Argentina draw 0-0 against Colombia in friendly match

By
Roy Nemer
-
28
Argentina Colombia
Argentina's line-up against Colombia.

It was a game of two halves but an entertaining match despite the 0-0 scoreline. A rejuvenated Argentina which was coming off a 3-0 win against Guatemala started off in strong fashion, despite not scoring. The first real chance of the match fell to Exequiel PALACIOS as his first time shot from outside the area tested the goalkeeper.

Mauro ICARDI, who sat out the match against Guatemala, had his first shot on goal from inside the area but like PALACIOS, his attempt was saved by OSPINA.

The trio of Gonzalo MARTINEZ, Giovani LO CELSO and Exequiel PALACIOS were all over the pitch. The trio were stringing passes together as well as pressuring the Colombian players when they were on the ball.

At half time, coach Lionel SCALONI made his first change with Franco CERVI coming on for Gonzalo MARTINEZ. Colombia started off the second half very strong forcing Argentina goalkeeper Franco ARMANI into a few saves.

Paulo DYBALA was finally brought into the match for Exequiel PALACIOS and added to Argentina’s attack which had gone missing to start the second half. Leandro PAREDES came on for Maxi MEZA who did not particularly have a good game.

Twice more ARMANI was asked to come into action, the first he slid down to push the ball away with the second coming minutes later as he caught a cross coming into his penalty area.

Cristian PAVON came on for Giovani LO CELSO, Giovanni SIMEONE on for Mauro ICARDI and Marcos ACUNA for captain Nicolas TAGLIAFICO.

Argentina were awarded two free kicks, including one right on the edge of the penalty area but they both resulted in nothing.

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28 Comments

  1. I am so so so stoked to watch this. I am so happy. I longed many days to watch this game. Truth be told i was worried. Congratulations guys ! If they have this commitment they will only get better and better each game as Scaloni slowly settles down on a side. The Brazil match is the final test of character . They are going to come full strength at us. Whatever the result of the game the character of the boys will be tested. They are so fresh and newly playing with each other that i don’t want to burden them too much. Lets get them boys !!!

  2. As expected Icardi will be blamed, Sighh, Simeone scored against Damn Guatemala i guess. its only matter of time Icardi will start scoring, Once that monkey is off his back he will be a lethal Poacher. Keep in mind he was not 100% too only 80%. Well that all is not to be considered when blaming i guess.

    Mori is a Ticking time bomb, Don’t want to see that guy in our back line some one else should be tried.

    Meza for now is not working for us.

    Goal Keeping department will be competitive, Romero should not be the obvious starter, Armani and Rulli will put pressure on him. After long time Romero wont be the undisputed starter.

    Midfiled is one area which we improved a lot, So refreshing, Paredes, lo celso, Ascacibar, Palacios, Battaglia, Pity etc etc.

    Wingers Pavon, A.Correa, Acuna, Cervi all will improve definitely, they have to play more often.

    Defense Pezzela and Tagliafico is ready to lead, 2 spots r open.

    Attack i still want to see Dybala – Correa – Icardi combo. add in Lautaro, Simeone, Alario, Its gonna be fun.

    Overall impressive start by Scaloni, Columbia was a litmus test. He looks competitive and tactically good.

  4. There are lot of take aways from this match .
    First of all I want to congratulate the boys for the job they did . argentina played way way better than they really deserved ( considering it was their first competitive match , with only two days of training), the thing I was really over impressed with is the bond the players has within them .
    They really looked like a cohesive unit . Colombia was physical and experienced ,and argentina passed the test .

    Now the take aways .

    – the first thing is about palacios , its only a matter of time before the likes of barca and real start barking about him. He played like he was playing for years in big teams , so young but so clinical and mature. He may just have cemented his place in the x1 .
    – I feel sorry for messi and argentina , how they did not got the support from the midfield ,and lo celso , ufffffffff……. , he is just a complete package , shooting , tackling ,dribbling through balls , passes ,positioning and what you need, he could have solved the problem in our midfield had sampoali played him.and tuchel will surely regret for the rest of his life for leaving him.
    – the thing that argentina lacked in messi generation is the thing that looked solved in this generation . the midfield and the defense , its just what we wanted for years , the midfield look sharp and pressing too , battaglia was hell , he was cutting out the build up play by colombia , palacios and lo celso was too goid for the colombian defense.
    – the defense , one thing today I liked about the defense was the ” off ball movement pressure” , the defense was fantastic , but , I liked how they pressurised the opposition , making them to play wrong passes , the right ,left backs pressured ,while the one DM dropped deep to protect the CBs.
    – now coming to bustos , I really dont know whether I am disappointed or not , but am puzzled , at one time he looked like he is the player we were lacking for years in that position , but at other time he gave the ball too easily , loosing possession , he just need more game time and he will surely improve .
    – midfield and defense was just fantastic , but the thing that argentina lacked in this game was the killer passes in final third , and I know for this people will blame icardi , they will say he didnt do anything , just standing.
    But I would say no , icardi just didnt got services , until dybala came .
    – now …. As dybala entered the pitch , argentina looked far attacking than they were previously , he created chances , opened up spaces , played passes to switch flanks , winning free kicks .
    The problem.with. him is his position , without him the team surely lacked creativity in the final third. He is a 10 and somehow the coach needs to find something to accomadate him , benching him means you are losing a lot of creativity ( except lo celso ) .

