.Not playing more friendly has cost us.
I am very hurt ..my family too
All the players including Goat feels the heat now….
More scary moment to come against Croatia. Then Nigeria….
Hope we will have some luck in our favour.
Vamos Argentina
Beat the Croatians..our back is in wall..
Keep Supporting
We will win ..
Mascherano and di Maria need to be dropped . meza pavon and banega should be on starting line up
Blame basile
Blame maradona
Blame Batista
Blame Tata (2 finals)
Blame Sampaoli
Thatβs what I always read with our fans
2 nothing wrong with sampa last match – messi missed penalty which cost us but people on here afraid to criticise him like a god
Messi best moment was almost scoring but missed post
He had poor free kicks too
Problem we have is Salvio and Rojo and Tagliafico
Put Fazio centre and Rojo on left
Mercado on right
That way defence better
Lo Celso must start with Pavon on left and di Maria on right
This team and we win
I’m fairly new to this board, although I’ve been reading it for years. I just want to applaud all of the Argentina fans who root for our team, not because of any ties to Argentina, like myself, but because you love our team! Lately what a leap of faith this has been. I have been following the national team my whole life, but there is one thing that has changed over the past few years and that is in the past no matter if Argentina won/lost/draw they always played well and had a certain style, At least from my perspective. I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but several years back I started to see horrible displays on the pitch. Argentina seems to have lost it’s style of play. Not sure if this started with the Messi dependence era or what. I would love to see us get back to the good old days, when no matter the result on the scoreboard, we at least rarely lost on the field.
” I canβt pinpoint exactly when, but several years back I started to see horrible displays on the pitch. Argentina seems to have lost itβs style of play. Not sure if this started with the Messi dependence era or what. I would love to see us get back to the good old days, when no matter the result on the scoreboard, we at least rarely lost on the field”.
Most of us has the same feeling. Argentina lost the style of past. Today there’s no sentence about Argentina not to hear Messi name. Pundits, people around are joking of Argentina as that funny team who totaly depends on one man. We are such a one dimensional team. No movement, no quick pass, no driblings from other player than Messi.
First play footballers whos passing repertoire wider than 5-10m alibi passes in the nearest opponents, Salvio, Tagliafico, Biglia, Meza (I know they can better, but it doesnt matter if fear to try them, what they can in argentina Primera against lower opponenst who cares? Show it!
They will not try the passes or brave driblings as far as coach is allowing the attitude “it’s always better looking for Messi”. If Meza said: “I’m looking for Messi to pass first of all” that’s wrong. Here coach should come in and tell him few things. FIrst of all: “Don’t you think it’s predictable to pass to Messi first of all”. It’s no coincidence that Meza, Maria, even AGuero and Biglia, best games in NT were when Messi was off for several reasons. They play his best when are not in Messi shadow.
Baring BIglia you named players that are not main problems trying to ignore – as always – the fact Di Maria is useless. Biglia, Di Maria, Rojo – 3 worst players. Instead you want to point at players that were not impressive but not first to blame – the more they are just starting with NT. Unfortunately you and probably our coach will act as if Di Maria was still good player and worth to field over Meza.
The logic is crazy: Di Maria may fuck up 80 matches in NT and he will still start while new, young player need to play great since first cap or will be dropped.
Di Maria can play on world class level, ofc bad either, inconsistent, but the talent is there. Meza will never play on world class level, when he is good just always average, never will create the different against a strong side in the knockout stages, never, just like Enzo Perez or Lavezzi, never ever, from the first minutes everybody knew they cannot score goals or give assists in the knockout, exactly that happened. maybe they played “good” or were physichal, but all the creativities had gone with them. Meza consistent? Ok that’s always an average performance on the highest level, so never will create the different in the knockout stages, never. Di Maria is inconcistent? Ok he’s bad or world class, if hes bad we still struggle just like with average performances, and wait the miracle from Messi, but if hes world class, the different is there. Di Maria talent is uncapped, Meza talent is capped, and not enough high to beat real strong sides. With Dima at least there’s a chance.
I never bashed Biglia, he’s a good DM, defensive midfielder, not a player with Mascherano in 2 pivots system or zentral midfielder, what never worked good.
“Meza will never play on world class level, when he is good just always average, never will create the different against a strong side in the knockout stages, never, just like Enzo Perez or Lavezzi, never ever”.
Are you crazy man?! What you have said is total bullshit. You try to distort facts.
The fact is Enzo and Lavezzi were exactly the players who made positive difference in last tournaments. Everyone was so impressed by the two when they came late in tournament. Everyone was angry when Sabella took Lavezzi out in final 2014. Everyone was angry when Lavezzi catch the injury in semifinal of Copa being our best player in that match. He came late in the torunament and made fantastic difference.
What about Meza? Well, you don’t know how though are SOuth American club games in final stages. It’s similar to qualifiers in SOuth America. To play impressive game against Flamengo on Maracana in final of Copa Sudamericana is prove of quality. But I don’t expectate any knowledge about Meza abilities from man who never before NT debut watched him in full game and even said Meza is slow what is best prove of ignorance on that matter.
I think its funny you Gonzalo are all through this thread blaming Messi, meanwhile when he stopped playing Argentina almost didn’t qualify for the World Cup. We have seen the supposed “unshackled” team without Messi and it was garbage. If he was smart he would never have come back and we would have seen if this super squad which was being “held back” by Messi would even be in Russia at all, but he cares about his country too much so he came back to suffer more trashing from people like you.
Once Again: it’s matter of time to adapt to new situation. At the beginning of period when Messi was long injured (2015/16) in Barcelona the club was also ramshackled. But with the time they learn how to play without Messi. THey were noting win after win and able to beat even Real Madrid 4:0 away. First it’s shock to play without Messi but then slowly you must adapt and grow. It tskes some time.
gonzalo i have no issue with you but i have to say that you prove that you are a messi hater.yes offcourse messi is human.being human he also made mistake.but that’s why you cannot change his natural attitude.i mean you have right to change his position(if you become coach)or share your own vision but you can’t stoop messi to dribbling;passing;if
messi have big problem why not pep never told that.every club manager wish he had messi.
“share your own vision but you canβt stoop messi to dribbling;passing”
if only he was passing more (not only to trapped Aguero) instead abuse driblings I will be happy
“i have to say that you prove that you are a messi hater”
I used to the situation where any critic towards Messi is called “hate”. Our biggest problem is that people thinks he is doing all things good. But he is not God to be infallible.
I don’t care someone call me “hater” because I dare call a spade a spade. THis stuff doesn’t work on me. I have long tradition to be against common opinion.
I see only the ultimate aim: I mean Messi dependency may still brings goals against Croatia and Nigeria but will cost us a lot in 1/8 or 1/4 at least. Sampaoli must change some things.
“I see only the ultimate aim: I mean Messi dependency may still brings goals against Croatia and Nigeria but will cost us a lot in 1/8 or 1/4 at least. ”
2014 wrong, 2015 wrong, 2016 wrong, and if it not for Higuain these 3 wins, then maybe the first time you will right you will be the loudest. So far you are completely wrong, but cant stop bullshitting.
Btw we see what is world class on Aguero’s goal, with Pratto this would be an easy loss. Without world class players winning WC is only a dream.
“and if it not for Higuain these 3 wins, then maybe the first time you will right you will be the loudest”
hahaha!
And who started to loud here on 2014 WC that Higuain must be dropped as soon as possible having against almost all Mundo. In that time to say a word against him was a blasphemy. The same with Di Maria, Biglia and others. You stick with Higuain and Di Maria for years still not being able to admit they are shit. You said recently that feel “comfortable with Biglia.
so keep on
Pratto is player who could have not score from the situation Aguero scored yesterday but he could earn us other opportunities by his incessant movement.
And now go and see the opponent teams on last Copas. How many crucial players were not on the tournament. Reaching final was not big success as you think. But now you want to tell me Argentina reaching final of Copa is big success.
“And now go and see the opponent teams on last Copas. How many crucial players were not on the tournament. Reaching final was not big success as you think. But now you want to tell me Argentina reaching final of Copa is big success.”
The motto of Copa America 2004, your ultimate reason, Copa America B with local players against Brazil C in final, that was not a success. Except Argentina and Brazil 1% of the football fans can name 10 players from the other teams altogether, local tournament without stars, not success, and that was a great argentina generation btw, but opponents were very weak.
Columbia biggest star was Edwin Congo? π Chile? I cant name even one player, Uruguay? Huhh man maybe the young United flop Forlan, take a look on these squads, pathetic, can’t compare with last Copas, another dimension.
That B inexperienced Argentina playing great football, scoring in final against B Brazil and other teams looked far better than Argentina A with Messi playing poor tournaments, and especially finals of Copa, without any idea how to break defence. Argentina 2004 prove the class on Olimpic Games.
Every neutral football fan may tell you that Argentina is horrible to watch thesedays and in 2014 when they crawled to final. The difference is that in 2014 thay had solid defence and lucky draw. Now we have not neither good draw for final stages nor good defence.
Great football, but against who? Weak, lower level B teams? If that would be a Copa America A thats a complete different story. Current Argentina plays great football against Bangladesh, Hongkonk and Haiti too.
Don’t try to ignore context: context was that Bilsa team was builded from scratch. The players were playing beatifull football being together for the first tournament. If it was only one tournament – ok. But that was COpa and Olimpic Games- 2 great tournaments with mostly new, young players.
Now there’s group of friends playing together for years (and still clueless baring pre-WC period of Sabella) and they weren’t able to win Copas with ruinded Brazil and other teams without their stars. And the poor impressions of finals – completely different to 2014 team….
Ofcourse yesterday was not messi’s day but don’t forget that argentina is playing in the world cup because of him only otherwise they didn’t even qualify.
Thats the way it goes, get the team further than it should go then be criticized but geniuses afterwards. If he would have stay retired we would be watching this WC like Chile from at home.
With only Mezas ARG have zero chance to win anything, i was not really impressed with him, seems hardworker, but not enough creative and a little bit limited, not bad just average on the highest level, Pavon and Lo Celso on the other hand world class potentials, im not sure they are ready yet, but our only hope if they play.
If Meza hadn’t more to offer than he show yesterdy I would not for him.At least better than Di Maria and wanted to do anything, any movement. Unfortunately Messi was ignoring him most of the game.
abuse dribbling ha ha ha.argentina not winning a single major trophy since 1993 all those fault goes for messi???
If you can’t see Messi dribbles too much there’s something wrong with your eyes.
“something wrong my eyes” same goes to you.i have only one question to you and some fans who always blame messi and ko that is why argentina not winning a single major trophy since 1993???
I wouldn’t say too much I would say he tried too many times a hopeless situations. In a good day messi can dribble through the whole defense and even finish with a goal. He had a bad day it’s just simple. Your totally right about the bielsa team. You just can’t compare those guys to our current squad.
Gonzalo, : Smapoli was fantastic when he had Chile β team without big stars, team of 11 players, warriors (including Vidal and Sanchez but not giving them whole team).
THe fact is we have best coaches on the world. THey are best till not take our NT with Messi in. THen they start just to make Messi comfortable. Gareca is great with Peru. If he was our coach would be the same.
Ok, i got inna way and not really got inna way ? Because if sampa was and do knowvthstvhevreallyvwasbgood with chile and Sevilla too playing collective team football and not giving the whole team to vidal and sanchez, then why on earthbhe gave argentina’s whole team to Messi alone ? i mean he cant be that stupid that even though he said that his dream was coaching the best player on earth and also he said that he would love to coach his and our’s beloved argentina too, then why on earth he says and gives the whole team to Messi and call’s it a Messi Team ? Theese kind of actions by hin just cause nore pressure on Messi and nobody that even dont follow or play football at all knows that football is game of teamsport and not annindividual sport like tennis or golf, right ? A n i do undestsnd that Messi may be above all, but still he knows that he can’t win nothing by himself alone, right ? if there were no pep or xavi or iniesta or busquets or alba or suarez, neymar and that funny little brazilian comedian who played in barca before now via juve to paris, then i don’t think Messi would have won nothing, right ? Because we’re talking about teamsport collective football, right ? And i do belive hat if he really want to win something more is the worlcup with his beloved country, right ? That is why is very hard for me to understand why on earth he goes and accepts sampa’s stupid invitation to take the whole team on his shoulders ?
I mean nobody who plays football cant be that stupid that thinks he can win everything by himself and also i dont see any other coach giving a whole team to a single player either because they all know for sure there is no only 1 man team it is impossible play alone against eleven others, right ?
we all clearly can see that everybody passes the ball to messi and expect him dobthe rest but all of us see clearly that when the opposite team take himby 3 players then is gameover, right ? And Messi knows this allready by playing with barca but in there somehow they have managed pretty good ubder several coaches like pep, enrique and now with new coach again they won la liga and copa as well ! And he did not do it alone even he was in quite good form this year, right ? So i see this more of sampa’s fault than Messi’s fault by sampa giving the whole team to Messinand calling it Messi’s team, right? Because same situation is been with argentina’s team since pekerman left ? and after that there has not been really avgood coach( maybe exept sabella, who tooknus to final last year and was able to change tactics upsidedown when he raelised that fab4 collabsed ! but his bench selection wasn’t goid enough and when the oppurtunity to fell to our hans we could not take it mainly because poor finishing but this allready 4 years ago and nothing has changed really since then, right ? And why barca can play with messi but argentina cant ? it is all very strange to me and i cant belive that the cup which Messi want’s to win more than nothing else and he has been allready to 3 different finals a row then i do not belive that he thinks he can win it by himself or nobody does this vompletly nonsense now what i’m talking to u right now and everyone is propably laughing their guts out, lol ! But we all know that he is under enormous pressure allready after 3 finals which he and argentina all lost so whatbis really samas idea to by giving the whole team to Messi and calling it Messi’s team, absolutly madness to add more pressure to our best plsyer by far whonis allready under tremendous pressure ! Why not instead try to find away tomplay with hinm like barca does ?
Is the answer because argentina dont have same qualitybplayers like barca do or is because of bad chemistry, bad coaching , bad player selection not only the 23 man squad but also the starting eleven against iceland or is it just all bad because of Messi himself wantingthe ball all the time ? I dont think that he really likes to drop so down and not let our other players to play at at all ! I think is more of coaching problem that they cant find away to play with him and not him wanting the ball all the time, right? The coach must be ressponsable for for his tactics and his player selections etc. otherwise there is no point to be coach at all, right ? Then why not name messi only be the captain of team whichbi thinknis also a misstake by the coach himself like giving the whole team to him and naming it his team etc…then sampa should name Messi to be the coach as well and fire himself out of the team, right ? This is all just really pure madness by the coach himself adding just more fuel in to the fire won’t help anything or solve any of our reams problems, right ? all this makes really angry with sampa and not with Messi though yesterday and some few occasiions before i been angry to him as well but like i said adding more pressure to him wont help anything and also quitting him wont help until there is chemistry builded by the whole team and if barca can do it with pep, enrique even with tata at somepoint it worked maybe not so well like pep, enrique but still Messi has had several coaches during his carrieer with barca i think he has done pretty well, right ? Then there must be more of a proplem with the coaches he has had with arhgentina than with barca, right ?
I’m not trying to argue with you or neither do i want make u mad to me, but why other southamerican tems can play better than us like sampa did with chile but we cant play good with any coach we have had exept maybe sabella and that was more of survival game strategy which worked pretty well though and allmost gave us what we all want like what Messi and all the people who support albiceleste want, right ? it’s all reallybstrange to me and i purely base my own oppinion on player selection by the coach whichbalso add’s more pressure to Messi because we all know that there only maybe a very few from the so called old guard who can truly deliver the rest has been allways shit and kun finally got his first ever world cup goal and how many world cups has he also played allready and even he has been and maybe still is verybinjury prone player his stats man city according to his injury prone seasons one after another are still quite good for a striker, right ?
Icardi’s are much better ifvihave understood right only one who’s finishing rate according to age is Harry Kane, but even i do support spurs because of my old man did and because ardiles and villa played there too, and now they have great manager who’s argentinian placing his trust on young breed like sampa supposed to do, but what happenned i dont know but he truly made huge misstake taking bilia, rojo, di maria and propably higuain and mascherano too with him to russia. Theese guys should have never entered the palne at all but offcourse it is all too late but not only that because whst he did against iceland was terrible to watch biglia, di maria, rojo should deffinetly never play with argentina no more ! But i think we will see them unfortunatly again until we go out of tournament at somepoint and now it looks like sooner than we all expected specially if he sampa doesnt change his mind set and try to find away tonpaly with Messi, mission impossible, maybe ?
“But we all know that he is under enormous pressure allready after 3 finals which he and argentina all lost so whatbis really samas idea to by giving the whole team to Messi and calling it Messiβs team, absolutly madness to add more pressure to our best plsyer by far whonis allready under tremendous pressure !”
in point
Gonzalo, : Smapoli was fantastic when he had Chile β team without big stars, team of 11 players, warriors (including Vidal and Sanchez but not giving them whole team).
THe fact is we have best coaches on the world. THey are best till not take our NT with Messi in. THen they start just to make Messi comfortable. Gareca is great with Peru. If he was our coach would be the same ..WELL SAID FRIEND !!!
Usually my world cup starts with Argentina and ends the day we get knocked out. And results like yesterday are very hard to take in in the past, but yesterday I was calm becos I saw this coming. The moment the team decided to pass around in their own half in the first 90 seconds after kick off u know they are a clueless bunch with no confidence whatsoever. Heart breaking moments from yesterday’s match for me was not the draw itself or Messi’s pk miss but we didn’t test their GK at all. Nobody wanted to even try to shoot. Going backward all the time. The great Messi walking around the entire second half. Messi trying to play one two inside a crowded penalty box defended by giant men. None of our players trying to win free kicks at strategic positions. Sorry but I have to bring in CR7 here. He chose where he wanted to hit his free kick from and cleverly won it their. Watching CR7 treat a high profile WC cup match like just another la liga match and literally having fun out there and comparing to the embarassment that we displayed yesterday, I just cannot comprehend it at all. Our worst nightmare has dawn on us. Thank you Sampaio and the AFA.
To some transfer news.
Nico Gonzalez of Argentinos is wanted by Inter and Fiorentina.
Claudio Spinelli is wanted by Marseille.
17 year old Julian Carranzo is wanted by Ajax.
Joaquin Torres of Newell’s is looked at by Sporting.
16 year old Amione of Belgrano is being targetted by Juventus
I am from Pakistan, I really support Arg football as my own country. Arg couldn’t get the desired result due to two reasons:
(1) Due to ronaldo hatrick, Messi was under pressure to perform in the same way to compete him in the world cup.
(2) Sampaoli is selecting team based on likes & dislikes. AFA should interfere. Most talented player after Messi is Dybala, who is on the bench. Can Germany, Brazil do this? Messi should think of his country, he should not create hurdles in the way of Dybala. In Sha ALLAH, we will win the world cup.
do you think messi don’t play for albiceleste???messi were given many offer to play as a spanish but every time he refused.if he plaid for spain now he had 1 wc and 2euro.do you understand what i mean???
do you think messi don’t play for albiceleste???messi were given many offer to play as a spanish but every time he refused.if he played for spain now he had 1 wc and 2euro.do you understand what i mean???
from yesterday i don t have desire to write or say anything really.
i feel so sad. as every time my national team loses. because for me the draw yesterday was like loss.
yesterday the team was very bad. even Messi for his standards.
i am not Messi fan. i am Argentina fan.
i born like this and till i die i will be.
Messi will go after this or after next world cup but the team will continue.
Maradona come and go. Kempes Ardilles Pasarella and many other players come and go.
Messi will be same.
AFA should finally keep one phylosophy to the team. support one coach till end and let him work in one long term project. to create one TEAM. not somebody s team.
the team should became from Messi s team to AFA team.
which the best players. the players that deserves to wear the honored albiceleste jersey will wear.
not who is friend to who.
all the guys that is Argentina team fans and not Argentina because they love Messi will understand what i am saying.
if Sampaoli afraid to use the best players AFA should support and help him to stop afraid and work free.
if Sampaoli don t afraid and doing this decitions with his own then after world cup should fire him
IF WE FAIL.
i wish we could have Diego Simeone as national coach.
it is impossible right now but i have in my mind the promise that Diego game to some fans some months before that one day he will accept to be national team coach.
i will keep that dream in my brain.
Agree. I hope everyone who would be 32+ by the time world cup 2022 starts should retire or should be kept away from the team. Look into the domestic league and pick the best u20s and get them to the national team. They will lose horribly in the beginning. But will get better and give us good football and results in 2-3 years.
We played a decent game and we were unlucky for not scoring more goals. This is not new we have been through this too many times. What worries me more is the fact our coaching staff goes back to what didn’t work. Slow midfield and lack of creativity. The whole time we have been fooled with the illusion of a different midfield with LoCeslso at the end he gave us an useless guy like Banega. Too bad!
I am from Pakistan, I really support Arg football as my own country. Arg couldn’t get the desired result due to two reasons:
(1) Due to ronaldo hatrick, Messi was under pressure to perform in the same way to compete him in the world cup.
(2) Sampaoli is selecting team based on likes & dislikes. AFA should interfere. Most talented player after Messi is Dybala, who is on the bench. Can Germany, Brazil do this? Messi should think of his country, he should not create hurdles in the way of Dybala. In Sha ALLAH, we will win the world cup.
Relax everyone. No need to Panic. I always knew Iceland would be the hardest in the grp stage. We are Argentina and we are stronger than Croatia and Nigeria. If Sampa fix his formation and personnel we should beat the next 2 opponents because they will give us more space then Iceland. We are Argentina and if we cry and think we ll lose against Croatia and Nigeria then we are not Argentina.
Not that I put a whole lot of faith in the FIFA rankings, but Iceland is currently ranked #22 and there are 32 teams at this World Cup. I just put this out there to help keep things in perspective. Given Iceland’s style of play and tactics against big teams I always felt this would be Argentina’s toughest match in the group stage. Hopefully I’m proven right.
So France barely pulls of a win against Australia who is ranked #36 and Uruguay does the same against Egypt who is ranked #45, while Portugal and Spain tie and we act like it’s the end of the world because we tied Iceland. Argentina completey dominated all facets of the game and was unlucky. Could/should we have done better, sure but if not for a defensive lapse and Messi missing a penalty we would have easily won 2-0 if not by more as Iceland would have fallen apart if they hadn’t scored so quickly. Futbol is not fair and this WC has just begun. If any team is used to playing with their backs against the wall as of late it has been Argentina . A few changes to the lineup and we will be back on track.
Nigeria is ranked #48
Well said shOvwar!
Lets hope Sampaoli make the right changes and keep the faith in our stars. We sould win.
Vamos
Any news about training session?
Starting xi is in gym, reserve are in practice. As per tyc sports Mercado locelso pavon may be in starting xi against Croatia.
What about caballero and rojo?? Fazio and Armani should also be there
I rewatched the period how we conceded the goal with slow motion.
It was Biglia who made a sloppy pass in the midfield and we lost the ball. He had a chance to recover the ball, but he did not made enough effort, and after that he ran like it was none of his business.
The other defenders did ok, but did not really made extra effort in this incident, only Meza made some extra effort, but iceland was lucky also, our defenders could not have done more to save this goal.
In conclusion, Biglia was the person to blame for this goal we conceded.
Sampaoli is the person to blame. we all know biglia sucks. all critics around the world knows how slow and ineffective biglia is. the only person on earth that does not know these facts is Sampaoli.
i did not like what I saw yesterday. i know Iceland parked the bus but there is no excuses at all. i do not see any solution to the same apparent old problems we have. argentina just can not create chance. they can not defend properly.
i wish my beloved NT a good luck but i have to be honest with my self , this team most likely will fail to advance.
I don’t want to post but have to post.many guys are so negetive and started crying for celso;dybala etc.before sampaoli those guys blamed buaza before buaza blamed tata may be blamed train to be continued…sampaoli knows football better than us.someone said if pakermen stay now then argentina win something.pakermen lost his chance in 2006(may be best chance in recent years).many guys are so panic or react quickly.it’s just start and argentina have two more game.
some one even criticised messi.really???messi said many that he wants to win something for his country instead his club trophy.the guy who most want to win wc.sampaoli have clear idea.and his observation is too good.i give just one example.in 2016 sampaoli said an interview that keylor navas is the one of the best player of rm that time i was surprised but rm won three ucl in a row and one of there important player is navas.
anyway i don’t want to post everyday.let’s see what happened.
We can just hope for good next time.
“some one even criticised messi.really???”
This is it! That’s the mentality. You can’t critic Messi. He is “saint”.
That’s the mentality of our coaches as well. If Messi is not enough inteligent to dismantle opponents defence then coach should come and tell him: “hey man! maybe you should try to look around and pass in tempo instead bang with the head against wall”. Unfortunately our coaches share the attitude with you and take MEssi as untouchable. Messi doesn’t look on the pitch as playing coach he need someone over him to be instructed.
Messi criticised himself and takes the blame. Why we cant if he played below expectation..?
I don’t think he played below expectations (missed penalty is not surprising as well). I know he want so much and give all energy or even more. But he need coach – someone who will have the guts to tell him that some things should do in different way.
Yes, he criticised himself, but he will do the same things again and again when we will meat wall like defence. That’s coach duty to find and tell him other way to break opponents.
“5 lessons learned from Argentinaβs deep freeze against Iceland”
http://www.cricketsoccer.com/2018/06/16/5-lessons-learned-from-argentinas-deep-freeze-against-iceland/
At least the new, holiday, Mundo members got their humility lesson. I saw here so much outrage because 17 votes of circa 1000 was on lost. 17 of 1000! It was really so far from lost?
Small group of old members on Mundo got their lesson of humility many times here and that learn us not to be never arrogant. Now there is 1000 new fans, that want to be more popish than the pope, and that will left the site after tournament, as always, and they want to learn us how to be real Argentina fan and how you can’t be pessimist and predict lost and so on…
Its always better to think Logically, Be realistic, Nowadays all teams are hard to beat, All are prepared well for a World Cup, Look at France vs Australia, France barely scrambled against the Aussies. Iceland was always a tough team to beat after how they performed at the Euros. We were not expected to win the World Cup With all the chaos happened to us in the last year, Its not Magic or a FIFA Game, Any coach needs time to prepare a team especially NTs, To implement a Blue print of a particular coach will definitely take time. So it will be far better that we can satisfy with at least a top 4 finish, Anything better will be a miracle. It is what it is. Now at least lets hope to get to the Second round. that too looks tough now. Realistically speaking.
I have no idea how on earth a defense with Otamendi & Rojo are gonna cut the cake for us.Add to that Caballero too.(He should have been played in the last WC not now) We now already miss Romero(Mind it that he is not a great GK, He was always an Ok GK. Argentina rarely produce World Class Goal Keepers, Add to that Defenders & Full Backs too & Also Now unfortunately Central Midfielders (Aimar, Riquelme, Veron, Ortega..The list was endless, now the supply has stopped. now all youngsters want to be Messi i think, Our Midfield is now not looking promising)
With all this how can we expect to win a WC.
“if we expect nothing from anybody we are never disappointed” May be those lines are far suited to us Argentine Football Fans.
Mik, i totally agree with u, but right it pretty much seems that sampa can’t fin it out, i hope to be wrong though ? : Nothing matters by the way we are all online coaches, How Sampa gonna think is what matters. Hopefully we can somehow make it to the second Round. Thatβs only to say. Take each match at a time.
Argentina will have better time against croatia
Not only were Iceland in discipline but aerial balls and crosses were never possible cause of their physicality.
Argentina should have waited and tried to draw them forward
And they were too slow which have them plenty of time to regroup
They never hurried it on the iceland
Now it’s must win game against Croatia
Why cant we try Acuna in Left & Pavon in right, Both Acuna & Pavon are way comfortable on the wings they both r fast too.
Something like this.
Armani
Mercado – Otamendi – Fazio – Tagliafico
Mascherano – Lo celso/Banega
Pavon – Messi – Acuna
Aguero.
Nothing matters by the way we are all online coaches, How Sampa gonna think is what matters. Hopefully we can somehow make it to the second Round. That’s only to say. Take each match at a time.
Gonzalo, may i ask u do u think this is Messi’s own fault or is it just bad coaching ? Because with barca he’s quite good, right ? So why it can’t work with Argentina if it works with barca ? Is it because he maybe is obbsessed to win with his country too much or just simply because of bad coaching ? : We may build again and again imagine midfields wiith new most creative players but this is without sense as long as the man with number 10 on back is dropping there to permanently disturb creative initiative of our midfielders and make them totally indolent. Our midfielders will never show full of their potential when he is there. Creative players turning into poor attendants. This is nothing more than Messi monopoly.
Messi has no character. When things go wrong he lose his head as it was in Copa finals and yesterday. THereβs psychological mechanism that tell you about people who canβt control things that happens to them in life that they often likes fast driving because that give them the feeling of control.
THe same Messi, when things go wrong instead try soemthing new he is baging your head on the wall of opponents defenceβ¦ into the middle of the defenceβ¦ striving to dribble with 3-4 defenders. He act as blind. The more things go wrong the more he wants to do all thins by himself. We saw as ROnoaldo didnβt lose his head in final minutes when things were going wrong. He said then that he believed they can do that. Messi yesterday didnβt looked like man full of hope, rather like desperate banging with head at the wall.
Even fastest dribling will not transfer the ball as quick as quick, one touch, passing. Thereβs no other player who is slowing down our attack as much as Messi abusing dribling. Messi passing again and again to Aguero who has on his back 2-3 defenders has no sense. We are most predictable team on the WC.
You may see it all on the video below. BTW look at 5:15 of this movie. LOL Mascherano handing the ball to dropping back Messi as real attendant β this team is completely deformed :
youtube.com/watch?v=tbylp_WZAsg
Ricky Vila
I’m not a coach but some things are so apparent. Smapoli gave the team to Messi. He said that himself. Nothing to add. Even Bauza did not go that far.
Messi still may score winning goal or goals against Croatia and Nigeria and then people will happy and convinced that everything is ok. But wait for better opponent and you will see again that Messi can’t do that alone and on the other hand his presence there is the main reason why we can’t do that also collectively, as a team.
Smapoli was fantastic when he had Chile – team without big stars, team of 11 players, warriors (including Vidal and Sanchez but not giving them whole team).
THe fact is we have best coaches on the world. THey are best till not take our NT with Messi in. THen they start just to make Messi comfortable. Gareca is great with Peru. If he was our coach would be the same.
My Spanish grammar is not good. Does anyone can help me and translate the words from article about Meza:
“Pide la pelota, se hace cargo”, lo elogia Messi ahora. “Lo observo muchΓsimo. Cuando tengo la pelota suele estar por mi zona, y lo busco como primera opciΓ³n”, devuelve
lanacion.com.ar/2143619-el-ultimo-de-la-seleccion-maximiliano-meza-es-la-conexion-argentina-con-la-galaxia-messi
These are Meza words about Messi? or the other way around
I suppose Meza about Messi and it tell us a lot how our new promising players are losing initiative and the best things they may give us becuase of looking always for Messi first of all. Pitiful. I can’t imagine such situation in Germany or Spain team. Primitivism and infantilism. Why there’s no coach who will intervene and to say: “Hey man! you should just pass to player who is on best position and not first to Messi.
In the press conference Sampaoli acknowledged that the team was slow on the left flank and hence I expect Di Maria not to start in next game.
Do you have full interview link??
https://youtu.be/nZk1-LEWHak
As far as I know our coaches he will drop anyone to keep Di Maria. Probably Meza. After all Di Maria was great LOL
San Isidro , there is no more really to add after this comment of yours reveals it all ! One last thing for all of us to think of and suffer until the next game.
Do you know how bad Armani and Guzman have to be to be backups to Caballero? Exactly. Tell me there is no friends club and politics.
This is nothing other than some asshole in the AFA thinking he should have had his chance before and now getting one. YES U ARE ABSOLUTLY RIGHT ABOUT THIS ONCE AGAIN, sad but true !
Any news on line up against Croatia?
We may build again and again imagine midfields wiith new most creative players but this is without sense as long as the man with number 10 on back is dropping there to permanently disturb creative initiative of our midfielders and make them totally indolent. Our midfielders will never show full of their potential when he is there. Creative players turning into poor attendants. This is nothing more than Messi monopoly.
Messi has no character. When things go wrong he lose his head as it was in Copa finals and yesterday. THere’s psychological mechanism that tell you about people who can’t control things that happens to them in life that they often likes fast driving because that give them the feeling of control.
THe same Messi, when things go wrong instead try soemthing new he is baging your head on the wall of opponents defence… into the middle of the defence… striving to dribble with 3-4 defenders. He act as blind. The more things go wrong the more he wants to do all thins by himself. We saw as ROnoaldo didn’t lose his head in final minutes when things were going wrong. He said then that he believed they can do that. Messi yesterday didn’t looked like man full of hope, rather like desperate banging with head at the wall.
Even fastest dribling will not transfer the ball as quick as quick, one touch, passing. There’s no other player who is slowing down our attack as much as Messi abusing dribling. Messi passing again and again to Aguero who has on his back 2-3 defenders has no sense. We are most predictable team on the WC.
You may see it all on the video below. BTW look at 5:15 of this movie. LOL Mascherano handing the ball to dropping back Messi as real attendant – this team is completely deformed :
youtube.com/watch?v=tbylp_WZAsg
Paplo D, u must be 1 of the so called og’s in this forum, right ? I have allways read your comments with similar kinfbof mindset you are posting and i still do, only now i’m just posting because just wished allredy a long ago that sampaoli or some other dumbass coach we had in the past after pekerman left that there would be a day that one those dumbass coaches will at least have quick look at what people are posting in this forum for quite long time allready, but that has beeen just a stupid wish of my own and nothing unfortunatly have changed ! This comment of your’s once again show ‘s your wisdom of football knowledge and i do wish that sampa would readvit as well, but saddly offcourse he doesn’t ! : todays insipid game and result falls on the head of samp, he really got to many things wrong from the start -once again that duo or mach and bil does not work and why vs a team that was always going to park the bus, rojo at the back over Fazio was wrong and rojo is very average to say the least, willy looks like a βrabbit in headlightsβ, pavon clearly should start over d.maria who offered his usual ineffective service,, ban did his usual and over l.c why? the far to late induction of pavon then our βsaviorβ hig who he played out on the right but leaves dybala totally out of the game.
samp you got it wrong today and you had better learn fast but im not going to put any money on that happening.
ricky villa: thank you sir and its a pleasure reading your posts.
yes i go back to the 1st days of this fantastic forum.
Must B Albiceleste, yes this is how it all sum’s up when there is no decen’t coach around for at least a decade(maybe sabella, not sure though, but at least he guidedcargentina tonthe final, which was not ment to be because we all know what really happenned there even we’re superior to against rhe german’s ! Poor finishing, bad luck, bad bench ? I quess all of those 3 things cost us dearly, but that was then an now is now with this idiot dumbass coach named sampaoli who supposed to be our saviour but turned up to be our killer ! Sorry, to say but i do not belive in his abbility to bring us nothing elsevthan missery again ! I know insound very desperate, but after a decade one start’s to slowly turn to a barking dog, which offcourse is not a good thing at all but frustration is eating me alive at the moment though i try to calm myself down and wish for the best of Argentina ! This comment of yours : pretty much give ‘s us all the whole story behind the scenes ! : We may Cry, we can think, we can make our own starting XI but nothing is in our hand. Things may work or may not work our coaches will not change.
For me the biggest culprit is Sampoli and his team selection. Over confidence, declaring the team 72 hours before the match. I cannot see any improvement in our game if we compare with Tata Martino (yes better than Bauza off-course)
β For how many years our midfield means Mascherano and Bigila? I doubt whether Xavi-Iniesta played those many matches for Spain together. Whenever Bigila is not in the team we played better. What was his contribution today other than slowing down the midfield and making few back-passes? In Copa 2016 we were superb throughout but just before the final Agusto was injured and Bigila back in the team, same story continues, we were poor in the final again. For the last 6 months Sampoli was building midfield around Lo Celso now just 6 days before Sampoli changed his mind and put Mascherano-Bigila together.
Is this Sampoliβs decision alone? I really doubt. How Bigila is always a starter?
β Otamendi and Rojo started only 1 match earlier against Spain and we know the result. But again Otamendi and Rojo, not Fazio. Whenever Iceland attacked, we paniked. Canβt imagive what will happen when Brazil, Germany or Spain will attack us. May be this is our best possible option. Willy failed to clear a single ball comfortably. Very very poor, suddently I am missing Romero the most.
β Tite needed just 2 games to utilize Coutinho and Neymar together, even though their playing position almost same and itβs more than 6 months Sampoli failed to find a way to use both Messi and Dybala together. Is Sampoli even tried to use them together? No, because Dybala was not even selected for several matches and just before World Cup because of criticism he had to take one of Dybala and Icardi, he decided to go for Dybala.
How Sampoli can be so dumb to include Bigila and omitting Dybala? That cannot be his choice alone..
β 10 out of 11 Iceland players are more than 6 ft tall then why Fazio was not in the team? We played with one Center-back in defense.
β In Practice session I have seen how short of confidence Willy was. In training he doesnβt even have any clue where Messi or Dybala was placing their shots in the goal. Only Armani blocked few shots, I have seen. Despite conceding 5 goals out of 5 shots against Spain, still Sampoli started with Willy, who is really slow, has poor reflexes and short of confidence.
β Di Maria β Only 22 seconds on the clock Di Maria lost his first ball position and from there he never recovered. Not even tried to linkup with taglifico whereas as soon as Pavan came he linked with taglifico as well as tried to link with Messi and other forwards. Why always Di Maria?
Now Messi, if you look at the highlight of the match, then one cannot say that he was that poor other than miss-penalty and free-kicks. Messi had his moment and on some other day he would have scored at least 1 goal. But what disappointed me the most was his body-language. He started well despite he was tightly marked. 15/16 minutes on the clock he wanted return ball but I believe Meza (or someone else?) failed to place the ball the way he wanted and I saw him throwing his hand out of disappointments then entire first half and early 2nd half I saw Messi head down, walking on the ground. 2nd half when Messi was coming looks like argentina was losing (score was not level). However thatβs usual scene for Messi and nothing more to add here. That cannot be a body-language of a leader. Yesterday I saw Ronaldo and today Messiβ¦difference was visible of a leader.
When Messi plays poor, remains under pressure and looks demotivated, he should not take penalty or free-kicks. When he came to take the penalty he was not even in the game, rarely involved. That was poor penalty, no power and trust me even I realized where he will shoot. Kun should have taken that penalty and Di maria should have taken at least one free-kicks. He only involved after that penalty miss. I am sure if he had taken that penalty around 80th minutes, he would have scored that goAL.
Positives for us,
β It was draw and qualification is still in our hand.
β Kun looked sharp, Mascherano was far from over.
Anyway now for hope Croatia and Nigeria will draw and against Croatia changes have to made,
β Armani for Willy (Must)
β Lo Celso for Bigila (I am sure now Banega will come)
β Pavan for Di maria.
β Ansaldi for Salvio (not that Salvio was poor but we need players who are used to play as full-back)
β I wonβt mind if Dybala can be tried in place of Meza (again Meza is also not poor but Dybala will free-up Messiβs space)
Good that this is the only first game and nothing over yet. But problem is we hardly want to change and I wonβt be surprised if same team starts against Croatia.
Richard, i think you are pretty right about your football knowledge ! : The reason we wonβt make it far can be seen. Rewind to minute 49. Iceland attacks over the left flank and a cross is coming. Iceland players are unmarked in the box and our defendersβ¦. are covering air.
Salvio is played out of position. He is no LB.
Rojo was injured and after his return sat on the bench or in the stand at Old Trafford.
Tagliafico is great going forward, but defensively not that good.
Otamendi needs Ansaldi and Fazio around him.
If we play same defense and the Perisic crosses come in⦠ONLY I MIGHT STILL PLAY TAGLIAFIGO ON LEFT OR WHO WOULD PREFER, IF I MAY ASK ?
Mercado RB
Otamendi and Fazio as CB
Ansaldi LB
Perez/Meza – Mascherano – Lo Celso – Pavon in midfield
Messi and Aguero upfront
Just 4 4 2.
Gonzalo, sometimes i wish that u we ‘re our coach instead of dumbass sampaoli ! Seriously i’m not joking or trying to insulte u in anyway at all ! I seriously think that u know what u are talking about specially when it come ‘s to local based players who still play in argentina ! Seriously no any offensive meanings towards u at all ! Just reading your writings for sometime now like, some other’s as well in this forum make ‘s my own thinking more stronger even for me unfortunatly is very hard to watch argentinian local football because i ‘m from Finland so i can only basicly go on to whoscored.com and follow the results which is not comparable watching the whole game at all ! So i just stick to european teams which offcourse includes argentinian players ! But like u said in this comment of yours for just one of the many examples : Pavon even without the assists of friendlies should play because I see in him much more passion than in DI Maria.
The reason we won’t make it far can be seen. Rewind to minute 49. Iceland attacks over the left flank and a cross is coming. Iceland players are unmarked in the box and our defenders…. are covering air.
Salvio is played out of position. He is no LB.
Rojo was injured and after his return sat on the bench or in the stand at Old Trafford.
Tagliafico is great going forward, but defensively not that good.
Otamendi needs Ansaldi and Fazio around him.