    I am happy that they did so well , its just only a natter of time before they gel with each other and finds the correct rythm .

    Vamos argentina .

    • I doubt any of old generation RB would do better in this game than Bustos yesterday. I doubt the defence from WC could keep it clear without any conceeded goal. Bustos needs more time but already show much improvement. ATM Saravia and Bustos + Leo Godoy should be tested.

      • Bustos is absolutely fine , the best thing about his game is his overlapping with wingers to provide width , but the concern is his loosing the possession early at crucial points .
        Although , I know he will improve with time , he just need some more competitive games .

        Gonzalo , can you tell me about tomas conechny , he was very promising in the youth side .

        • If Bustos loose the ball early it’s due to his jitters at this stage. He just needs some time to feel more comfortable.

          To stop Cuadrado is not easy thing and he do that maybe apart one moment when Bustos slipped away marking him.

          Saravia is better defensively but Bustos gives more in attack. The overlapping moments will shown more with the time as he adapt.

  5. Trolls may go, lovers of oldies may go. We have great material. Almost all the players from the two games should stay (excluding Vazquez, Meza and maybe Simeone).

    All our defence players did good job: Armani, Bustos, Pezzella, Funes Mori, Tagliafico, Battaglia.
    They were keeping quiet Quintero, Cuadrado, Falcao. I was afraid about Bustos vs the fastest and dribling od Cuadrado. He had hard task. but Bustos did good job. At least better than against Spain. Battaglia as well. Battaglia over Ascacibar ATM. His height is important.

    Palacios, Pity were best. The two and Lo Celso are must in starting line up.

    We should go with the line up of today’s games with someone instead of Meza and probably Lautaro instead of Icardi. Battaglia, Paredes, Ascacibar should play alternatively – it depends on opponents class and formation.

      • Agree. Simeone needs more time. Icardi lost at least one open goal. Palacios and Lo celso were very good, Dybala disappointed, Pezzella and Paredes good game.

          • he will have to compete hard against other strikers. I back Lautaro Martinez and Simeone to be more potent than Icardi.
            There is an 18 years old kid attacking midfielder, called Benjamin Garre, look him up, he has a bright future.
            I don’t buy the hype around Icardi, he needs to compete against Kun too, who is in top form. being top scorer in serie A does not mean he will be good for the NT, Higuain was top scorer in Napoli and Juventus, right?

      • Maybe you are right. Simeone is better on the ball than Icardi and his movement off the ball is more visible. I just want to say one of Icardi/Simeone not both while Lautaro in No.1 for me now.

  6. When Colombian fans are trolling this new Argentina side after the draw by saying, “It’s not Guatemala, it’s Colombia” in the official AFA seleccion page, you know we played better. 🙂

    We could have even won this game only if Icardi gets some good service from wings! I think Meza is on off form for a long time. After that Spain game, i see nothing so far. Pavon should start in that position.

    Great performance from Lo Celso, Palacios, Tagliafico, Pezella, Armani!

    Poor from Meza, Bustos, Mori.

    Icardi, Martinez, Battaglia, Parades, Cervi were so so.

    Overall satisfied by the performance. Scaloni just need to work a little bit on wings. Maybe Pereyra would be the answer.

    Big game against old rival is coming next month. Keep it up boys! Vamos!!

    • What’s wrong with Bustos? He had harder task than Tagliafico on the other side and most of the game Cuadrado was not able to do any harm to our team. Bustos also linked in moments with forwards.

  7. Totally agree, it was a game of 2 halves.

    GK:
    Armani did really well, he’s a capable GK for sure but like Romero he really needs to work on his distribution

    CBs:
    Pezzella was solid but RFM was a heart attack just waiting to happen, 3 times during the match he made a misplaced pass that lead to legit danger, there is a reason why he was benched in Villareal and with players like Barboza, Kanneman and Musacchio, Mori’s days should be numbered.