If we play same defense and the Perisic crosses come in…
No offence guys
78% of u predictive Argentina to win World Cup which makes u all in a fantasy world
At best with luck we will get to last 8 or 16
Only 3% are realistic according to the poll earlier
We have good players and Iceland made the match hard.
Croatia wil be much more open in defence but much more better countering too
I expect Iceland to take points of Nigeria or Croatia too
I think we will win only 1 of our next 2 games realistically so qualifying will be tough
We could even draw both
Agree changes need to be made with Fazio mercado lo Celso And Pavon coming in
Thanks for bringing up the poll. Do another poll now. Quite sure it will be lesser than 78% now…
Ghostdeini, once again u got it right ! : Messi has realized now that we lack creativity.
leaving Paredes, J. Correa, even Lamela at home and injury of Lanzini has handcuffed us.
Leaving Pezzella and Ascacibar defensively.
I think our biggest obstacle is to survive the group phase.
we can be dangerous if we play 4-4-2 without selfish players during the Knockout stages.
we have to trust our young players!
we have nothing to lose! AND I DO HOPE THIS WILL HAPPEN, but i do my doubts because of our dumbass coach !
The good was Argentina draws at this initial stage because winning all the time can’t help you to find the loopholes. Its just the start that Messi too faces a very bad day and thats good now he will be more focused and competitive. The captain announced to be at the best in next match and he mean all his words. Beside all that it was good gesture froom argentina people to cheerup messi in and out of stadium even after missing the penalty. This small things matter the most and he will deliver for you Argentina in Russia….
Once again there u go,Sula V : Well I doubt Sampaoli sees it as a bad save. Sampaoli is responsible for this loss. His team selection led to this result. 2nd game is going to be a high pressure Do or Die game and we have quite a few nervous players in the team. I donβt know if Armani can handle the pressure of playing in such game. I feel bad for being critical on Romero!! + THIS : Bigliaβs miss pass led to that goal also Rojo played a good part by getting nutmegged. Pavon needs to start no matter what!!
This is exatly what happenned, Kitty : Masche wasnβt good; Also he wasnβt bad, thatβs it;
It looked like only four players were there on pitch for ARG; Defence β Otamendi, Midfield β Masche & Messi & Aguero as Forward;
It was the Dr first time since 1990, Argentina dropping points in their opening WC match. It happened, that too against a World Cup Debutant. Before this, Argentina had welcomed 6 teams to the World cup. France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Japan, Ivory Cost; Bosnia .. but it was the first time since 1954 opening match against Sweden, Argentina dropping points against a debutant. It was all bad. Above all Lionel Messi missed a penalty.
Nothing could have been worse than this?
I don’t think so. Argentina could have lost it against Iceland.. This Iceland is a team who knows their job very well. The way they play makes scoring goals against them is the toughest job in the world. Yet Argentina broke it. Could have been even 2 goals if Messi buried the ball inside.
And not to forget Iceland is a team of great recent history behind them. They have outplayed Portugal, Defeated England in Knockouts, Beats Croatia, Turkey in qualifiers..
But Argentina controlled the game so well, attacked well, especially in the second half. By no means their game was pathetic. They have to improve in many areas, but they did a decent enough job in the opening match. There is no point in approaching next match with panic mode.
For me its out of question Croatia can beat Argentina, they simply canβt. Argentina played 20 games in the last 3 big tournamenst without a single loss in 90 minutes against harder teams than Croatia. Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Chile, Uruguay, Columbia etc. That too with a squad worse than this.
Argentina will loose points only if they go to panic mode. I hope Sampoli will make necessary changers in the squad. Atleast this first 3
(out : Willy, Salvio, Biglia,Meza,Di Maria
In : Armani, Ansalsi, Lo Celso, Dybala, Pavon,)
Above all facts. But believe Argentina’s defence is shit, they didn’t concede more goals because iceland was not attacking at all otherwise any mediocre attack could have score 5-6 goals easily against this version of argentina.
Defence will be sorted if they drop rojo and salvio and start Armani
Spot on Sula V ! : Sampaoli got schooled by the iceland coach. He had answer for every sampaoliβs move. Donβt be one trick pony Mr Sampaoli be brave. Pavon for Dimaria, Ansaldi for Salvio and Locelso for Biglia and Fazio for Rojo is a must now
Sula v, is totally right about all his comments like this for example : I hope they are not going to push for their love pals Biglia,Rojo and Dimaria to start again. Yes we still have chance but if we donβt select the right players we are going to crash out. There is a player called dybala on the bench are you not going to use him friends club?? ARe you scarred he is going to score and take the glory?? Pavon should start and if we need goal Dybala should replace him or hell he can come in for Meza or Locelso also but he needs to play and Messi please man you should not take PKs for us. I get very nervous whenever he takes the PK. He always goes for the left side low goal keeper height PKs what wrong with you??? OR THiS 1 :
He was a complete failure. He didnβt even have the brain to bring pavon right after break!!
Sula V, you’re absolutely right ! :
If Croatia park the bus against us then we are doomed!! Our players have the habit of losing the possession of ball easily and with that shitty defending Croatia will hurt us bad in the counters. They are 10 times more clinical than Iceland strikers. Sampaoli is the main culprit if we lose the next game and crash out!! When every final ball has to go to Messi then how hard is it to figure out Sampaoliβs plan?? AND ALSO ABOUT THIS TOO ! : Football doesnβt work in theories mr incompetent coach!! Sampaoliβs plan of Biglia and Masch protecting the defense and Salvio and Tagliafico going on full on attack failed badly. Salvio did nothing going forward. I donβt think he was 100% sure that Iceland will park the bus. He waited till 80th min to sub Dimaria tells how good of a coach this baldy is. I fear If we qualify for the knockouts Biglia will come off the bench like Gago in 2014 final and finish us!! Just imagine a good attacking mid like Perroti being selected instead of this Biglia!! Friends club just wasted a spot for this expired fossil. Sampaoli learned nothing from Spain and Nigeriaβs thrashing and seems like he is not going to change much after this humiliation also. From here on we can only pray that Croatia and Nigeria wonβt park the bus against us. Next match our mids should pass the ball to Aguero if he is in a better position. Everytime Messi gets the ball 5 players charge at him and we lose posession and momentum is gone.
only in argentina choices like this happens how a top coach can select biglia,when you have paredes ,ascaciber,battaglia.It is a shame that in nation like argentina there are no good coaches who take bold decision for the team.maschero biglia rojo shoudn’t be included in the team.
Sula V, your comment make’s me really worried and i ‘m really nervous right now like allways during the last decade when Argentina plays a competive game ! :
Croatia played a super tight game!! They are far stronger opponent than Iceland. Sampaoli has 4 days to come up with something but I doubt He will go against Friends club and drop Dimaria Rojo and he will still use Higuain and Bigia in some way .
Ghostdeini, i wish and hope u are right about this and like u said in this comment of yours i totally agree with you that once lanzini got injured paredes should have been the replacement but like u said now it’ s too late to talk about it ! : Guys and my fellow Argentina fans.
Yes we made mistakes selecting the squad and choosing wrong players and tactics to start.
Most of the regulars know me here for my criticizing towards AFA, coaches, tactics, players, fans,β¦
I canβt take the disrespect shown to us, to Messi, to our team.
Believe me!
It is not to late!
3-4 days ago I wrote that we will struggle through the group phase because Sampaoli will rely on the oldies and then he will be forced to rely on the other players. He will not have any other choice. I was very angry when Lanzini got injured. He was used wrong anyway, playing on the right is not his position. Then it was rumored that Paredes will get called up which calmed me down because I thought we had enough wide players Pavon, Di maria, Acuna, Salvio, Meza even Lo Celso and Messi can play there. We needed a creative midfielder like Paredes. Sampaoli chose Perez who is also best suited as wide midfielder. It was a mistake, Perez is a great player but it was the wrong time to call him up.
We lack creativity.
Now it is too late to talk about players that are not here and we have to work with what we have and we must go 4-4-2!
Our biggest obstacle will be making it through the group phase.
Believe me if we pass the group phase we will be dangerous.
we have to!
The team must stand up and fight.
I think sampoali have learnt a lesson and he have clear idea that he needs fast ,energetic , Creative players other than old experienced bla bla bla bla…..
I hope the mid fielder s to be
Lo celco. …..mascerano…….Enzo Perez or benega……
I feel Enzo n lo celco can both create and defend………this is what is required in the team…..
Front three.. Messi …..aguero…..Pavon…..
We are solid in attacking too…..
This way Messi don have to fall back ….I think masc, lo celco ,Enzo or benega can do ur job……….
We don’t need salvio who cannot defend at all…….no idea…..ansaldi can attack and defend too…..even mercado will be better……….fazio has greater positional sense than rojo
Hence we need 6 changes in starting line up……and we are totally a new team…..
1.Caballero—armani
2.Rojo—fazio
3.Salvio–ansaldi or mercado
4.Biglia–enzo Perez or benega
5.Meza– lo celco…
6.Di maria–pavon
What are ur thoughts…it will be highly appreciated…..plz share….
sampaoli said still gonna go with cabelloro he will never learn from mistakes like other argentine coaches,had we opted for pochettino it would be a new story
i really feel sorry for messi had he been with spain he would be world champion by now,argentina don’t deserve messi they are to much obsessed with the past no plan for the future if spain got hold of messi they would have accumulated 3 worldcups since 2006.
You asked and my thoughts? He doesn’t even have the balls to make 2 changes at half time against ICL……what makes you think he will make SIX changes against CRO who are by the way more technically gifted on the ball, and more so in a match of much much higher stakes?!!
My guess is he will make one change. Biglia out for Lo Celso. Prove me wrong.
so what lo celso gonna do when you concede 2 goals early because of shaky cabellero and opponent park the bus,he left centurion ,paredes,pablo perez for whom biglia,mascherano …joke complete joke the team
Canadien Royal, well said again ! If we continue to play like this, most likely will get KO on the 1st round. If Croatia beat us and Iceland beats Nigeria, and then a draw between Croatia and Iceland. That is the worst scenario.
Rojo: To all fans here who said that he is a big game guy I said I donβt believe in miracle, for a guy who has been on the bench during the entire year, donβt be surprise. Maybe he can be used as a fullback and so less critical if he loss the ball.
Salvio: Defensively awful, always late in replacement. Iβd rather go with Mercado and may use him as right winger.
Biglia: Worst Argentine player ever. He is just happy to walk on the pitch, hide himself from others in order to avoid receiving the ball. Once he has the ball, he just get rid of it by passing to Maschereno. Such a coward behavior. Heβs the main responsible for this bad result. I really hope not to see him in this jersey again. Enzo Perez could be used as well.
Tagliafico: he show his motivation but too light. He had lot of troubles against Iceland wingers. Not safe. To be honest, I donβt know if heβs good enough. He is better in a more advanced position for doing pressing.
Di Maria: Sampaoli seems not getting it. Di Maria is a βrightβ winger. He does not have the pace as before so the only way for him is to cut in.
Meza: no offence, heβs still too green, I didnβt see anything from him.
Banega: cannot do worse than Biglia anyway. I donβt understand why Lo Celso not used.
Caballero: no confidence. Just happy to box the ball during the corner.
Higuain, Pavon: lot of good things and improvement since they came in.
Messi, Otamendi: both were tired and really fed up, they had to play everywhere to cover their teammates.
Sampaoli: except seeing this guy nervous and walking around, he seems clueless about the situation. Why waiting 1h to replace Biglia? After 1y of work, he seems not finding the right system for his team. Itβs very disappointing. Can we really rely on him?
The only satisfaction are Maschereno and Aguero. Kun helped defending and swap position with Messi. Maschereno amazing good in defense and in transmission.
For me, the starting 11 should be: Armani-Mercado,Fazio,Otamendi-Salvio,Maschereno,Lo Celso,Enzo Perez,Acuna-Messi,Aguero. Dybala, Pavon and Higuain may step in during the match
Sula V ‘s thinking is unfortunatly right about all this nonsense from our coach ! : When you already know that opponent is going to park the bus shouldnβt you go with more creativity??? You need good CMs to keep the possession of the ball against these kind of teams and not go with Biglia-Masch combination which has failed many times and twice against Chile who adopted similar strategy. Also when one of your main player Dimaria failed to even get one pass right in 45 mins shouldnβt you replace him with Pavon right after the break?? Dimaria has been useless against bus parking teams. He waited till 80th min and it was too late. You also have Dybala sitting on the bench are you just going to waste him? Sampaoli is sole responsible for todays result. His every decision today from team selection to his timing of subs cost us the 3 points and now we are in a do or die situation so early in the competition. Iceland coach did his homework Sampaoli clearly didnβt.
People who think Croatia will not park the bus against us because they played open game against Nigeria are delusional. Nigeria and Argentina are two completely different teams!! Only Belgium decided not to play anti football and you know the result. After seeing how vulnerable and fragile our defense was against Iceland counter attacks Croatia will 100% park the bus and attempt to hit us on counters. Best time to score against us is when our vulnerable defense is highup pressing.
Our Goal keeper situation is another headache now. Well I donβt know if replacing shaky Caballero with Armani will solve it. Some players canβt handle the pressure of playing in such an important match . Armani might choke like Liverpool keeper or excel like Goycochea, all depends on his mental strength and character. Oh I miss Romero already. I was his biggest critique and miss him badly now. Weak defense and dicey goalkeeping!! Perfect recipe for disaster!!
After todayβs loss I hope our coach Jorge Sampaoli has learned his lesson and will make some badly needed changes. Most likely he will finally drop Biglia and I pray he wonβt be used again. He also shouldnβt start Banega just because we looked a bit better after he came in. Biglia was so bad today that even if Fazio had replaced him our midfield would have looked better. His passes, positioning & tacking were all pathetic. He is done in europe now coming back to local league soon. Rojo was our 3rd worst player after Biglia and Dimaria. We need either Mercado or Fazio to replace him hopefully its Fazio. Rojoβs pass to Caballero when he was clearly not expecting him to do that says how much understanding our players in the back have with each other. We definitely need proper back 4 against Croatia so Ansaldi should be a no brainer for our RB position. Salvio is a better winger if defensive duties are not on his head , he can be Mezaβs sub.Meza on the other hand didnβt look flashy as him and Salvio were instructed to only pass to Messi and that made our attack so predictable and easy for Iceland to defend. But he atleast made a run that resulted in penalty which ofcourse Messi managed to miss!!! But as someone here said that the missed penalty will either bring the best out of Messi or it will dent his confidence end our world cup. Lets pray its the former!! Also, Passing to Messi and Messi either taking the shot or losing possession is making us predictable. I am no coach or a football pundit but sometimes isnβt it better to pass to a player who is in better position than Messi and surprise our opponents?? Anyways, now there is no room left for mistakes and experiments. Next game Ansaldi for Salvio, Locelso for Biglia and Pavon for Dimaria or bring Pavon in soon after Dimariaβs usual horrible first half display then only we have some chance to win but if he continues to persist with Dimaria and Biglia we will crash out!
Sampaoli said he won’t replace caballero it’s utter bullshit when you have armani ,i don’t know why he is possessed by possession ,de gea also not good with foot but that doesn’t change the fact he is spain’s number one
Any training News?
In a high pressure game against Croatia I donβt know man. I have lost all hopes today and To all the positive posters thanks for keeping the positive vibe alive but Even if we somehow manage to get out of the group with this defense we canβt win this. I feel sorry for Messi.Sula V, i’m really affraid that you’re right about this :
Kitty, sad but true ! It might just be Ronaldoβs World Cup rather than Messiβs
Now just top the group with wins against Morocco & Iran, Face Russia in R16, Croatia in QF and they are in SFβs; With EUROβs kind of luck shootout win in SFβs and they will be in Finals;
The past three or four years have been really good for Ronaldo; Everything is falling in place for him;
Leo10 Messi, sorry to say, butbi do feel the same way :
I cannot agree with you more. Honestly though, I had thought if one of Simeone or Sampaoli takes over the team, Argentina would win the world cup. But Sampaoli seems clueless as to what needs to be done. Even Enzo Perez is a better choice than Biglia- mind boggling Biglia was in the squad over Perez. Perez is only in the squad because Lanzini got injured. Had Pekerman been in charge, Argentina would have won something by now.
Dunga was awful for Brazil. Tite knew who to play, how to play, two games in and Brazil have been flying since. Sampaoli, instead of owning this, is putting pressure on Messi. Mind boggling Icardi is not in the squad. If Sampaoli still needs to salvage something, he needs to start Dybala instead of Di maria, Lo Celso instead of Biglia and perhaps Armani instead of Caballero. That might change things. Although Argentina in no way is going past quarterfinals.
It might just be Ronaldo’s World Cup rather than Messi’s
Now just top the group with wins against Morocco & Iran, Face Russia in R16, Croatia in QF and they are in SF’s; With EURO’s kind of luck shootout win in SF’s and they will be in Finals;
The past three or four years have been really good for Ronaldo; Everything is falling in place for him;
San isidro is right about this neverending story : We are all desperate as Argentina fans now and logic escapes us. But the truth is in a few games this era will be completely over. But where we are now gives us clues to the future. I think for sure Sampaoli will be gone after this world cup. If we win the group, we will face Denmark and then Spain and that we will lose for sure. If we are second in group we face France in round of 16 and we are out.
Why is Sampaoli gone? Look at our history. NO coach ever comes into Argentina NT with a plan. Last coach that did this was Pekerman. Every coach says the same thing. We must work with Messi, blah blah blah, and they have no plan. No vision, no idea, except lets get Messi comfortable. This is not football.
Second look at the team. Who on this team other than a few players is for the future? Maybe Pavon, Dybala, Tagilafico Lo Celso and the rest is all OLD GUYS. No Lautaro, Mamanna, Icardi, Foyth, Ocampos, Kranevitter, Paredes,and many more. These guys or whoever will be selected in next world cup will have almost zero experience. NO COACH that looks to the future sets up a team like this.
Sadly, when Messi retires after this World Cup, or at 34 years old, we will still suffer because we do not plan long term project to improve the team.
This team is playing an out of date style. In todays football, you need box to box midfielders. Three midfielders that can do it all like Lo Celso. Did ANYBODY notice how slow we were in attack today? Even Mascherano who people said played great all he did was foul to stop advance from Iceland. You think honestly he can do this against Pogba, Mbappe and others?
We have players, we have no plan, and one great player, that everybody keeps putting more pressure on because the coach is too afraid to take control.
Listen to Sampaoliβs words on Biglia ( β we need experience to stabilize the middleβ). So we will attack with defenders and defend with midfielders. This is a joke of a plan. Sampaoli is scared, and the moment is WAY too big for him, and he will be gone.
You need a coach that says βMessi era is overβ. If Messi helps us in next world cup that is wonderful, but at 34 years old he will not be the same player. Only then can we try to rebuild something better.
These players in their prime of career went to 2 Copa Americas and 1 World Cup final and won absolutely nothing. They choked in the biggest moment. Even today was a choke job. That was the worst penalty you can take by Messi. He shoots mid level on the right side of a right handed goalie. Easy stop every time. NO STRATEGY to inform players and prepare players. Sad but true but this is over and over soon.
By the way, Lautaro to Inter to play with Icardi. They play the same position. But we cannot play Messi and Dybala together. This is what is called being a shitty manager.
We might not qualify without Messi so enjoy the games this World cup
Kitty again you’re absolutely right : Draw against Croatia is going to be a disaster; We will be under tremendous pressure if Iceland sneak a win against Nigeria; or even Nigeria wins against Iceland;
Must win game against Croatia for ARG;
Kitty i stand with your comment : Fluid? They were moving the ball at snailβs pace; Didnβt even tried to counter quickly when we got the ball during set pieces; Cohesive team would definitely not conceded that goal;
Ok, How many chances have we created? Other than penalty and Pavonβs shot, how many saves were made by opponents GK?
Our game plan is to attack through wings; How many crosses were made into the box? How many players were there in the box when the crosses were made? Aguero against tall defenders; Seriously?
Kitty your thinking is right ! Maybe, the Coaches for ARG are not allowed what they want to do; 4 Coaches worked from 2014, nothing changed much, Our style of play looks exactly same; Yesterday Aguero saved with his brilliant finish; They are relying too much on individualβs brilliance rather than on a good cohesive team;
I wonder how Biglia suddenly got into starting eleven; After Spain friendly, some media even reported (TyC Sports) that its never going to be Masche β Biglia in Midfield for Sampaoli;
maybe the best comment i never read from this site is from canadien royal : Just learnt that the Iceland coachβs true Profession is dentist and many of the players are not even professional. Sampaoli and many players should feel ashame. SPOT ON !
As croatian i think that i am most capable of comment our next opponent. All of you whi think that croats will padk the bus in their half of pitch…. you are wrong. Probably they will play a litlle bit patient game using counter attack . But be aware about players played yesterday. In first 11 it was 4 attackers, and having in mind the rest of squad, surely they want be like iceland yesterday. If we play lile yesterday (slow, predictable, allways watching leo, with no positive spirit, with that body language of leo, …..) we want go any closer than loosing with minimum 2 goals margine. Sadly but is true. We need leo on his best and other lads (di maria first) to work harder. I am boring of watching this shity game for every single wc. Inly arg play like this. Why, i dont know. But its not late for rising our game. The dream is still on and i belive in it. I am still convice that i will see leo riding trophey, despite all od odds
Does anyone know if the team has a training session today? Or will they move to another city?
I don’t think our transitions were fast enough and we should have hurt our opponent more. In the second half we made them feel uncomfortable but they did have many people playing defensively.
βWe need to find more alternatives to our style of play – alternatives that can hurt our opponent. Croatia is not the same as Nigeria or Iceland. The next game will be different and we must understand what strategy works best. This is going to be a tough group.β
Sampaoli
He must be in his own world! Who is going to play an open game against us? Especially with CRO now having 3 points?
The tactic floating out there that promises at least a point when playing against us β park the bus, have three on Messi, speedy direct counter attack, some luck with Messi down on luck and viola! We will not have any reply to it all and will just continue to pass the ball back and forth for all we want. For all the coaches in the world, is there not one who can anticipate that teams will definitely do that against us and devise a method to break them down?!
I apologise for sounding irrational and over simplfying things but we are going to be in deep shit. As mentioned in the earlier paragragh, CRO and NIG will play the same tactic as the other teams did against us and just frustrate us. The danger is that CRO has good midfielders who can pass well and in Manduzic a good finisher. NIG has pace and I just cringe to watch Cabarello, Rojo, Biglia and Mascherano running helter skelter back to stop them. By parking the bus, they will have a chance for a point and then it will be down to their games against ICL. It’s entirely possible that we end up with three draws or three or four points and say thanks for the memories in 2014. Holy shit, guys. I’m freaking out!!!
PAimar, agree with you. A group exit looks like a real possibility now. A lot of us began to worry about it as soon as Masche-Biglia started training together. Iceland was a must win game for us. About Nigeria, I think they will actually attack us and make it more miserable.
We are all desperate as Argentina fans now and logic escapes us. But the truth is in a few games this era will be completely over. But where we are now gives us clues to the future. I think for sure Sampaoli will be gone after this world cup. If we win the group, we will face Denmark and then Spain and that we will lose for sure. If we are second in group we face France in round of 16 and we are out.
Why is Sampaoli gone? Look at our history. NO coach ever comes into Argentina NT with a plan. Last coach that did this was Pekerman. Every coach says the same thing. We must work with Messi, blah blah blah, and they have no plan. No vision, no idea, except lets get Messi comfortable. This is not football.
Second look at the team. Who on this team other than a few players is for the future? Maybe Pavon, Dybala, Tagilafico Lo Celso and the rest is all OLD GUYS. No Lautaro, Mamanna, Icardi, Foyth, Ocampos, Kranevitter, Paredes,and many more. These guys or whoever will be selected in next world cup will have almost zero experience. NO COACH that looks to the future sets up a team like this.
Sadly, when Messi retires after this World Cup, or at 34 years old, we will still suffer because we do not plan long term project to improve the team.
This team is playing an out of date style. In todays football, you need box to box midfielders. Three midfielders that can do it all like Lo Celso. Did ANYBODY notice how slow we were in attack today? Even Mascherano who people said played great all he did was foul to stop advance from Iceland. You think honestly he can do this against Pogba, Mbappe and others?
We have players, we have no plan, and one great player, that everybody keeps putting more pressure on because the coach is too afraid to take control.
Listen to Sampaoliβs words on Biglia ( β we need experience to stabilize the middleβ). So we will attack with defenders and defend with midfielders. This is a joke of a plan. Sampaoli is scared, and the moment is WAY too big for him, and he will be gone.
You need a coach that says βMessi era is overβ. If Messi helps us in next world cup that is wonderful, but at 34 years old he will not be the same player. Only then can we try to rebuild something better.
These players in their prime of career went to 2 Copa Americas and 1 World Cup final and won absolutely nothing. They choked in the biggest moment. Even today was a choke job. That was the worst penalty you can take by Messi. He shoots mid level on the right side of a right handed goalie. Easy stop every time. NO STRATEGY to inform players and prepare players. Sad but true but this is over and over soon.
By the way, Lautaro to Inter to play with Icardi. They play the same position. But we cannot play Messi and Dybala together. This is what is called being a shitty manager. SPOT ON ! I TOTALLY AGREE WITH U ! M.R.SamPolly just speaks and repeats like a PARROT as all of the other coaches have done after Pekerman(maybe there was slight difference with Sabella’s words ? I do not really remember his comment’s or neither do i care because anyway the same MANTRA from argentinian coaches arter Pekerman has been repeated constantly nevermind who’s been at charge ! It sounds and seems like allmost pre-recorded maybe because(not sabella) but every other blody manager after Pekermanhas used it, all what they done is just been repeating that same stupid careless MANTRA on and on in every press confrence ! I don’t what the player’s been thinking all theese years, but if i had been only 1 of them, never mind who ? I would have speak my mouth out ! Simply because it just like with bloody biglia or another wastefull player get selected anyway ! never mind what they do on or or off the pitch(exept icardi, lol, wh’o’s playing and scoring stat’s are allmost like Harry Kane’s though Kane is bit younger than Icardi, but age doesn’t really matter until maybe u come close to 35 ? and i’m not supporting england, but i do support of spurs and i have allways prefferd spurs from english teams because of Ardiles, Ricardo Villa and specially now when lamela and Foyth are playing in there and offcourse of their great manager Pochettino who by the way plans things for future like Argentina should had keep on doing after Pekerman left ! But now there ‘s no point of talking this really more because
1st : it has existed allready a decade
2nd: we’re on middle of propably (very, very saddly though) Messi’s (all time greates’t player) last tournament?
3rd: Croatia won and we drew because our idiot coach M.R “Sam the Polly” Parrot’s player selection 4 this tournament and for his player selection against iceland(who are actually doing pretty good at the moment comparing to the amount of their countrie ‘s popululation and to their training facilities in their own frozen volcanic country, so credit to them unfortunatly, but Argentina should have burried them if the players like biglia, rojo, di maria, caballero were not selected at all to this tournament and specially against Iceland ! Also mascherano who yesterday somehow managed should not be on this team because he will also suffer against croatian’s and fast nigerian’s ! So there u go ! Add higuain to the list and who ever u want, it doesn’t really matter no more because they all are there right now and instead they should have been dropped a long ago ! )
4th : I really want wish that our idiot coach would learn from his great mistake starting biglia, rojo, di maria and caballero, but something in my mind tell’s me that he will not learn anything because first of all these player’s should left on a lonely island somewhere in a middle of pacific ocean eating coconuts and so on…! So why would he change now ? He really must, but i’m affraid that he doesn’t because he is dumb idiot and he should abort to the same airplane with at least all the players i mentioned before and should be dropped with them that same island let them play their monkey games with throwing coconuts on eachothers head over there instead in Moscow right now with Argentina’s National Team ! If he doesn’t learn from this anf change his starting eleven( then i wish some hardcore fan “never mind from which country” will cut his head off !
5th i’m also affraid it is too late for him to do really anything or neither he don’t want ? But, please allmighty let me becwrong at least this time because this burden which Messi is carrying inside of him touches also many of us as true fan’s of Argentina and since 1978( even we won by then and again at 1986, but we could have easily won many more time’s if Redondo was selected or fixed fifa would not intefier like they have allways done with Argentina or if Bielsa would have played batigol and crespo together and the list goes on an on and look’s like it will never end untill somebody like Cholo or Pochettino or some other great manager takes over Argentina !) it has saddly been the case because of many things like stupid stubborn coaches of us and fixed fifa bullshitt and corrupted AFA etc….!
6th Only a miracle like our idiot dumb coach will get heart attack during his walk by the side of pitch will maybe wake everyone’s eye’s and make Argentina so strong that no one could defeat us, but theese kindvof miracle’s rarely happen’s ?
7th i really don ‘t know what more or neither do i wish to say anymore because it doesn’t help anything cursing and swearing for a decade will just cost me to get heart attack instead our stupid idiot dumb coach !
8th i just put my wishes and trust to allmighty like i have done for a decade and see in the end what will be the outcome of all this nonsense 23 player selection+starting eleven, please M.R Sam ” the pollyparrot” hear my wishes and thoughts and for Argentina’s sake do or at least try something else at least with your starting eleven so no more biglia, rojo, di maria or caballero and maybe better to drop masherano too at least against the fast nigerians ?
9th let the young breed to play with all time greatest and aguero and maybe bring enzo to the middle with lo celso is a must so take pavon over diva is also a must and so is fazio over rojo and change caballero either to armani or nahuel and never ever let biglia play again !
10th give chance to also to ansaldi and to dybala as well, keep or not keep “mesa or meza” there if you wish but please try to put all the players on their natural positions if possible because there is where they feel the most comfortable, it might end up like suicide but it will deffinetly do or cost no more harm what has happenned allready now ! and take blame on yourself like MR. Mourinho(which i dont really like so much at all) but at least he’s smart enough to take blame on him on not add more pressure on the players specially Messi because unfortunatly even that he is the all time greatest ever his mental side will just struggle even more so be smart man ! and not be a scapecoat by saying that this is Messi’s team and not let everybody know our starting eleven before 1 hour the game starts ! i can’t belive that you are so dumb to things like that even small kid’s know that is the worst thing to do to let your opponents know who you will start ! Try to bring some surprices instead to your game plan and change quickly the players out who cant simply perform at all on the pitch during the game ! 10 or even 20 minutes is way too little time any palyer to click on specially on the big tournament like we’re playing right now ! Everybody know’s this even they don’t watch football at all ! So what is wrong with u M.R Sam “the polly parrot” ? I think we all know the answer tonthis question so there’s no neescto answer, please ! Just wish that you will be bashed away if the miracle don’t happennto Argentina this time, which is and has been my “last thin red line” for a decade at least ! And even if you will be able to guide our dear beloved Argentina to all the way to crowned as kings which will be or (should have allready happen to Messi and Argentina) at least fair thing to happen after 3 finals on row ! I do not wish you to continue developping our future players because your are simply not up for the task, so gongralutions if u somehow manage to get Argentina to crowned as true kings, put please take plane to the lonely monkey island somewhere inna middle of the pacific and go on andbplay your monkey game with coconuts with your fellow biglia, rojo, diva and caballero, higuain etc… take all your followers with you over there and start to build monkey community with clothes or no clothes on and stick your baldy head to spikey bush everyday to get some more dumb ideas of develepponing your community over where ever u want, so please just simply vanish and do not come back at all ! Make friends with sharks and wish that they do not eat you alive ! Sorry, but all this frustration of wasting talent at least for a decade has turned me to barking dog ! and i do apologisevto everyone who doesn’t understand me and is completly fine with me because i do belive everyonevis entitled forvtheirbown conclusion’s and their own oppions so nothing personal against anyone else than our dumb coaches who keep on repeating the same mantra year after year and nothing never change’s even Argentina have had so much and still have though maybe not so more than before but still what a waste of talent is has been !
ricky villa:
1st: im enjoying your write ups and keep them up
2nd: “i do support of spurs and i have always preferred spurs from English teams because of Ardiles, Ricardo Villa and specially now when lamela and Foyth are playing in there and off course of their great manager ”
you and me brother as ardiles and villa were what made me support spurs all those years ago (1979 when they joined) and ive never looked back, my 1st w.h.l game was when the Argentine mauricco taricco scored a 30 year screamer vs leeds.
Argentina/Iceland
Possession 77%/23%
Shots 26/8
On goal 7/2
Saves 1/6
For all those in doomsday mode. This was like Iran, but no golden goal. Also it was the first game, always a bit shaky. We dominated and have some things to fix but destiny still in our hands. To me there is no change in our tournament plan we needed to beat Croatia and Nigeria to best the group and we still do.
Nigeria looks discombobulated. Beat Croatia beat Nigeria and we likely top the group.
More worrying is for Croatia and Nigeria , what they must think if Argentina only tied Iceland.
Focus on the development, look where we are vs March. Looking much better, every match is helping. This tie will be motivating for match against Croatia (vs had we beat Iceland 4-0).
Please also give Sampaoli common sense, he watched the same game and I wouldnβt expect to see Biglia or Di Maria start another match. Lo Celso and PavΓ³n vs Croatia and hopefully bring Dybala on as game changing sub.
Salvio should be benched for a fullback against Croatia.
For those throwing Messi down. The best penalty takers are 90%. They miss 1/10. Messi has some great chances but luck wasnβt with him. We need Lo Celso to bring the ball up for him.
I agree that we deserved to win yesterday, Iceland played anti football and were lucky to come up with a point
He isn’t dropping Di Maria; Sorry!!
There is no extra point for more possession, more shots on goal, less luck, etc. Only the ball crosssing the line counts. And Messi did have 10 shots including the penalty and the 2 freekicks. Don’t get me wrong. I’m pro Messi but thr
There is no extra point for more possession, more shots on goal, less luck, etc. Only the ball crosssing the line counts. And Messi did have 10 shots including the penalty and the 2 freekicks so why didn’t even 1 go in? Donβt get me wrong. Iβm pro Messi but the vibe I got from him yesterday was negative as the game wore on. I hate hate hate comparing him agaonst Ronaldo in the same breath but when Ronaldo prepared for the decisive free kick against Spain, the vibe and positivity was there, he had scored two already and the air and concentration on his face – i don’t know about you but I was alreay thinking oh my god he’s going to score. I hated it. When I saw Leo’s demeanour yesterday, sigh… when he stepped up for the penalty, I thought please don’t miss… when he took his first then second free kick, I had a feeling already that he couldn’t repeat 2014 Bosnia and Iran. I hate it my feelings were correct..
Argentina was way better before Messi and will be way better after him too. Too much dependence on Messi going to to cost us another world cup. He is one of the best player of history at club level, at international level he is decent at best, his record proves this. He should not be the untouchable. Argentina sacrificed players and still sacrificing some of the hottest talents of the world because Messi is not comfortable playing with them. The soon this sacrificing will stop the better.
Arhentina would be a force even without Messi I agree. But name 10 players who are real world beaters outside of the current crop of so called βmessi and friendsβ? How many play at elite clubs in Europe? A team needs cohesion and time to play together to develop an identity. You can bring Brazil all you want and say they didnβt need it, weβll face it. Brazil is Brazil. Argentina hasnβt won anything for a very long time and the pressure is way too much on any new coach. The incompetent morons at the AFA did nothing to help ever since Pekerman left and let that golden generation waste their prime by appoint incompetent coaches one after the other. All though this we as a mad fan base just donβt give enough credit to these players especially Messi who does everything under his capacity to play for Argentina. Sure he is not Maradona or Ronaldo like leader, but again face it. He is what we have at the moment. Sadly we donβt have Ronaldo in our team if thatβs what we want. So do us all a favour, come what may, just support this team till they exit this cup and start the rant. Like a recent advertisement from Quimos, we ask less from our Gods when it come to Argentine Football.
Quote: “So do us all a favour, come what may, JUST SUPPORT THIS TEAM TILL THEY EXIT THIS CUP AND START THE RANT.”
If I may borrow your statement to reflect the general mood in this forum based on the postings, look at the words in caps above – TILL THEY EXIT THIS CUP – even the most positive and optimistic of all of us here (I dare say myself included) are beginning to caveat our words, sentences and posts… ICL was a game we had to win to get at least three points. We failed to do so and I think Sampaoli knew that when he just said this is a diffcult group (wait for a freaking minute, if he knew that, why start with Biglia? And persist with him and ADM? Shouldn’t you have started Lo Celso and Pavon straight from the second half? ICL were not going to change the way they played from the first half, Bigla was already playing in slightly advanced MC position and wouldn’t have the legs to run back in an ICL counter or break anyway so why not substitute him?! And did ADM do anything? If it was nerves that you were afraid of on the new guys wouldn’t it be worse now, more nerves, to start higher pressure against CRO and NIG? Plan backfired. No proper planning? I resisted against making comments on the 23 selection and the starting list but now as things stand, seriously?).
Guys, we need to play the game of our lives (again?!).
Before Messi we had very good midfield (Riquelme, Aimar etc), defense (Ayala, Zanetti, Sorin) & attack (Bati, Crespo).
During the Messi era, we had great attack, but poor midfield and defense (Except Mascherano till 2014).
Argentina couldn’t utilise Messi with right players around. Sampaoli looked like doing it with Lo Celso, Pavon, Meza, playing only one of Aguero and Higuain etc. It seems he lost the courage by the time WC started. What a shame!
My felling also same when messi taken the penalty I was scared.
Off topic but can you guys tell me how many of our so called big stars will retire after this world cup? I can’t tolerate players like biglia, mascherano and rojo. So that’s why I don’t have any other options but to ask me this out of context question.
Everyone in team except Tagliafico, Dybala, Meza, Pavon, Lo Celso will either retire or will totally go out of contention.
No one will retire except Messi & Mascherano
http://www.espn.in/football/team/argentina/202/blog/post/3526447/argentinas-matias-manna-from-blogger-to-coaching-lionel-messi-at-a-world-cup?src=com
A blogger became Samp’s assistant coach
Perhaps we can redress our grievances with him lol
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ALL TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE SQUAD IS CHOSEN. HOW YOU LEAVE OUTSIDE FROM THE 23 PLAYERS LIKE ICARDI AND PAREDES. SECOND THE SELECTION OF THE TEAM YESTERDAY. FOR ME BIGLIA CABA DI MARIA MEZA CANT PLAY IN THIS TEAM. I AM TIERD ALL THIS YEARS IN ALL WORLD CUPS TO DONT SEE A REAL COACH AND A REAL TEAM PLAY. I HOPE AGAINST CROATIA THE RIGHT TEAM WILL PLAY. ANSALDI FAZIO OTAMENDI LO CELCIO PAVON DYBALA HAVE TO BE ON THE STARTING LINE-UP
Yesterday the god of football let us down. Yesterday Messi succumbed to pressure. He was under tremendous pressure and could not perform to his true potential. Did you guys see the way we conceded that goal. The counter attack was launched by island after a mispass from biglia. I am from India and I think right now biglia does not deserve to be in the India national football team. No team could have scored against island yesterday. It was dirty football. None of our mundo friends is talking about another penalty we could have got when pavon was tackled very harshly in the penalty bocs. Yesterday I was missing Diego Perrott a lot, he would have cut inside and shoot or crossed instead of wasting balls. Anyways Messi will compensate and will win us our desire world cup. Vamos argentina.
Switzerland isn’t like iceland but they still park the bus. Let us see how brazil deals with them.
For all the Ronaldo fans going over the moon against Spain, chill.
Its still a draw, a point only.
And Iran is next, which as we all know, are gonna park the bus and play similarly like Iceland today and like the game in 2014.
Let’s see what he does against Iran
It’s f<"(ing unfair!!! They may or may not park the bus but will Iran have three on Ronaldo? Or Switzerland have three on Neymar?
I seriously think there is a tactic floating out there that promises at least a point when playing against us – park the bus, have three on Messi, speedy direct counter attack, some luck with Messi down on luck and viola! We will not have any reply to it all and will just continue to pass the ball back and forth for all we want. For all the coaches in the world, is there not one who can anticipate that teams will definitely do that against us and devise a method to break them down?!
I apologise for sounding irrational and over simplfying things but we are going to be in deep shit. As mentioned in the earlier paragragh, CRO and NIG will play the same tactic as the other teams did against us and just frustrate us. The danger is that CRO has good midfielders who can pass well and in Manduzic a good finisher. NIG has pace and I just cringe to watch Cabarello, Rojo, Biglia and Mascherano running helter skelter to back to stop them. By parking the bus, they will have a chance for a point and then it will be down to their games against ICL. It's entirely possible that we end up with three draws and say thanks for the memories in 2014. Holy shit guys.
Just learnt that the Iceland coach’s true Profession is dentist and many of the players are not even professional. Sampaoli and many players should feel ashame.
Very sad to see poor show of Argentina. π’
Implementing the same failed plan again and again and expecting different result is nothing but stupidity. Its much easier to defend a single player than to defend a team, which iceland did very well. Argentina game with messi centric, was highly predictable Argentina needs to change its tactics wherein each player is as important as Messi and contributes: if Dybala (long shooter and dribbler) was at right instead Meza, Iceland would have found it difficult to contain both at a time. Also Di Maria to be replaced with Pavon, Biglia with Celson. If these changes take place, π¦π· will get through next round. Vamos Argentina π¦π·
Its not stupidity, it is Insanity!
I have this crazy idea in my mind, hopefully Sampaoli sees this message (like he would).