    FBs:
    Tagliafico was good as usual, added quite a bit to the attack and his crosses, while not brillaint, weren’t half bad either.
    Bustos added lots to the attack but defensively he was down right awful, especially in the first half where he gave Cuardado tons of space, he did however improve considerably in the 2nd half but I still don’t think he’s NT material just yet.

    Midfield:
    Battaglia was solid as I expected but Ascacibar has better, more incisive passes so I’d pick him ahead of Battaglia, also the likes of Dominguez and Caserers (when he recovers) should get a look in.
    Celso was fantastic, tackling, passing, shooting, he was a true box to box midfielder.
    Palacios was probably MVP, another box to box type player that Argentina’s been missing since cambiasso, he was fantastic in everything, I really hope he continues to develop because he could be world class in the future and for the love of me I don’t understand why he was subbed so early.

    Attack:
    Icardi got almost no service and that’s a concern, we know he’s world class but he needs to work harder like Simeone seems to do.
    Meza was probably the flop of the match for me, apart from that wonderful tackle against Falcao he did nothing else, not NT material at all and it’s more than clear now that his performance against Spain was a total fluke.
    ‘pity’ next to palacios he was the best player on the pitch, speaking of palacios he and pity have a great understanding and all of Argentina’s thrust and attack came from their side in the 1st half and again I can’t understand why he and palacios were subbed so early.

    Subs :
    Cervi added very little and he really disappointed me because I really, really like him as a player, full of skill and energy but seems more suitable for a midfield role rather than a forward one.
    Paredes added alot to the attack when he came on with his pass to pavon and him starting a counter, he should be starting .
    Dybala started slow but i thought he added alot to the attack not to mention the fact that he took some responsibility and started creating things from the midfield, good game for him overall.
    Pavon didn’t add much apart from some good runs at the beginning of the 2nd half. His pace and energy can come in handy in the future but I would like to see A.Correa and Ocampos be given a chance to show what they can do in the same role.
    Acuna actually did quite well for the little time that he got especially with that wonderful pass to Simeone and speaking of………..
    Simeone showed good off the ball movement and hustle but he came on way too late to make a real impact, still a player who is worth watching.

    Coach:
    Sceloni, like almost all his predecessors, had a series of very odd subs with the palacios and pity being subbed so early while the likes of Meza staying longer, still I like his squad selection and him getting bustos to adjust his defensive game and mark Cuardado. I really hope he gets more time to stake his claim on the vacant manager position.

    • Oh….I felt the full backs didnt contribute a lot in attack and guessed it was because of the instruction from the Coach.
      You are right Battaglia was solid. He can back up of Ascacibar or vice-versa. The midfield of Ascacibar-lo celso-paredes-Palacios should be called against the next friendly too

  9. Colombia re very physical side.
    The team did very well scaloni team showed they up to battle. handle very well
    I’m satisfied with this result since.
    We re in era. I liked our defence especially
    German pezzela the man is real defender
    I olso liked bataglia. It was his first game
    Solid performance.
    Cervi did well too even though second half
    Was more fighting then playing.
    For me parades has to start the man
    Have passing in him and can defend too
    Him and bataglia complement each other
    Overall I’m happy … except maxi meza

    • I just came back from the stadium, boy oh boy, they were too many Colombians. I noticed Lo Celso was everywhere, He is true box to box. Happy with the defense and disappointed with the forwards. the attacking midfield did not create many chances. Dybala was missing in action when was introduced, I think he is suffering from some kind of Identity crisis. Pezzella and Tagliafico played well. Palacios shot was the best moment of the game.

      • Happy for you mate it’s always good hear you. this game was scarch especially second half but I take some Positive from it .likes pezzela taglafiaco bataglia parades he made one fantastic to povon.
        Meza is not up to Argentina standard

  10. Not a bad result against an experienced Colombian side. These kids are looking promising. Tagliafico made a few mistakes but he was all over the pitch and over all was good. Not convinced with Bustos yet…Has pace but prone to errors. Palacios was outstanding and has earned another call up (Unlucky not to score) Martinez looked good and Lo Celso has his spot locked up. Meza looked lost and hasn’t convinced me of anything yet. Overall the lack of chemistry is what’s killing this team right now. Some more time together and some of these guys are going to be special. Just happy to see the ball moving around and the players running and pressuring all game and not when they are down by a goal.

  11. That Palacios shot from outside the box itself is refreshing to see after long time our midfielder is doing that. And Armani’s Streak begins? Lol. It’s a gud result against a gud team. Now we can relax becoz we will be safe under Scaloni along with new players. Bye bye historicals. And Meza’s days r going to be shorter in the NT I guess. We have better options for both Meza and Vazquez.

    Any how Tata will ruin it all.

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