How about Messi being a right winger ?? He has proved that he’s excellent too in this position. Remember where did the best goals in his carrier start? Against Bilbao CDR, against Getafe la liga, against Brazil friendly 4-3 win? From right!
And no team would risk a few players at flank because it’ll leave hole in the middle. If they do place some men there, the middle will be exploited by the likes of meza, Dybala… And it’s a game over. If they leave the flank… It’s Messi who will cut or make dangerous run along the flank.
Or maybe Messi could be in the middle, but as a free role, he could swap position with Dybala/ meza on the right. This’ll be even more unpredictable.
He is slow now.and Messi as a winger means less goals for him.bad idea
Messi on the right would have solved most of our tactical issues but he can’t play there anymore.
The second best option is to play him as false 9 playing near the box & let others provide for him.
The idea is to pull players, even though Messi may not as quick as his past days, opponent’s wouldn’t risk giving him freedom..as he is still the world’s best player (if not one of).
And it could be a free changing role with either Dybala or meza.
Being a false nine is good against many opponents, but against a defense that compact (even more compact than Chelsea or atletico if you ask me), receiving a pass to go for goal is extremely difficult. We’re not talking Haiti here (where I saw he become like false 9).
exactly. at the same time we need to look up for left side also. if we have very good player with technical he can also divert some some defenders whoever marking messi. it will create some spaces for messi. di maria is very worst player. I think we can look for centurion who can run, do dribling, making long shoots with right foot, scoring goals. centurion should replace billiards immediately.
Maybe, the Coaches for ARG are not allowed what they want to do; 4 Coaches worked from 2014, nothing changed much, Our style of play looks exactly same; Yesterday Aguero saved with his brilliant finish; They are relying too much on individual’s brilliance rather than on a good cohesive team;
I wonder how Biglia suddenly got into starting eleven; After Spain friendly, some media even reported (TyC Sports) that its never going to be Masche – Biglia in Midfield for Sampaoli;
Politics and groupism in the team.I think Argentina will win nothing until messi mascherano retires.they drag us to 3 finals but prefer their friends to start ahead of actual deserving players.until when Argentina has a coach who has character like tite has we can’t be a team.bilardo created a team with maradona as focal point but their defence was strong had a good goalkeeper.his supporting players were hard working and above all maradona can inspire any team he was that good.
The so called “cohesive team” would also struggle against a wall that waits and filled with strong men.
Argentina were quite fluid… Until they reach the penalty box. Seriously, what could any other team do?
Individual brilliance is needed, yet I saw Argentina saved energy and only all out during the last 20 minutes or so.
The only way against those team is to use the width with speed, and players coming from behind with speed. Sudden large movement would make the formation become chaos.
Fluid? They were moving the ball at snail’s pace; Didn’t even tried to counter quickly when we got the ball during set pieces; Cohesive team would definitely not conceded that goal;
Ok, How many chances have we created? Other than penalty and Pavon’s shot, how many saves were made by opponents GK?
Our game plan is to attack through wings; How many crosses were made into the box? How many players were there in the box when the crosses were made? Aguero against tall defenders; Seriously?
Sampaoli is poor.he can’t manage superstars.not playing good young players.I’m a huge messi fan and only supporting Argentina because of him.but I have to say he is nowhere near maradona level.he misses penalties easily marked out from a game.has no leadership quality.his peak days are gone he can’t dribble 1-2 players now.shoots wide when in pressure.now that Barcelona don’t have a fantastic squad he cant drag them to even a semifinal of a cl for 3 years running.maradona is the goat messi is not.simple is that.Messi needs players around him to perform well.maradona didn’t needed that.
I’ll remember your comment.
Why??
In case Argentina become the champion (or at least go far) and Messi of course would play a huge role in it.
Anyway, the target is semi final (from AFA). And I can see why.
For right now, it’s still a mediocre (not bad result). You should worry our chance if it’s a tie again against Croatia (or consider it gone if it’s a lost *cross fingers). But not now, not yet.
For me loosing in final also a failure
Do you really believe that our team is going to make that far with this kind of defence & GK
Your just upset thatβs okay. Everyone knows every star player has bad outings.
Your not a true fan believer if you throw him down like that after one game. And to be honest, even the greatest penalty takers are 90%, meaning they miss one in 10id rather the miss in the group stage.
Vamos Argentina !
Why every time I get disappointed.i don’t like loosing much.mayb too much expectations and Messi may not fulfill my huge expectations.but if you want to be considered as greatest ever then you can’t play like this.you can’t have any weak spot.he was weak even in freekicks yesterday.from now on I shall not expect anything.with this kind of school level defence I don’t see progressing much only if they play much changed side then only we can win anything.
https://golazoargentino.com/2018/06/16/argentina-player-ratings-v-iceland-aguero-nets-first-world-cup-goal-as-messi-falters-from-the-spot/
It is exactly the result what we feared.now its a precarious situation now we have to win both the games.it’s now do and die.now lots of changes needed.armani for caballero,locelso for biglia,pavon for dimaria or Meza,Fazio for rojo,Mercado or ansaldi for salvio.
Nobody is talking about the fact that argentina was held by iceland just because of wrong team selection by our mad coach.Rojo,di maria,cabellero,biglia these people are not required any more.New lads should come in who have already proved themselves like lo celso,armani,dybala,fazio,pavon.They can change the game.Messi needs support.Moreover,di maria should be removed immediately,total flop.I predicted this upset when I saw the line up in this website.A basic coaching thing is that when you are using double pivot midfield,one must join the attack by creating chances and other must stop the opponent’s ball play.Madche is doimg that.den why was biglia included?That is the mistake.More defensive approach cost them the game.You have to be tactically right these days to win matches.I can write on the paper that if argentina does not use lo celso,pavon,dybala ,they will exit from the group stage.Mark my words.This is reality.I am die hard argentina fan since 2001 but I cannot talk irrationally.Old boys should leave the field now.Mad coaches are the root of all problems.They dont play the good players,they play average players just to show their control and lose matches.What kind od approach is this?Look at croatia,they are using all the good players togethers.
We will qualify, we just need more time to play together and include the young reserves. Argentina is strong.
The problem is not with the players. The problem is with the coach. He played Lo Celso regularly before the tournament and Lo Celso excelled. Now that the time for application has come, Sampaoli has dropped him all of a sudden. This is pure blindness.
Or maybe politics of friends club.politics is quite evident.it’s can’t be footballing reason
had he given Paredes the same opportunity offered to biglia he would have shined by now.it is a pity
. Armani
Ansaldi Otamendi Fazio Tagliafico
Mascherano
Perez Banega Lo Celso
Messi Aguero
Agreed
Guys go re-watch the game again like I did.
Our team looked very sharp and dangerous. Pavon’s clear penalty wasn’t rewarded. Last free kick for Messi, the referee miraculously moved the spot of the free kick away from the box. The referee was bastard, no yellow card to their butcher man (#8) who was there just to kick players.
Iceland have no pride standing all 11 inside the box and never feel embarrassed about it because they used to this kind of humiliation by other teams.
Argentina played really good except for Biglia, Di Maria (who has no business to be in the team) and Caballero who got only two balls and failed in stopping one and looked shaky in the second.
Messi 11 shots on goal, but no luck.
Tagliafico, Meza, Banega and Salvio all played good. Aguero looked sharp. Mascherano was the man of the match.
First time we all watch the game under the nerves and miss the bright side. Seriously the team looked good.
Team was very slow.very slow passing no one shoot from outside the box.how can we expect to break the bus.sampaoli is terrible in managing superstar.
#WC Russia i feel the same way as you do. But biglia and dimaria for sure have to go. We did look good not as bad as we think. Iceland also put the entire 23 in the box it’s impossible to play like that. We will get this Croatia will play an open game. We hope.
Kignbon: Please watch the game second time from start to end, and you will see what I mean. Seriously the team fought for the 3 points, but some factors played against them including the referee. That’s when you play in Europe, it’s a lost case as referees will push for every European Team.
I agree with you.
About the slow part, it is a part of the strategy, the movement seem less because Iceland played with very tight zone marking. It’s no use to move left and right when your opponent sits deep waiting.
The only strategy is go wide, use speed to disrupt the middle formation and don’t use high crosses because Iceland players are like 10 cms taller (except from corners, seriously Otamendi won corner every time, he’s like current Walter samuel)
And didn’t one see that from middle of 2nd half we played quick flowing attack? It’s breath taking. Any other team would have conceded 2 or 3 during that time alone.
mascherano and biglia useless. like we where playing with 9 men.
for you people, if lo celso was brought in for biglia instead of banega. you would have said. lo celso played a very good game. but because its banega. he cant play for argentina.
in my opinion, banega played a good 30minutes when he was brought in. in these 30minutes he touched more possesion than any other player in the ground.
next game i would start with lo celso and banega both together.
Banega is better as a sub. Once you give him a start, he disappears after a brief good spell. That’s how he has been for us. Lo Celso over him as a starter.
Huh??? Mascherano was one of our best players…
1. Salvio at RB is a disaster waiting to happen.
2. Caballero reminded me of the goalkeeping howlers at this UCL against Madrid. I expected a lot from him. But he exposed his mental weakness and rusty state.
3. Biglia – why on earth Sampaoli thinks of him as Paulinho of Brazil?? I said it after the game against Spain. Sampaoli is trying to make him Paulinho but he doesn’t have that much talent going forward. Is Sampaoli blind to see the obvious?
4. Di Maria’s quality expired last season. He looks very limited compared to his old self.
5. Meza – I liked him. Not much end product today but still he was the only midfielder taking initiatives in the first half.
6. Messi – I always thought that someone else should take our penalties. Why putting every duty on him? He has a weakness – penalties. Why can’t any one else take responsibility?
7. Aguero – told you all along, he has been a beast this season. He has reached that level when a player simply becomes “irreplaceable”. So much hate towards him labelling him as Lazy and club player – choke on his thunderbolt haters!
8. Mascherano – never thought he could generate this level of performance once again. Superb.
9. Rojo – awful at the start, improved later. But why not Fazio?
10. Tagliafico – had a good game. His work rate is impressive.
11. Sampaoli – Does he have the guts to admit his mistakes and save our tournament before it’s too late? So much big talk yet only disappointment and blindness from him.
I think 5 points will be enough to go through the next round.. Team should remain cool a draw against croatia and win against nigeria will do it. Players should not take unnecessary pressure, as they can fall apart
Draw against Croatia is going to be a disaster; We will be under tremendous pressure if Iceland sneak a win against Nigeria; or even Nigeria wins against Iceland;
Must win game against Croatia for ARG;
Simple it’s of course a must win game against croatia. If we cant win it, we dont deserve to progress into the next round let alone win the tournament. Sampaoli can make this team win and even go all the way if he makes the right selections.
If he goes for “safety” again, then we are doomed.
Common Guys!!! Get out of your shell and see the bigger picture!! We earned a point and thatβs never bad after the first game. The standings mean nothin after one game….we were top after 1 game in 2002 and look where we ended?
Agreed there were flaws in our team selection but we should have still have won, we missed a penalty….shit happens in football but itβs still one point.
Our boys need to cool their heads, work harder and i have no doubt we will win our next two game. After that weβll worry about it when the time comes. Under normal situation, despite our form, we should beat Croatia and Nigeria. Imagine we any one of them were out last 16 opponents??? Iβm sure nobody would be complaining…. I predict 2-0 v Croatia – I think Croatia are getting carried away, and they not all that. 2-1 vs Nigeria. We top the group, and look back at our stupidity.
Cheer up guys we are Argentina and we have Messi. Let the world underestimate us at their own peril.
My players needs to improve the penalties so hard to guess.
Coach knew better, see more and have better knowledge than 99% of us.
And our record is really not bad, only the thropy which is missing.
Though not winning last night, Argentina extend unbeaten record (in 90 minutes of play) in 4 last tournament (WC 2014, Copa 2015,Copa 2016 and WC 2018- one game):
Year – Win – Draw – Lose
2014 – 5 – 2 – 0
2015 – 3 – 3 – 0
2016 – 5 – 1 – 0
2018 – 0 – 1 – 0 (still in progress)
Remind me if there are other team with better record IN 90 MINUTES (capitalize the key word before anyone complains).ο»Ώ
I don’t understand why people here rate the performance of Mascherano highly. He was supposed to do the more creative role out of the two pivots. I don’t think he did that effectively. But he would have done the role of a proper DM while moving the ball around much better than Biglia. He also gave a lot of needless fouls away when Iceland was going nowhere with the ball.
But he was head and shoulder above the rest, bar Messi and Otamendi.
And lo Celso/ Banega should be the one that moves forward (and Banega performed well since he came in). Mascherano years and years were use to defend and stop progressing players, not box-to-box.
What Argentina needs is not a coach but a shrink. Someone who can put the right words into their ears and make them either charged up or well calmed for the occasion. Yesterday was a nervous performance.
If you live in the U.S. then you would have seen Hernan Crespo as part of FOX’s pre and post game show……poor guy sitting there on LIVE national T.V. getting hammered about what ARG did and how Messi missed that PK and this fucking Mexican, whatever his name was saying Barcelona needs to make sure that Messi practices his PKs………blah blah blah
We are all desperate as Argentina fans now and logic escapes us. But the truth is in a few games this era will be completely over. But where we are now gives us clues to the future. I think for sure Sampaoli will be gone after this world cup. If we win the group, we will face Denmark and then Spain and that we will lose for sure. If we are second in group we face France in round of 16 and we are out.
Why is Sampaoli gone? Look at our history. NO coach ever comes into Argentina NT with a plan. Last coach that did this was Pekerman. Every coach says the same thing. We must work with Messi, blah blah blah, and they have no plan. No vision, no idea, except lets get Messi comfortable. This is not football.
Second look at the team. Who on this team other than a few players is for the future? Maybe Pavon, Dybala, Tagilafico Lo Celso and the rest is all OLD GUYS. No Lautaro, Mamanna, Icardi, Foyth, Ocampos, Kranevitter, Paredes,and many more. These guys or whoever will be selected in next world cup will have almost zero experience. NO COACH that looks to the future sets up a team like this.
Sadly, when Messi retires after this World Cup, or at 34 years old, we will still suffer because we do not plan long term project to improve the team.
This team is playing an out of date style. In todays football, you need box to box midfielders. Three midfielders that can do it all like Lo Celso. Did ANYBODY notice how slow we were in attack today? Even Mascherano who people said played great all he did was foul to stop advance from Iceland. You think honestly he can do this against Pogba, Mbappe and others?
We have players, we have no plan, and one great player, that everybody keeps putting more pressure on because the coach is too afraid to take control.
Listen to Sampaoli’s words on Biglia ( ” we need experience to stabilize the middle”). So we will attack with defenders and defend with midfielders. This is a joke of a plan. Sampaoli is scared, and the moment is WAY too big for him, and he will be gone.
You need a coach that says “Messi era is over”. If Messi helps us in next world cup that is wonderful, but at 34 years old he will not be the same player. Only then can we try to rebuild something better.
These players in their prime of career went to 2 Copa Americas and 1 World Cup final and won absolutely nothing. They choked in the biggest moment. Even today was a choke job. That was the worst penalty you can take by Messi. He shoots mid level on the right side of a right handed goalie. Easy stop every time. NO STRATEGY to inform players and prepare players. Sad but true but this is over and over soon.
By the way, Lautaro to Inter to play with Icardi. They play the same position. But we cannot play Messi and Dybala together. This is what is called being a shitty manager.
In a high pressure game against Croatia I don’t know man. I have lost all hopes today and To all the positive posters thanks for keeping the positive vibe alive but Even if we somehow manage to get out of the group with this defense we can’t win this. I feel sorry for Messi.
I cannot agree with you more. Honestly though, I had thought if one of Simeone or Sampaoli takes over the team, Argentina would win the world cup. But Sampaoli seems clueless as to what needs to be done. Even Enzo Perez is a better choice than Biglia- mind boggling Biglia was in the squad over Perez. Perez is only in the squad because Lanzini got injured. Had Pekerman been in charge, Argentina would have won something by now.
Dunga was awful for Brazil. Tite knew who to play, how to play, two games in and Brazil have been flying since. Sampaoli, instead of owning this, is putting pressure on Messi. Mind boggling Icardi is not in the squad. If Sampaoli still needs to salvage something, he needs to start Dybala instead of Di maria, Lo Celso instead of Biglia and perhaps Armani instead of Caballero. That might change things. Although Argentina in no way is going past quarterfinals.
Simeone style is better in cup competitions. Possession football is risky & we don’t have the players to excute it. The reason we played well the later stages of the last world cup was because of sabella style.
if you are a good coach, you develop your players, or you find the players who will play your style. And such competitions as world cups need no style. Portugal had no style when they won euros in 2016. Neither did Uruguay when they won Copa America in 2011. It is all about winning ugly and Simeone would help accomplish that. Regardless, I hope Argentina makes it to atleast quarters so Messi doesnt retire. He needs to be around for 2022. Sampaoli probably going to move to Chelsea after the world cup.
I realized when messi took the penalty, other players didn’t position themselves so they can go for the rebound. We’ve seen lots of penalties stopped by keeper, but then the rebound that does the missing job.
When you already know that opponent is going to park the bus shouldn’t you go with more creativity??? You need good CMs to keep the possession of the ball against these kind of teams and not go with Biglia-Masch combination which has failed many times and twice against Chile who adopted similar strategy. Also when one of your main player Dimaria failed to even get one pass right in 45 mins shouldn’t you replace him with Pavon right after the break?? Dimaria has been useless against bus parking teams. He waited till 80th min and it was too late. You also have Dybala sitting on the bench are you just going to waste him? Sampaoli is sole responsible for todays result. His every decision today from team selection to his timing of subs cost us the 3 points and now we are in a do or die situation so early in the competition. Iceland coach did his homework Sampaoli clearly didn’t.
People who think Croatia will not park the bus against us because they played open game against Nigeria are delusional. Nigeria and Argentina are two completely different teams!! Only Belgium decided not to play anti football and you know the result. After seeing how vulnerable and fragile our defense was against Iceland counter attacks Croatia will 100% park the bus and attempt to hit us on counters. Best time to score against us is when our vulnerable defense is highup pressing.
Our Goal keeper situation is another headache now. Well I don’t know if replacing shaky Caballero with Armani will solve it. Some players can’t handle the pressure of playing in such an important match . Armani might choke like Liverpool keeper or excel like Goycochea, all depends on his mental strength and character. Oh I miss Romero already. I was his biggest critique and miss him badly now. Weak defense and dicey goalkeeping!! Perfect recipe for disaster!!
After today’s loss I hope our coach Jorge Sampaoli has learned his lesson and will make some badly needed changes. Most likely he will finally drop Biglia and I pray he won’t be used again. He also shouldn’t start Banega just because we looked a bit better after he came in. Biglia was so bad today that even if Fazio had replaced him our midfield would have looked better. His passes, positioning & tacking were all pathetic. He is done in europe now coming back to local league soon. Rojo was our 3rd worst player after Biglia and Dimaria. We need either Mercado or Fazio to replace him hopefully its Fazio. Rojo’s pass to Caballero when he was clearly not expecting him to do that says how much understanding our players in the back have with each other. We definitely need proper back 4 against Croatia so Ansaldi should be a no brainer for our RB position. Salvio is a better winger if defensive duties are not on his head , he can be Meza’s sub.Meza on the other hand didn’t look flashy as him and Salvio were instructed to only pass to Messi and that made our attack so predictable and easy for Iceland to defend. But he atleast made a run that resulted in penalty which ofcourse Messi managed to miss!!! But as someone here said that the missed penalty will either bring the best out of Messi or it will dent his confidence end our world cup. Lets pray its the former!! Also, Passing to Messi and Messi either taking the shot or losing possession is making us predictable. I am no coach or a football pundit but sometimes isn’t it better to pass to a player who is in better position than Messi and surprise our opponents?? Anyways, now there is no room left for mistakes and experiments. Next game Ansaldi for Salvio, Locelso for Biglia and Pavon for Dimaria or bring Pavon in soon after Dimaria’s usual horrible first half display then only we have some chance to win but if he continues to persist with Dimaria and Biglia we will crash out!
So Sampaoli’s double 5 against Iceland didn’t work. Back to the drawing board. The biggest frustration for me is that Sampoli was billed as a coach with different ideas who employs an fast-moving offense and a high-pressing defense and this team does neither. Messi missed a PK, true. But those things can happen. I’m more concerned that this team doesn’t show a clear idea of how it wants to play.
Oh they do have a very clear of how they want to play. It was darn obvious – pass look for Messi pass look for Messi pass back look for Messi pass look for Messi pass back pass look for Messi pass pass pass back look for Messi. But that’s all.
If we continue to play like this, most likely will get KO on the 1st round. If Croatia beat us and Iceland beats Nigeria, and then a draw between Croatia and Iceland. That is the worst scenario.
Rojo: To all fans here who said that he is a big game guy I said I don’t believe in miracle, for a guy who has been on the bench during the entire year, don’t be surprise. Maybe he can be used as a fullback and so less critical if he loss the ball.
Salvio: Defensively awful, always late in replacement. I’d rather go with Mercado and may use him as right winger.
Biglia: Worst Argentine player ever. He is just happy to walk on the pitch, hide himself from others in order to avoid receiving the ball. Once he has the ball, he just get rid of it by passing to Maschereno. Such a coward behavior. He’s the main responsible for this bad result. I really hope not to see him in this jersey again. Enzo Perez could be used as well.
Tagliafico: he show his motivation but too light. He had lot of troubles against Iceland wingers. Not safe. To be honest, I don’t know if he’s good enough. He is better in a more advanced position for doing pressing.
Di Maria: Sampaoli seems not getting it. Di Maria is a “right” winger. He does not have the pace as before so the only way for him is to cut in.
Meza: no offence, he’s still too green, I didn’t see anything from him.
Banega: cannot do worse than Biglia anyway. I don’t understand why Lo Celso not used.
Caballero: no confidence. Just happy to box the ball during the corner.
Higuain, Pavon: lot of good things and improvement since they came in.
Messi, Otamendi: both were tired and really fed up, they had to play everywhere to cover their teammates.
Sampaoli: except seeing this guy nervous and walking around, he seems clueless about the situation. Why waiting 1h to replace Biglia? After 1y of work, he seems not finding the right system for his team. It’s very disappointing. Can we really rely on him?
The only satisfaction are Maschereno and Aguero. Kun helped defending and swap position with Messi. Maschereno amazing good in defense and in transmission.
For me, the starting 11 should be: Armani-Mercado,Fazio,Otamendi-Salvio,Maschereno,Lo Celso,Enzo Perez,Acuna-Messi,Aguero. Dybala, Pavon and Higuain may step in during the match
Hi every one.i am very upset about this result.we should have win this match.why sampa did not realize that pavon is must start.messi always under pressure.since 1990 i am supporting argentina.but always we lose.the big dream of my life to beat germans in the world cup.bcoz germans talk to much.but now i am afraid after this result.hope we go through the next round.very upset about sampa team selection.any way all the best to my beloved argentina.vamos argentina
We started from where we left in 2014.
To be honest, I’m not disappointed with the result. I was disappointed with Sampaoli team selection or subs and Messi penalty. After all, the game was only a draw. Even Spain could lose against Iceland.
Surely, Messi was under tremendous pressure while taking the penalty. I think he could let Aguero take the penalty (although it’s not possible unless comes forward to take the responsibility ) in such situations.
We have also seen how he had improved his set piece skills in the last 2 years, yet he couldn’t score a free kick and missed a penalty due to pressure.
Sampaoli’s plan with two pivots backfired. I saw Biglia high up the pitch most of the time (I though he was played to strengthen the defense). If Biglia was being played so further, he could have chosen Celso from the beginning, right?
I think Lo Celso is a must in the midfield.
Sampaoli has made Lo Celso his main man at the midfield until the world cup and the team (esp Messi) benefitted from that. Why break something that was working, that’s what I wonder. I can’t understand Lo Celso is ignored all of a sudden. I thought he will be called upon to replace Biglia at the half time. Instead Banega, who recovered from a minor injury only a few days ago, came on.
Also Higuain for Meza don’t make sense. Dybala would have been a better option in those situations.
If I was the coach I would have made following changes yesterday
Lo Celso for Biglia at half time
Pavon for DiMaria at 60-65′
Dybala for Meza at 75′
I wish to see following 11 against Croatia:
Aguero
Pavon* – Messi – Meza
Lo Celso* – Mascherano
Tagliafico – Fazio* – Otamendi – Ansaldi*
Armani
Players marked with asterisk is important.
Guys,
This is an opener..but i would consider it as more of reality check…and strategic thoughts can come..can understand the frustrations..but we will do better..
I was positive with the revealed game plan but the players simply didn’t make it working as expected. I wish we had 2 competitive friendlies to realize it earlier. It might be deadly costly to use the first match to find mistakes.
Two main problems were the shaky defense and the static offense. Without any change to the back line, we will concede another 6 against Spain for sure. Only Otamendi should stay, Fazio should be the 2nd CB. For the fullbacks, both Mercado and Ansaldi will be better than Salvio, considering the Benfica winger contributed very little in attacking today. I would also think Rojo can be used as LB. His run and pass into the box to Aguero was beautiful. Tagliafico was completely out of idea, probably because of his partner Di Maria was as bad as he used to. In the midfield it’s time to bench Biglia and Di Maria. They looked tired and not passionated right after the kick off. Meza tried but either he did not understand the tactics or other players did not understand him. I expect him and Salvio to exchange some one two and overlap run in the right to create space for Messi but that did not happen. If we wanted a midfield to play more centrally, Lo Celso is better as he has better chemistry. Mascherano, Perez, Lo Celso, and Pavon would be my pick for the midfield against Croatia. Aguero showed his class and we need that kind of clinical touch. Higuain may make more run but sometime, we just need one chance or two to nail it. One thing I didn’t understand is that why didn’t we try to tell Messi to stay in the box and pull Aguero out for some time. That will mess up their plan, give Messi some rest, and let the others step up. Our players were too static, off the ball movements were bad. Instead of drop back finding for the ball, Messi should of run to the wing to drag some markers so that Meza or Di Maria can cut in. The GOAT tried too much to do everything while he should do one thing well or two, like the Portuguese queen. Last but not least, I was disappointed about the technical skills of our players. Except Messi and Aguero, their first touches were below average. Agility and dribbling are also sub par. I can’t believe that Argentina have no players who can do what Isco or Silva did. The players simply lost those traits after years playing out of position for their clubs.
However, I still have full faith in the lads. All of the champions since 2006 struggled a bit in group stage: Italy against United States, Spain against Switzerland, Germany against Ghana. They all peaked at the right time then. If Argentina can’t do that, we don’t deserve the glory.
Vamos!!!
we dropped 2 big points, although everyone said not to be worried and panic however it is bad beginning. Red light Alert !
Pavon must start ahead of DI Maria
Lo Celso or banega instead of Biglia
Need a solid def , Salvio is a winger so start with Ansaldi
Rojo or Fazio as a twin tower with Otamendi not be experimented to jump to attackers
Cabalerro should be tested and encourage as he is very shaky otherwise Armani is needed
Messi is just a human , he needs full support from his team mates
Dybala have to be introduce to bring creativity
Everyone should feel and carry the same burden on his shoulders to bring the WC glory
Sampaoli must be brave and objective to review the single players performance after Spain humilitaion and Iceland draw.
We have 2 games to win, it is not an easy task.
You are right, red light alert for us. This team was already under pressure before coming to the world cup and this result today made it worse. We need to be very cautious in the next two games, croatia and nigeria will not be defending with 11 against us (who knows they might also use iceland tactics) but they are not easy teams to play when you are under pressure if we drop points again we will finish second or get knocked out from the group stage, A disaster!
Sorry, Croatia will try to defend and hit on the counter now; Croatia has nothing to lose now; Any result other than loss against ARG is good for them;
Nigeria hit on the counter in the friendly; I don’t think they will change much;
Reading all of you peoples comments and I am also very much disappointed with today’s result. In my opinion, we can’t blame messi even tho he missed that penalty, he is the only guy, i repeat ONLY guy who’s doing all the moves/runs for this team and the others are standing there to see the show!! and he’s the reason we are dreaming of becoming world champions, it is always the same for us. the blame goes to that sampaoli guy, i dont know why people in europe rate him so much, this guy has got no brain at all! who on earth sends higuain when we need a goal and bench a super talented player like dybala? and it is his failures that he cannot create and idea of playing messi and dybala together. and who on earth plays two defensive players against a team like iceland? his tactics was poor today, he wanted to play safe and win the first game somehow and it backfired. We didnt learn anything from past, its the same thing, pass to messi and hope he does something and sampaoli is expecting the same thing, if we play like this we are going nowhere. The whole team needs to step up, it is much easier for the opposing team to defend a single player thn defending a team, they know if they somehow manage to restrict messi argentina are going to struggle because this is where the decisive passes, goal scoring opportunities are coming from. We so badly need to get out of this system and relieve pressure from messi and I dont know if it will ever happen!
I agree to you on Messi being alone… Messi had all the runs and meza dimaria just watched.. time and again when they recieve the ball they wait for Messi to open up to pass… you could just see Iceland players closing down messi even before they have tried to pass to him in anticipation.. they have to take the burden and make those run.. try to do it themselves.. the penalty came when meza tried to get on the end of a ball..
But I disagree with you on the higuain bit.. we had already tried banega aguero masche pavon who all tried to play facing the goal .. get through the maze and shoot or shoot from outside the box.. there was no space for them to dribble in!! what happened .. Iceland were throwing two three bodies at the shots everytime…
Higuain probably should have come in sooner.. he actually looked the only one wh0 could actually physically shield the ball.. again and again they had been muscling messi aguero off it…. it would also have provided us with a target in the box… for Juve he plays a physical leagues and finishes with single touches… a toe poke on the pavon shot or a bit of physicallity to get a shot away was very very lacking all game all day…
I doubt this is going to happen when even the coach says this is messi’s team, instead of reducing pressure on him he is putting more. This sends a wrong message to other players, no matter how bad they play they know messi will be solely responsible for the failures. I feel gutted to see that we had the best player in the history of football after maradona and we couldn’t utilise him properly.
But dybala has the ability to shoot outside from the box and score which higuain clearly lacks. Iceland were defending with 11 inside the box so there wasn’t that much for him to score from inside.
Guys and my fellow Argentina fans.
Yes we made mistakes selecting the squad and choosing wrong players and tactics to start.
Most of the regulars know me here for my criticizing towards AFA, coaches, tactics, players, fans,…
I can’t take the disrespect shown to us, to Messi, to our team.
Believe me!
It is not to late!
3-4 days ago I wrote that we will struggle through the group phase because Sampaoli will rely on the oldies and then he will be forced to rely on the other players. He will not have any other choice. I was very angry when Lanzini got injured. He was used wrong anyway, playing on the right is not his position. Then it was rumored that Paredes will get called up which calmed me down because I thought we had enough wide players Pavon, Di maria, Acuna, Salvio, Meza even Lo Celso and Messi can play there. We needed a creative midfielder like Paredes. Sampaoli chose Perez who is also best suited as wide midfielder. It was a mistake, Perez is a great player but it was the wrong time to call him up.
We lack creativity.
Now it is too late to talk about players that are not here and we have to work with what we have and we must go 4-4-2!
Our biggest obstacle will be making it through the group phase.
Believe me if we pass the group phase we will be dangerous.
we have to!
The team must stand up and fight.
I agree .. group stages teams will park it against us and get us on counter and caballero and the disoriented defense will make sure the opponents succeed..
post that teams have to come out… they have to get the ball away from us..
what hurts most is the penalty Messi missed π
He is weighed down by the finals by the expectations the team puts on him… we could almost see it.. I think this penalty will either charge him up .. drive him crazy and we will have a possessed performance or he will struggle even worse…
someone needs to step up next game… try to create goals without even involving him in the final third.. we need the opposition to be forced to give him some space so he can thrive.. but we also need him to make an impact… earn his points .. earn his badge once more.. we need an Ecuador game to announce he is here though π we need him to loose the shackles…
Team didn’t play bad atall. It just unlucky and we were too cautious. We actually gave too much respect to Iceland. Should have played Lo celso instead of Biglia. You can’t play with a team if they don’t want to play. Iceland didn’t wanna play. They freaking put a BUS infront of goal. Still better than a loss. Unfortunate Messi! It was a really poor penalty from Messi. Hope Croatia doesn’t play for a draw. But we need alot to improve. Saying that Iceland coach schooled Sampaoli is utter rubish! Let me tell you what Iceland coach told to his players. He said, whatever do but DON’T PLAY. They had 9 players in the box always which is ridiculous. However Like Maradona said, we lost first game than still went to a final so now we drawn and still can do it. We need Mercado and Lo Celso back in the team. Biglia unforced error cost us 3 points.
well but that was there tactics to stall and kill the game and donot let Argentina’s football flow…
they accomplished it and i am sure nigeria and croatia will try.. nigeria even has blistering pace and has gotten us once lately.. π
you know though who I hated… Every Iceland midfielder has committed atleast 4-6 tactical fouls tugging kicking tripping.. and for all of 95 mins.., and the ref encouraged.. there is not a single card all game all game.. for all the cynical tackles …
that ref was a spineless bastard!!!!
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/club/argentina/202/blog/post/3529140/messi-just-6-10-after-another-penalty-failure-in-argentina-draw-with-iceland
this is espnfc rating. Biglia didn’t play that bad today, he was there to protect the defence so we cant expect him to give those crucial passes that opens the defence. It was sampaoli’s wrong tactics that cost us 2 points. He tried Lo Celso in all those games before and suddenly decided to go with biglia.
You say biglia didnt play that bad?? Are u blind? He is the worst player i ever see!and its not just me who see like that!he destroy argentina football!bad passing, so slow, bad vision, bad decision, can not dribble and cant control the ball well, bad defending, wrong passing, so weak!! What the hell sampaoli see from him?damn , still have people defend bad player like him!what the..
you guys keep on underestimating these team, they have 11 player just like Argentina do, they spent month prepared to face Argentina in the world cup. I don’t think Argentina play a bad game, Iceland have been prepare this game for moth, they come with plan for a draw and little bit of luck.
Arg did play bad.. biglia was standing and watching people play… meza or di maria didnot try a sinle time to charge into the box with the ball… charge in.. if you get closed down then pass back ok.. it doesnot have to be messi every time.. it was lucky rojo shot/pass mix got to aguero.. or we could have had a worse day
Hello All,
We will be fine..We need to get the right formation..Sampaoli will make changes..He also wanted to play safe..and had two Defensive Midfield..no worries..
We will beat Croatia and Nigeria
we have to vamos
Batigol,
I agree with your sentiments.
Argentina played much better than either Portugal or Spain. Definitely Spain which was a better team than Portugal.
I think we’ll make it through to the round of sixteen. I think we will win the next two games.
I wasn’t all that impressed by Croatia but congratulations to them. They have thee points in the bag. We have one!
Our only problem is that every team parks the bus against us. EVERY TEAM!
Croatia came with a goal……..of stealing a point and they did it.
Croatia might just as well do the same believing that a draw will earn them a ticket to the round of sixteen.
We must win Croatia game to free our minds but regardless, a draw would still be okay if we beat Nigeria.
I think we’ll be okay. Just my thoughts.
no a draw will not be…
1) makes Nigeria must win.. and we have history with Nigeria…
2) Croatia and Iceland can also get to 5 points even if we do win… if Nigeria looses all three which looks possible
comes to what goal difference… Croatia has already won 2-0 .. Iceland I don’t see conceding easily… we on the other hand are in a disarray in defense…its the worst path out … it will be out of our hands… we need a win…
but on the other hand if we beat Croatia we are one step in the next stage –three scenarios for final round
1) Croatia at 3pts iceland beat nigeria and at 4pts we at 4pts
– if ice land draw croatia
2)
no a draw will not be…
1) makes Nigeria must win.. and we have history with Nigeria…
2) Croatia and Iceland can also get to 5 points even if we do win… if Nigeria looses all three which looks possible
comes to what goal difference… Croatia has already won 2-0 .. Iceland I don’t see conceding easily… we on the other hand are in a disarray in defense…its the worst path out … it will be out of our hands… we need a win…
but on the other hand if we beat Croatia we are one step in the next stage –three scenarios for final round
1) Croatia at 3pts iceland beat nigeria and at 4pts we at 4pts
– if ice land draw croatia one at 5 and 4 … we go ahead with a draw or win… for a loss to nigeria we go to goals scored and goal difference.. so can’t loose to keep it in our hand and not luck
2) Croatia at 3pts Iceland draw Nigeria and at 2pts we at 4pts
– Iceland can either beat Croatia and progress or the other way round.. we are through if we can draw or win with Nigeria .. Nigeria are -2 on goals and we will add some in the win against Croatia
and hence even if we loose we can score and have a higher goal difference to progress..
but again we control our fate.
3)Nigeria beats Iceland Croatia/Nigeria -3 and Iceland -1
we can again beat or draw Nigeria and go ahead by keeping the correct goal difference..
we cannot loose not to these teams… they will have tactics to depend and hit us on counter since we lack good defensive co-ordination but we can’t loose to these and expect to progress
Only thing that I really concern is why VAR doesn’t use in our match, there was clear penalty on many occasions but referee denied it or don’t even look at VAR, but in France vs Australia and Peru vs Denmark they used it, what’s going on FIFA
Totally agree!
agree — the france match the VAR ref intervened after the penalty was called off.. pavon had a clear penalty
there was an elbow on Salvio..
and i am not gonna talk again about the repeat offense from half the iceland squad that didnot get a card
FIFA wants a news face in finals π
Calballero was shaky, he made a worng pass to an iceland attacker during clearence. He did the same thing in the spain friendly. For the goal we conceded, he should have done better with his first save.
I hope Sampaoli can try Armani.
Biglia made some sloppy passes and was not able to involve much in the attack, Lo Celso or Banega may be a better starter.
Di Maria played well, other than messi, he was another player who could take on defenders, Pavon’s substitution was unnecessary and since we did not have idea with such a packed defence, we should we tried to replace Meza with Dybala instead of Higuain.
I think Croatia wont park the bus against us, we can beat croatia, vamos Argentina!
Yes you are right.
But we must ask why Iceland player so close to caballero that the nearest player to him was an enemy. That also a factor that made him shaky and clear the ball the wrong way.
that his first game
How can one guarantee that Armani won’t be shaky as well?; Armani is poor with his feet;
To play with sampa’s style, GK has to be half decent with their feet
This team is cursed and been so from the time of the 2010 WC qualifiers, it shouldn’t be this hard to score, to win, to advance, to win titles when you reach the finals but that’s exactly the case. Other nations and many far less talented have won so why can’t it be us for a change.
Having said all that, do not despair, we ARGENTINA faithful don’t back down or back up and we never surrender. Have some faith and don’t give up on our dream so easy. I’d rather have the team face adversity now than later when something could be done about it, look at Portugal in the Euro, they played like shit and tied Iceland and yet by some miracle won the damn thing… nothing is impossible. HAVE FAITH.
Argentina didn’t play like shit last night. They’re actually really good, especially 2nd half.
But I hope they could replicate Portugal, tying against Iceland but winning the actual thing (tournament).
Increase awareness in defence and get Armani replace caballero. (Forget to mention from previously).
Hello, i been watching this site since brasil 2014 allmost every day and i never really had time to share my thoughts with all of you, because reading everyone’s comment’s intensively takes quite a lot time and after reading everyone’s commen’ts i’m just simply either too tiredvor moreless laizy to write anything at all ! But now I’m getting as worried like everytime my dear argentina plays even i’m not argentinian nor do i speak spanish ! This is simply because now croatia is leading allready 2-0 against the so called ” super eagles ” even i do not really have nothing against any team at all, but i do not favor portugal simplly because of Christiano’s mindset even it doesn’t have maybe have anything to do with playing football but his way of behaving is simply too much for mevto tolerate and same goes with his buddie ‘s from Real Madrid like Marcelo, Ramos etc. So obviosly i don’t support Brasil.Portugal and many countries because some of their players behave like bunch of idiots even they might and they truly are great football players but for me Messi is the best off all time on and of the pitch ! Even i do agree that he might not be mentally so strong like otherseven he have won everything with barca abd reached 3 finals on row with his beloved country and i’m 100% sure that he give’s everythingto he can to his country, but offcourse every player have so called good and bad days and for some reason that i don’t why it exists or not exists( and actually it doesn’t reallly matter in both case’s) but it truly feels like unjustice that the best player of alltine on and of the pitch in this world should have won at least allready 3 finals, but i ‘m really sorry first of all to him and to everybody that supports him and his beloved country Argentina like myself, but now the reality is that If Sampaoli does’nt do anything at all to att leat try to change something which in only my ownoppion hasn’t really happenned yet though ok some might argue that he hasn’t had enough time to do it because of constant AFA problems, but if i remember right it all happened quite quick to him with Sevilla and at least he got some credit fom all over for his actions with Sevilla, luck or good coaching ? Really hard to tell at for me i don’t have a clue what happened with him and Chile in the past and the same goes with Sevilla too ! And i do understand that Bauza wasn’t able for the task and AFA needed to act quickly offcourse nationalteam coaches can’t operate in the same daily basics with their players like “Cholo” or Pochettino or anybother team manager/coach( called it what ever u like), butfot me he should and have had enough time to work with ” Albiceleste ” and this i simply think because he did’nt spend so much time with Sevilla either( with Chile i don’t know or neither do i care ! ” But even in Sevilla i do belive that it was him who decided which player’s go on playing on the pitch, right ? But most of those players were there allready because of sporting director of Sevilla which departed to Rome in the end ! So i totally agree with “San Isidro’s comment’s of starting from 1978 until now and though i do have lot of respect for Pekerman And Sabella i do think that tey too like manybothers of all of us not only players or coaches do make quite a lot mistakes during at least some point their carrieers or life’s and that is unfortunate but it is very hard to avoid them because no-one know’s when theycare comin’ at you and none of is completly perfect, or maybe i’m wrong and there’s someone more superioi to us, who knows ? But All the things “San Isidro said starting from 1978 when diego was so called” too young to play” and Redondondo’s long hair etc….inclunding also Pekerman(messi too young to pay and at 2006 against germany when he changed riquelme to cambiasso etc…) and Sabella too (even i do have a lot of respect to him how he did manage to cgange the whole playing style of the team when our fearest strikers werw not able to play at the level they had been playing during the qualifier’s to Brasil and our fearest force changed completly upsidedown and we were deffinetly the bestvdefendingctean of the whole tounament, but could not score allmost at all and specially in the final agaibst german’s were much more superior to them but jus’t could not score when he had the chance’s( i’m not even bothering to mention the name’s because everyone who watched that final know’s what happened and what could had happennef if Sabella would have chosen more sronger bench players specially strikers or player’s who can simply score goals at big occassions( offcourse even the best freeze some time’s but not all the time ! ) Therefore Sabella should have chosen more goal hungry bench and used them as well ! But sometime’s luck plays also a quite big part specially when best teams are very close to eahother at playingterms and the margin’s are ver small ! And this same tihing has happenned with”unfortunatly with ” Cholo too at helm’s of Athletico, because He also should have won like Messi and Argentina at least 2 time’s but bloody Ramos Scored overtime header and then we all what happenned after that ! Same thing happened in Milano when Athletico equalized and should have won that game too, but bloody Real Madrid and Ronaldo and his buddie’s were so so lucky again like against Juventus Bayern etc. you named it ! This i don’t why
, but it seems like every time Real Madrid plays luck is on their side specially in the big games which are the ones which matter the most ! But that is just bad or good luck, nothing else ! Ok one could argue that argentina had that too in 3 finals at row, and maybe it is true or not, nut still i do belive in the words of wise “San Isidro” that since 1978 there’s allways been issue’s with player selection nevernind if it si 23 players or 11 players performingbon then pitch ! And Bauza finally got kicked out and the word came out that Mr. Sampaoli is coming to save us, though i still want to belive in that, somehow in my mind i never belived that and deffinetly right i ‘m totally convinced that he ‘s clueless what tondonwith his player selection at the moment because he simply chose the wrong players for this tournament we’re playing right now and if before we had mountain to climb over then now it has changed Everest or K2 to climb, but i hope and wish offcourse for miracle to happen, because i’m dreamer, maybe stupid dreamer ?, but still dreamer !
But for right now Mr. Sampaoli he has to first ;
-take ressponsibility to himself and not put in on specially not on Messi because Messi has allready way too much pressure on his shoulders mostly because what happened before at those 3 finals on row which i do blame him for single errorbok maybe that last final against chile and today’s penaltykick as well he shpuld have burried them but we see this similar scenario also when he’s playing Barca and we all know that even the best of all times missplace the penalties sometimes, it just happens mosttly because what has happenned during the game before therefore aguero or someelse should have taken the penalty against Iceland, but it so so easy to say now after game, right ? Allso everytime when he missplace rhe penalty it looks like his mindser change’s’ which is totally normal and pretty much happen tonall players, i mean you have to extrenelybrocksolid to overcome that kind of momentums duringbthevgane ! But at least he doesn’t gonhidevhisbheadvin the bush like Mr. Sampaoli does ! So all theese Bullshit commen’ts made by Mr. Sampaoli that is not his team, but iinstead is Messi’ team is like for my ears very strange things to hear from Mr.Sampaoli’s mouth because i think that instead all these nonsense comment’s that have lcomenout of his mouth just add pressure on the tean and specially on Messi ! For godsake, please stop doing this righr now ! And at least try to act like real coach, even you might not bevablevtonbeband specially don’t show it nobody or none of your 23 players u have chosen for this tournament !
And please if thingd dont work try someting else, even now it might be away too late for it !
I canβt even eat right nowπ‘π‘
When i was watching the spain v portugal match yesterday, i was impressed by spain for their passing, i was thinking Argentina may not be able to do the same.
But when i watch the Argentina match, when we controlled the match, we were far more better than spain, other than team passing, we have individual skills and a lot of one-twos whenever possbile, i was so impressed with the new formation and players selection (except Bigilia and Cabellaro)
After Aguero’s goal, i was in estasy and i thought there was no way back for iceland. But Iceland was lucky to have scored that goal, if we have a proper goalkeeper, i think they wont be able to score.
In all the previous 6 world cups that i watched, argentina won the first match, this time it is a little bit different, i hope that it will end differently and happily this time.
you just said we don’t have a proper goalkeeper due to that easy clearance and you are right, but then you contradicted yourself by saying we could win the world cup.
Look, you can’t win the world cup by just having Messi and Aguero, you need a solid defensive line and most importantly a top class confident goalkeeper. With the quality of Caballero who conceded 6 goals by Spain and today’s blunder, we can’t say we could be champions. Wishful thinking won’t take you to anywhere……Be realistic and accept the fact that we are not ready this time for the World cup.
WCRussia, then u dont need to come to this web site until the world cup ends if u think we cant win.
This is my 7th world cup, and i started supporting argentina since 1994, i hope for the best every 4 years, but i was disappointed every time. Nevertheless, i know we will win the world cup again one day, i am waiting and hoping. Vamos argentina.
For me its out of question Croatia can beat Argentina, they simply can’t, we played 20 games in the last 3 big tournamenst without a single loss in 90 minutes against harder teams than Croatia. Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Chile 3times, Uruguay, Columbia etc. ,with these players, it means a lot. If Arg plays good they win if not or unlucky again than a draw, and lets beat Nigeria.
Yes but did you ask yourself who was the goalkeeper in the games you mentiond?????
also croatia game is a must win.. else it is upto luck for us to progress
Now everyone go back to sleep. And hope for best. Do not worry of tactics every things gonna be just fine.
I can not see why Iceland beaten by France 2-5. They have marvellous defending. And don’t forget they beat England.
But, looking back again, France was really superior during that Euro that Germany lost by two goals and Portugal was beaten (in statistic) in 90 mins before Eder’s goal.
Actually, I’m quite positive with Argentina’s attacking play. But with the way Iceland pack players at their penalty, every team would struggle to get a goal, I tell you, and I mean every team. There’s so little space, and they’re good at clearance and marking men.
Changes will be done.
Biglia out, Banega in
Di Maria out, Pavon in
Rojo out, Fazio in (but this should depend on type of opponent)
Don t worry he s not gonna to change any of them there will be the same squad unfortunately
they had a lot of 1st team missing in friendlies
Sorry guys, I was down a bit today and quickly lost my hopes.
But I believe in Argentina again.
Croatia was not particularly strong against Nigeria today, having won by a penalty and an own goal. They, too, have been struggling in qualifying against Iceland. Netherlands, Portugal France Turkey England either have played badly against Iceland or even lost
EURO 2016.
Portugal have draw against Iceland in the group stage and became third in the group and have won the European Championship at the end.
We must not give up and continue to believe in them. I think Argentine will win against Koratien because they will not park the bus, so there will be spaces for us. And that’s what the game for Argentina will be.
But Sampaoli finally has to wake up !!!
I think we will be group winners.
The lineup for the next game has to be.
—————–Armani
Mercado Otamendi– Fazio —Taglifico
———-Banega —–lo Celso
——-Meza —–Messi —–Pavon
—————–Aguero
I think we end up the group satge with seven points !
*Croatia
Yes this is the best line up but does Sampaoli have the balls to change???
I also believe so, we will be group winners. But i want mascherano to play
Just just calm down…. we have seen nigeria and croatia not very good. The may be better to Island but we will get more chances with them. And if they park the bus????? BELIEVE ME NO ONE PARKS THE BUS AS GOOD AS ICELAND. That’s what they are born to do. That’s how they came here. Thats how they played in Euro.I have not given up in the qualifiers , I will never give up today. Please have some faith in our team and hope for best.
Baldy sampaoli are so stupid! His tactic are so bad! His changed player are so bad! He always make a rush tactic! He can not calm and thats is a bad thing!u can not make a good decision if not calm enough!!!Why argentina never got world class coach , at least good coach? Damn!
Going by an “assumption” that we can easily beat that team which Shits through mouth, on 26th.
We will have 4 points.
Rest scenarios
If we lost to Croatia, we are out probably,
unless Iceland loss 1 game (with we having good Margin of victory ) or getting draw in both their games…
More importantly,
A Draw to Croatia
Arg 5 ———- IN
Croatia 7
ISL 4/2/1
Nig 0/1/3
Arg 5 ——– IN
Croatia 4
ISL 4/5/7
Nig 3/1/0
Arg 5
Cro 5
ISL 2/5/3
Nig 3/0/1
Arg 5 ——— IN
Cro 4
Isl 4/5/7
Nig 3/1/0
For draw senario,
in the worst case need to win with 2+ goals against Nigeria…
It looks like it will come down who wins with big margin v nigeria.
It’s like 5am over at where I am living and I still couldn’t fall asleep thinking about the team and it’s fate to qualify. I was , like others hoping for Croatia and Nigeria to draw. Right now I hope the team will train and get to know each other’s style more fluidly. The canceled game against Israel really affected today’s performance. Messi 11 shots is statiscally the highest in this year’s tournament, twice as much as any other players. We must focus on our next game vs. croatia, unite together instead of insulting sampaoli.
π¬ββ3 07 Am
Haha. We on the same boat I hope you slept earlier
Well today was not how I thought it would be.. ever since I have been watching Argentina we have won the first game, I’m super nervous…
Feel bad for messi, but get your head up and lead your team.
I have a feeling Sampaoli will play a double pivot again to defend the Croatia midfield even though Biglia can’t defend for shit. Baldy needs to stop outthinking himself and take the handbrake off the team.
If he plays double pivot again it will be with Mascherano-Enzo, not Biglia.
I doubt he will drop biglia. It won’t happen.
Croatia played a super tight game!! They are far stronger opponent than Iceland. Sampaoli has 4 days to come up with something but I doubt He will go against Friends club and drop Dimaria Rojo and he will still use Higuain and Bigia in some way .
Stronger? Why? They were in the same qoalif. group, and Iceland won it not Croatia. Much easier to play against Croatia, at least they play football, not some weird bus parking shit. imo neither croatia neither Nigeria will beat them. 3 draws very likely.
I agree. Croatia will be an open game, where we can hurt anyone.
Iceland parked and ICEBERG of 10 players in their box most the game and relied on crosses and set pieces to score. They did it well.. but scoring against a team like that, same way Iran played last WC, is very very very difficult.
As Nigeria lost, they will be out if we can beat them irrespective of our Croatia match. Now we have to just watch out for Iceland.
Croatia is very good, i have no hope for argentina.
If Croatia park the bus against us then we are doomed!! Our players have the habit of losing the possession of ball easily and with that shitty defending Croatia will hurt us bad in the counters. They are 10 times more clinical than Iceland strikers. Sampaoli is the main culprit if we lose the next game and crash out!! When every final ball has to go to Messi then how hard is it to figure out Sampaoli’s plan??
Very good. When you look the squad all od them play in top clubs. It will be difficult. Specially now when they won their first game. Arg is so slow. I am really angry because of that. Allways same story. Come on. Surly we can do better than this. Messi also has to rise his head. His body language today was totally bad. Like he has problem playing for nt. Relax Leo, its just the game. Put some smile on your face and play some football. Surly the others will be better than. Its all about head. Give as joy
I hope Argentina will beat Croatia, but they are very strong team with great individuals and they aren’t going to park the bus. Without Lo Celso, Argentina midfield could be easily overpowered by Croatia. He is the best Argentina midfielder and a world class player.
Football doesn’t work in theories mr incompetent coach!! Sampaoli’s plan of Biglia and Masch protecting the defense and Salvio and Tagliafico going on full on attack failed badly. Salvio did nothing going forward. I don’t think he was 100% sure that Iceland will park the bus. He waited till 80th min to sub Dimaria tells how good of a coach this baldy is. I fear If we qualify for the knockouts Biglia will come off the bench like Gago in 2014 final and finish us!! Just imagine a good attacking mid like Perroti being selected instead of this Biglia!! Friends club just wasted a spot for this expired fossil. Sampaoli learned nothing from Spain and Nigeria’s thrashing and seems like he is not going to change much after this humiliation also. From here on we can only pray that Croatia and Nigeria won’t park the bus against us. Next match our mids should pass the ball to Aguero if he is in a better position. Everytime Messi gets the ball 5 players charge at him and we lose posession and momentum is gone.
Don’t be so sure we will beat Croatia and Nigeria if they play openly. Any good team can score at least 2 or 3 goals against us in open play with this lineup. Unless we change the team, result Will depend upon whether we can outscore them or not.
No worries, Croatia will not park the bus. It will probably be Argentina this time parking the bus for Croatia. 80 minutes played and they are easily outplaying Nigeria with tactical wisdom. Something Argentina lacks, unfortunately. Plus their midfield is rock solid — again, unlike Argentina.
Really hoping for best, but reality is hitting this team/coach really hard.
Why every time Maradonna watches the game live we get jinxed and luck is not in our side?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT PANIC!
This was quit a poor game from Argentina even thou they step up a bit in the second half.
To be honest i disagree with most of you, i do not believe that player selection was off to day. The main problem was the slow play of the game! No speed whatsoever. The team did not play with a high tempo to put of the Iceland team. They slowed down play to often to many times!
The negatives!!
No speed, no tempo in playing the game. Sometimes we hade good counterattacking possibilities only for us to stop and start all over.
Di Maria hade an awful game!
Messi for once also hade a bad game.
Several times the fullbacks overlaped but the pass wouldent come.
I believe Sampaioli got the tactics wrong he wanted to attack down the flanks but it wouldent happen. We saw a better second half when we started to attack through the middle.
THE POSITIVES
We hade a better second half!
Messi will not be bad two games in a row!
Aguero, a goal and a penelty.
Mascherano performed well exepct for the First 15 min.
My team for the next game
Caballero
Otamendi Rojo
Salvio Masherano Tagliafico
Lo Celso
Di Maria Messi Meza
Aguero
LET STAY POSITIVE
Yes because βPOSITIVEβ is more valuable and makes a lot more sense than logic.
Messi stand up! Fight!
One last thing for all of us to think of and suffer until the next game.
Do you know how bad Armani and Guzman have to be to be backups to Caballero? Exactly. Tell me there is no friends club and politics.
This is nothing other than some asshole in the AFA thinking he should have had his chance before and now getting one.
Armani isn’t better. He spent his career in Colombia and most people didn’t even know of his existence. Good performances with River don’t make him better. Argentina are short with world class goalkeepers, even with Romero (who is sub in his clubs for years). Pablo Cavallero, Burgos, Abondanzieri, Roa… they were all better than Romero, at least they were regular starters in their teams.
todays insipid game and result falls on the head of samp, he really got to many things wrong from the start -once again that duo or mach and bil does not work and why vs a team that was always going to park the bus, rojo at the back over Fazio was wrong and rojo is very average to say the least, willy looks like a “rabbit in headlights”, pavon clearly should start over d.maria who offered his usual ineffective service,, ban did his usual and over l.c why? the far to late induction of pavon then our “savior” hig who he played out on the right but leaves dybala totally out of the game.
samp you got it wrong today and you had better learn fast but im not going to put any money on that happening.
Maybe this draw was better than win. That way Sampaoli can’t hide his failure with team selection. So he will be forced to change the line up. I hope only that he will put Lo Celso instead of Banega. But both of them will do better than Biglia. Also Pavon should be selected in place of Di Maria… If this would had been our only bad game it was the right time to come.
I agree, better to have a bad game now than in the next round although I thought the Spain 6-1 mauling would have been enough to demonstrate that certain players just aren’t up to the task i.e. Biglia, Rojo, DiMaria, Caballero (I’ll let Mascherano off the hook as he redeemed himself against Iceland). We have some really great talent and it will be very sad if Samapoli can’t figure out a way to get these guys on the field. Argentina looked like they were playing in slow motion at times. The positive side is that we played a tough “park the bus” team, who have beaten England, Holland and tied Portugal in recent years so they are better then folks give them credit. Argentina completely dominated and a defensive lapse, missed penalty made the difference.
agreed both of them are better than Biglia but did you see our fullbacks.. they donot dfend.. they cannot defend… they followed and marked but not once did salvio or taglafico stop a run along the flank or win the ball back..
Add to that Caballero — OMG i havenot seen a stupider GK.. I have seen him do the day in day out at Chelsea City… his passing choices are scary.. he overestimates himself often .. and his punches are horrible..
I have rarely seen him catch a cross or corner, you would assume such a GK will have a strong punch and will be able to direct his punches to clearances…. fucking he is a fairy.. his punches literally fall within the box … everytime and twice for the goal and one more time than masche cleared .. he parried a shot right down the center of the box.. isn’t that where mos late runs end????
that is GK 101.. I can see why sampaoli is scared to shit of his own defense….
and then Messi… π that penalty was horrible ..he had nerves surely… it was a perfect height and wasn’t belted…. he tried .. but Di Maria Biglia were crap.. and if ever we needed higuin’s physical profile upfront this game… Aguero has played wide before
We may Cry, we can think, we can make our own starting XI but nothing is in our hand. Things may work or may not work our coaches will not change.
For me the biggest culprit is Sampoli and his team selection. Over confidence, declaring the team 72 hours before the match. I cannot see any improvement in our game if we compare with Tata Martino (yes better than Bauza off-course)
– For how many years our midfield means Mascherano and Bigila? I doubt whether Xavi-Iniesta played those many matches for Spain together. Whenever Bigila is not in the team we played better. What was his contribution today other than slowing down the midfield and making few back-passes? In Copa 2016 we were superb throughout but just before the final Agusto was injured and Bigila back in the team, same story continues, we were poor in the final again. For the last 6 months Sampoli was building midfield around Lo Celso now just 6 days before Sampoli changed his mind and put Mascherano-Bigila together.
Is this Sampoli’s decision alone? I really doubt. How Bigila is always a starter?
– Otamendi and Rojo started only 1 match earlier against Spain and we know the result. But again Otamendi and Rojo, not Fazio. Whenever Iceland attacked, we paniked. Can’t imagive what will happen when Brazil, Germany or Spain will attack us. May be this is our best possible option. Willy failed to clear a single ball comfortably. Very very poor, suddently I am missing Romero the most.
– Tite needed just 2 games to utilize Coutinho and Neymar together, even though their playing position almost same and it’s more than 6 months Sampoli failed to find a way to use both Messi and Dybala together. Is Sampoli even tried to use them together? No, because Dybala was not even selected for several matches and just before World Cup because of criticism he had to take one of Dybala and Icardi, he decided to go for Dybala.
How Sampoli can be so dumb to include Bigila and omitting Dybala? That cannot be his choice alone..
– 10 out of 11 Iceland players are more than 6 ft tall then why Fazio was not in the team? We played with one Center-back in defense.
– In Practice session I have seen how short of confidence Willy was. In training he doesn’t even have any clue where Messi or Dybala was placing their shots in the goal. Only Armani blocked few shots, I have seen. Despite conceding 5 goals out of 5 shots against Spain, still Sampoli started with Willy, who is really slow, has poor reflexes and short of confidence.
– Di Maria – Only 22 seconds on the clock Di Maria lost his first ball position and from there he never recovered. Not even tried to linkup with taglifico whereas as soon as Pavan came he linked with taglifico as well as tried to link with Messi and other forwards. Why always Di Maria?
Now Messi, if you look at the highlight of the match, then one cannot say that he was that poor other than miss-penalty and free-kicks. Messi had his moment and on some other day he would have scored at least 1 goal. But what disappointed me the most was his body-language. He started well despite he was tightly marked. 15/16 minutes on the clock he wanted return ball but I believe Meza (or someone else?) failed to place the ball the way he wanted and I saw him throwing his hand out of disappointments then entire first half and early 2nd half I saw Messi head down, walking on the ground. 2nd half when Messi was coming looks like argentina was losing (score was not level). However that’s usual scene for Messi and nothing more to add here. That cannot be a body-language of a leader. Yesterday I saw Ronaldo and today Messi…difference was visible of a leader.
When Messi plays poor, remains under pressure and looks demotivated, he should not take penalty or free-kicks. When he came to take the penalty he was not even in the game, rarely involved. That was poor penalty, no power and trust me even I realized where he will shoot. Kun should have taken that penalty and Di maria should have taken at least one free-kicks. He only involved after that penalty miss. I am sure if he had taken that penalty around 80th minutes, he would have scored that goAL.
Positives for us,
– It was draw and qualification is still in our hand.
– Kun looked sharp, Mascherano was far from over.
Anyway now for hope Croatia and Nigeria will draw and against Croatia changes have to made,
– Armani for Willy (Must)
– Lo Celso for Bigila (I am sure now Banega will come)
– Pavan for Di maria.
– Ansaldi for Salvio (not that Salvio was poor but we need players who are used to play as full-back)
– I won’t mind if Dybala can be tried in place of Meza (again Meza is also not poor but Dybala will free-up Messi’s space)
Good that this is the only first game and nothing over yet. But problem is we hardly want to change and I won’t be surprised if same team starts against Croatia.
This team gave up 10 fucking goals in 2 games to Nigeria and Spain. We are lucky today that Iceland did not win.
Sampaoli has no fucking clue what he is doing.
Sampaoli can make a sandwich with a few ingredients in Chile, but he is no fucking chef. Give him a grocery full of ingredients like Argentina, he will make you the same fucking sandwich
This is probably why he has been referred to as a “vende humo” in certain circles in Argentina.
@ MustB-Albiceleste completely agree with your story
Messi should never miss that penalty. If he make it there is no debate. Having said that, EVERY team in the next 3 games will park the bus.
Armani must start as with Pavon and LoCelso.
I know there are a lot of young people on this site. I am old enough to remember the 1978 World Cup like yesterday and Argentina is always cursed by stupid coaches. Here are examples.
1978 maradona is βtoo youngβ to play
1994 Redondoβs hair is too long (pasarella coach) he cannot play.
We cannot play Zanetti and Sorin together
We cannot play Batistuta and Crespo together
We cannot play riquelme and aimar together
We cannot play Messi and Dybala together.
Also, many people are Messi fans. So am I. But about 3 years ago, Ronaldo became far better player. Not necessarily on pitch. But between his ears. His brain, confidence, calm and focus. This is why he can score in critical times almost always and messi cannot.
Whoever is around Messi are not the right people for his mentality. This man is small mentally and can not overcome his obstacles. This is all about who is around you and how you think. Portugal has much weaker team around Ronaldo but they always play bigger as a team. Argentina everything is on Messi. Just once if coach says you other 10 mother fuckers who play for big teams better play big or you are out of here this would be fixed. Instead, we have coaches who think small and shrink in big moments.
This is also why teams like Nigeria talk shit to us. Because they know we are weak mentally
I read somewhere that Ronaldo has to work hard to be a great player while for Messi it just comes naturally. I think maybe you are right in that Ronaldo has had to push himself both physically and mentally and he is now reaping the rewards. I’m still a Messi guy and hope he’ll have a great WC for Argentina’s sake. I could accept our fate if the 11 on the pitch today was the best we have, but we all know that we have much more dynamic players who can take things to another level, but unfortunately they are sitting on the bench, or not even in the squad. I’m hoping Sampaoli has a better game plan and lineup for our next two matches.
I am with you but look at Neymar for example. Great player but he is not bigger than Brazil. Tite OWNS that team. Our coaches are all a bunch of mental midgets who keep kissing Messi’s ass as if the other 10 guys have day jobs and don’t play professional football.
THE WORST PLAYERS today were Caballero who is 4 years too late DiMaria and Biglia. ALL the old guys that have had many chances and they have failed multiple times. How many times do you have to fail with the same guys to realize they will never win anything?
“Also, many people are Messi fans. So am I. But about 3 years ago, Ronaldo became far better player. Not necessarily on pitch. But between his ears. His brain, confidence, calm and focus. This is why he can score in critical times almost always and messi cannot.”
— to be very honest you are delusional π Ronaldo scores because he has transformed to a CF as he aged .. he is a box predator and waits for the ball. when someone delivers he scores. Messi for both his teams is the creative engine building the attack.. no kroos – modric or william bernado silva..
also portugal defended with 10 players behind the ball and spain attacked opening up scope of a direct play … where all ronaldo has to do is receive a long ball and get hi shot away before the defenders tackle or close down.. go look at ronaldo in Euro against a much weaker Iceland.. they didnot even defend this hard then…
yes Messi missed a penalty and he is not good at it.. aguero should have taken it… but we didnot ahve the space to play through middle and both meza and di maria were lost .. till pavon we had no output dwown the flanks…
Croatia is playing very poor.
If we can’t defeat them, there’s no point even in qualifying for knockouts..
Nigeria and Croatia already more open
No parking the bus
They will park against us. At least Croatia
Pavon even without the assists of friendlies should play because I see in him much more passion than in DI Maria.
I want Messi stop taking penalties. The moment we got penalty i was kind of nervous. I think it’s the same for messi too…. He is weak in those decisive times..
Remember the Barca vs PSG game.? Neymar took the penalty instead of Messi. Messi is simply poorer in those kind of moments.. everyone has negatives, even messi.. Messi & Team should accept it.. Aguero might have scored it, because he had a momentum today, messi didn’t have it.. he was under pressure from the first minute, because of Iceland tactics… Team have to be pragmatic, people might say Messi is afraid to take penalties.. that’s all…
It is not only messi but Left footed players aren’t good penalty takers.
Dybala is good in penalties. I share your opinion too that Messi should stop taking penalties. Let someone else takes the responsibility.
alternative midfield is:
Lo Celso….Meza…Mascherano….Pavon
With Meza playing rather 8th role as in final of Copa Sudamericana (watch below) when he earned similar penalty. Good Meza is running Meza but (as on the video below) to see running Meza he must take the ball and forgot for a while Messi is there (it goes for few other our players as well):
youtube.com/watch?v=eWX41MTxlGk
We just need to win the next two against Croatia and Nigeria
And please play Lo Celso, Pavo and Dybala we really need them
Masche was great we can trust him
I am watching team from italy 90 when i first gone wild about football whem saw diego and cannigga. And ever since then i am hoping that arg will win wc. But allways, at the end, dissapointment is great. When you have, in all generation, so cllasy players, the question is why we allways lose? As i am going older i think that answer is – mentality. Like it or not, all our players are affraid. also the coaches. My mind tells me that same scenario is going to happend yet again. I belive only in messi, that he will have power to change things. And that is his final task on route to be greatest off all time ij eyes of everyone who have doubts.
Am I the only one who thinks, whenever the ball is near the D-Box the goal keeper trembles as if a Tsunami is going on? Shouldn’t Armani be the first choice after seeing today’s match?
10000%
Unfortunately, Sampaoli had not a single idea who would be Romero’s backup. I don’t trust Armani, he spent his career in Colombia and started playing for River few months ago. It’s a shame Argentina don’t have a world class goal keeper (including Romero). German Burgos, Pablo Cavallero and Roberto Abondanzieri were better, with great European experience.
its sad we donot have even a single GK we can just stop shots… Romero isn’t world class but by God Caballero made me kill myself π
I think the stupid fucking AFA has ruined the system in Arg.. too few good defender/GKs .. all players who come out are somewhat of no10s..
Sometimes you don’t even need a world class GK. The best example is Goikochea in Italy 90. The second goalkeeper, Islas, then refused the call-up for the World cup squad, suggesting that he wouldn’t like to waste his time on the bench. Billardo then included Goikochea in the squad (in those times, only 2 gk took a place in the squad). Pumpido was disastrous in the first game and had his leg broken, and Goikochea become a starter, playing in a great style. He was the best goalkeeper on the tournament, and along with Maradona and Caniggia, he led Argentina to the final. He was never a world class, he was even a substitute in his own team in that time, he didn’t have a good career, but he made miracles when most needed.
start with LoCelso, Pavon, Mercado and Fazio. Bring Dybala on for Meza in 2nd half. Defend with Mascherano. Create with LoCelso. Let the full backs defend.
All those so-called none star guys gave their everything. I liked AGUERO’S attitude, Rojo…argggggg that mofo cost us Copa America Centenario and I don’t remember when he played with the national team last time
Excluding Pezzella in Rojo’s favor was big mistake, we can only hope Argentina beats Croatia, but in will be a very tough game without favorites, so chances are 50-50 for victory, defeat and draw.
Ansaldi – otamendi – Fazio – Rojo
Mascherano lo Celso
Messi
Dybala. Pavon
Aguero
Instead of Paton we should go for acuna , rested you have picked is awesome
Argentina needs European coaches simple!!!
Argentina needs Diego Simeone, if we fail, but i still have a hope of becoming World champions.
Drawing 1- 1, Game soon going to end, 1 change left…. and you bring on Higuain?!!!!!!! A guy who STILL canβt score for Argentina! While Dybala is sitting in the bench waiting his turn! I donβt get this guy, this coach is a joke! Di Maria, Biglia, Salvio, Caballero all had bad games today. Even Meza had a bad game of which I am disappointed, I expected better of him. The midfield ran more when Banega was introduced. More crosses into the box when Pavon came in.
THINGS MUST CHANGE! We HAVE to win against Croatia, no ifβs, andβs, or butβs, and if we lose, weβre out!
We NEED to start Aguero again upfront! We need Pavon! We Need Lo Celso! We neednβt Fazio! We Need Armani! And we need DESPERATELY Dybala! I believe this WC will depend on how much he plays! At least for the last 30 min but he needs to play! Sampaoli took out Meza for Higuain, so he could play Dybala too! Even if change means having Aguero take penalties fine! But things must change!
Armani
Tagliafico-Fazio-Otamendi-Mercado
Mascherano-Lo Celso
Pavon-Messi-Meza
Aguero
Thatβs the team that needs to start! And Dybala in for either Meza or Pavon if a goal is needed!
Weβre down but weβre not out! But things have to change!
And Messi needs to step up now more than ever! This is it! Itβs now or never! If Messi disappears again, Ronaldo will shine again, and may even have a chance of winning this WC cementing his legacy!
Argentina needs to wake the f**k up and win!!!
Vamos Argentina!!!
I think AFA should change the technical coach. you see Spain when they are taking coaching session they will practice on D – Box where they will do passing and defending practice. do some left / right shoot. it will understand the players
I think dentists can be better coaches tactically.
Messi has realized now that we lack creativity.
leaving Paredes, J. Correa, even Lamela at home and injury of Lanzini has handcuffed us.
Leaving Pezzella and Ascacibar defensively.
I think our biggest obstacle is to survive the group phase.
we can be dangerous if we play 4-4-2 without selfish players during the Knockout stages.
we have to trust our young players!
we have nothing to lose!
That Masche Biglia pivot hurts like a motherfucker.
Thats not a midfield. Thats a cold hard oblivion of darkness and nothingness.
yes, hopefully we have learned from our mistakes.
guys: did u see peru vs denmark match. peru was more better than Argentina. all the players were played very good with passion. most of the players are possessing skills.
Yeah but you talking about different match where both team attack and wanted to score
and in end…… they lose!!!
we can play better.
we need changes . Sampaoli should change things imidietely else….. 2002 coming back !!!
– this match was very predictable from the start . Most analysts on this site including me knew that Iceland were gonna park the bus and it was gonna be very similar to the Iran game in 2014. Hence, why did Sampaoli have to go with the 2 DM’s being biglia and Masche knowing that Iceland were gonna be ultra defensive themselves ?
– I swear to God before Messi took that penalty I had this eerie feeling that he was gonna miss. Aguero should’ve taken the penalty. Messi has several times missed crucial penalties that caused his team dearly such as last Copa and against Chelsea in the Champions league semi final in 2012. He looked nervous before the shot and seemed that he will miss and the way he shot it was very poor given that he is left footed and should’ve buried it on the right side. The penalty was not deserved anyway , but since the chance came then you cant miss those.
– Di Maria and Biglia have to be dropped for next game. Though they didn’t do any serious mistakes but their performance was toothless and in effective. I also think LoCelso shoud’ve been given the chance to play instead of Banega , but would LoCelso have changed anything in the short time left?
– Caballero looked very shaky like he had slippery hands. I have the feeling Sampaoli will be stubborn and stick with him .I hope it doesn’t cost us dearly.
Biglia’s miss pass led to that goal also Rojo played a good part by getting nutmegged. Pavon needs to start no matter what!!
yes and it was a bad save by Caballero that gave the ball to their striker and all he had to do was a tap in
Well I doubt Sampaoli sees it as a bad save. Sampaoli is responsible for this loss. His team selection led to this result. 2nd game is going to be a high pressure Do or Die game and we have quite a few nervous players in the team. I don’t know if Armani can handle the pressure of playing in such game. I feel bad for being critical on Romero!!
sukva: I agree this is a perfect summery on samp and for me the blame is on samps head for this match, again his team selections leave a lot to be desired.
We can qualify easliy to the second stages but no longer if we still depend on Di Marai who does not offer anything to the team .Pavon is better than Di maria
this is only bad thing in the match
in general our team deserves win but bad luck sticks Messi
Our defence needs more strength if we want to go further in the cup
What will happen if messi had converted that penalty and we had won??? Now coach will be compelled to rethink and make some changes to the tactics and players.
One good thing is aguero has scored.otherwise higuain would sneak in next time.biglia wont start again for sure.
I am not sure about rojo dimaria and cabellero.coach still might go with them.
To cope with the likes of kovacic modric and rakitic etc there will be some changes in midfield atleast.mercado should come in to tackle perisic for sure.
I have a feeling that he will not go with masche lo celso…it will be
masche enzo locelso/meza
Mercado for salvio
And finally pavon for dimaria(miracle) and may be fazio for rojo then we have a realistic chance of beating croatia.otherwise………
What the fuck does Lo Celso have to do to get a start? I believe the team is not bad- we are just missing one piece. Lo Celso instead of Biglia and things could have been much better. Even Enzo Perez is better than Biglia. Is he even fit? If this doesn’t turn around, Messi will retire this Thursday.
exactly
things didn t go well today. we could won even with this terrible performance but….
Caballero , Rojo , Biglia was terrible. Di maria very bad too.
a lot of things should change till Thursday else we will live days of 2002.
The problem is sampaoli’s wrong player selection and wrong playing tactics against tall and fast movement players as well. Argentina must have tried different type of tactics to win.
IN WC, POSSESSION WILL LEAD TO DEFEAT IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF POSSESSION IN FIRST PLACE IN TODAY’S FOOTBALL.
And Certainly Argentina looks very much predictable in edge of the box and couldn’t create real chance from either side of the box. Whenever chances created from both wings, it’s most dangerous and unpredictable for any goal keeper that is what Argentina clearly lacking even we have players of that calibre.
It’s not Argentina that we saw today.
http://worldsoccertalk.com/2016/06/14/ronaldo-slams-iceland-for-parking-the-bus/
Iceland is a one track one gear team. I thought the team showed a lot of urgency today even if the result wasn’t in our favour. I think we should recognise how negative teams like Iceland are not interested in playing football.
we knew that Iceland is very poor team. we knew that they will park the bus as they did.
the problem it was to our performance and our mistakes.
now we have problem.
we need changes against Croatia.
Old guards are not enough.They have passed their prime understand it.Msscherano does nothing but long balls and even these long balls needs luck.Receiving player should be good in taking those long balls but they are hard to control.keep the ball as much as on the ground.That is our strength.It is do or die situation for Argentina.Just choose tight player and sub them by right player too with acute timing.Argentina played very bad today.
what you are saying?
Mascherano was one of the best players today if not the best.
the problem was Biglia beside him.
from the time Banega enter the game things get better.
when Di maria go out too things get even better but it was late.
Pavon needed from begin.
anyway. i hope things change in Thursday.
Masche wasn’t good; Also he wasn’t bad, that’s it;
It looked like only four players were there on pitch for ARG; Defence – Otamendi, Midfield – Masche & Messi & Aguero as Forward;
1>Pekerman dropping Riquelme and Crespo vs Germany and not giving a chance to young Messi and Tevez like Sampaoli did for Lo Celso today
2>Potsmoker dropping the Inter Milan treble winners out of the squad and not starting Veron and playing Otamendi terribly out of possession vs Germany.
3> Crocked Batigol brought to lead a 2002 attack with overambitious tactics which didn’t work with a cocky Bielsa
4>Persisting with Palacio when Tevez was better in 2014
Its not a surprise that despite all the talent and potential, we always crock at World Cups after 86 because of squad selection blunders. Today was no different with Biglia, Banega, Salvio, Di Maria and Higuain when it should have been Pavon, Lo Celso, Dybala, Fazio who should have started
For people saying Dybala doesn’t fit, try shifting Messi closer to the midfield, sacrifice Meza, and put Dybala just behind Kun.
Messi can play any position and he’ll do the magic just the same. The excuse that Dybala and Messi are incompatible has to be thrown out of the window
Its now or never, 1-2 unconventional and risky tactics have to be brought out instead of the one dimensional bullshit we played today.
Sampaoli got schooled by the iceland coach. He had answer for every sampaoli’s move. Don’t be one trick pony Mr Sampaoli be brave. Pavon for Dimaria, Ansaldi for Salvio and Locelso for Biglia and Fazio for Rojo is a must now
Agree with this
Armani for cabellero
Agree with those changes too. Add Dybala at some point.
One can call it tragedy but Iceland draw Portugal in Euro opener 1-1 scoreline even same player scored in both Euro and World cup. Ultimately Portugal won the tournament and CR 7 lift his first international title, in world cup this will be Argentina a d messi
Portugal was lucky to get into KO as one the best third-placed team after they drew all the matches in the group. In world cup, only two teams advance to KO.
Adding to that Portugal wanted extra time to beat Croatia in the KO…! We dont have that in the group stage.
you just not got my point, Iceland debut world cup and euro stopped messi and ronaldo where ronaldo won previous tournament
I want to be optimistic too! But the way I see things now, those past examples you cited are just examples. They are not going to be the way that things are definitely going to pan out. I have the uneasy uncomfortable feeling things are just going to turn sour for us nowβ¦ the f&βking frustrating feeling I have when he stepped up to take the penalty kick, the feeling when he took the first then second freekicks. Itβs just not going to happen. We have used up all our luck in 2014 and in the Ecuador game. π
Both croatia & nigeria play open football if that will help but crazy sampaoli needs to adjust the line-up.
The way things stand now, CRO especially and NIG are going to play park the bus against us. Everybody who plays us need to and will do so just to have a chance of a point and maybe with luck three. NIG will then focus on winning against ICL. The onus is on us and the ball is in out court to attck and score and win it against the CRO and NIG buses. We are going to get screwed…………….
Banega is good sub.He looks good today.Salvio Biglia Rojo Caballero should be dropped.Injured Romero is better than Caballero Big Mistake.Ansaldi should start.
Somehow Messi seemed very serious and tensed even before the match started. He has to enjoy himself or else the team is doomed
The fact that Ronaldo scored a hattrick the previous match and our old man Diego sitting in the stadium didn’t help him much either. Poor guy’s face told everything. Perhaps the pressure was way too heavy on him today
Hope Samp learns something from this match and picks a different team to face against Croatia and Nigeria.
Otherwise, its gonna be a huge implosion. even worser than 2002.
So sad, but Messi’s World Cup dreams will go up in smoke if nothing is changed at all in the next match.
Also we didn’t lose, the correct title of this article should be “failed to win the first group stage match for the first time since 1990”
All hope is not lost, but its now or never. No win against Croatia and Nigeria both then we’re doomed. All the World Cup hopes in the trash can.
The postitves-
Portugal’s unlikely Euro 16 win started with a draw against Iceland, and it was even the same player who scored against them who scored today
Argentina lost the first group stage game to underdog Cameroon in 1990 only to bounce back and reach the final.
Spain’s 2010 World Cup Win started with a loss to the minnows Switzerland.
I want to be optimistic too! But the way I see things now, those past examples you cited are just examples. They are not going to be the way that things are definitely going to pan out. I have the uneasy uncomfrotable feeling things are just going to turn sour for us now… the f&’king frustrating feeling I have when he stepped up to take the penalty kick, the feeling when he took the first then second freekicks. It’s just not going to happen. We have used up all our luck in 2014 and in the Ecuador game. π
I hope they are not going to push for their love pals Biglia,Rojo and Dimaria to start again. Yes we still have chance but if we don’t select the right players we are going to crash out. There is a player called dybala on the bench are you not going to use him friends club?? ARe you scarred he is going to score and take the glory?? Pavon should start and if we need goal Dybala should replace him or hell he can come in for Meza or Locelso also but he needs to play and Messi please man you should not take PKs for us. I get very nervous whenever he takes the PK. He always goes for the left side low goal keeper height PKs what wrong with you???
Tactically u were wrong coach
He was a complete failure. He didn’t even have the brain to bring pavon right after break!!
And Le Celso for Biglia. Should have been right after the break coz Biglia was already playing in slightly advanced MC position… sigh..
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