Gonzalo Higuain had a lot of highs and a lot of lows with the Argentina national team and he spoke about it all.
Higuain is now retired from the Argentina national team and many mostly remember his missed opportunities in key moments of matches. Speaking in an interview with Libero of TyC Sports, here’s what he had to say:
“I gave everything to the Argentina national team. There were specific circumstances in my career which can’t be analyzed. I scored nine goals and Leo (Messi) 10 goals in the World Cup qualifiers leading up to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and no one remembers that.
“I’m among the top five or six goalscorers (for Argentina) and no one remembers. They only remember the specific things in moments where I suffered but now I am overcame it. Today, I see love in the people and the truth is that it makes me calm.”
The former Argentina man had three infamous chances in three finals. The first being at the 2014 World Cup and the second and third being at the 2015 and 2016 Copa’s. When asked about the chances and retirement:
“I try not to think too much about it, I’m a positive person that tries to smile but at times there are situations in life where you can’t do anything if you aren’t happy. The family suffers the most but it’s passed. They are things you leave behind. Today, I keep looking forward and I left with a peace of mind because I know I gave everything until the last day. When I couldn’t anymore, I decided to step aside.”
Regarding current Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni:
“I know him a bit. I played against him, if I’m not mistaken, when I was at Real Madrid. If they (the AFA) decided for him, it’s because they saw some qualities. He’s doing well and I wish him the best and hope he continues down that path. Hopefully he can take Argentina as high as he can.”
About the incident with Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer at the 2014 World Cup where Neuer hit him with a flying knee inside the penalty area:
“I believe it was a penalty. The goalkeeper hit me with a big knee and after that he touched the ball. That blocked me from getting to the ball. Let’s do the opposite. If it’s a cross into the penalty area and I try to head the ball and I end up hitting Neuer with a knee, what is it? If he doesn’t hit me in the face, I don’t know if he touches the ball. I never saw him, I didn’t know where he was.
“We don’t compete equally because there are some that say it’s a goalkeeper’s way to defend. And what about me? I can’t defend? I can’t jump with a flying knee. He has the advantage of having to jump with the hand and the knee. The worst thing is that it was called a foul against me.”
First time I cried because of a football match was the final match of 1990 worldcup. I remember I wrote a simple article for our school paper about it and rage at the referee and made fun of ppl who said the germans deserved to win the cup. But years later I realized we didn’t deserve to win the cup. The germans were the better team and had better gameplay. But on the other hand football is not fair most of the time. Look at our team 2002. Great qualifying. Perfect plan….great coach…..
Higuain destroyed messi career beacuse he missed a golden chance in world cup final and two copa’s worst striker i have ever seen in argentina football history
Show some respect for him
Ascacibar is anotther mascarano even beter then him scolani should focus on him he is perfect on DM position and argentina desprately need it
Kai Havartz what a player! German team becomes so scrary with Sane Timo Werner Ganabry Kai Havartz
Paris Saint-Germain could join Chelsea, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the battle to sign Nicolas Tagliafico this summer.
AS reports the French outfit have their sets sight on Porto’s Alex Telles, but are reluctant to meet the Portuguese side’s asking price, which could see them turn to the Ajax full-back instead
in case that fans here don t know Tapia re-elected president of AFA for one more term.
until March 2025.
He was the only candidate for the post.
Tapia will have six vice presidents !!! including Rodolfo D’Onofrio (River) and Marcelo Tinelli (San Lorenzo), Jorge Amor Ameal (Boca) and Hugo Moyano (Independiente).
Balerdi, Palacios are our future they are too good for their age too, but y is this happening to our players. May b palacios due to some injury but y the hell balerdi is used as DM
What’s going on???
I think palacios is good enough to be playing for bayer Leverkusen.
Perhaps in his little chances he got , he played too many back passes and wasn’t able to pass the ball between the lines.
I really thought palacios would get fit into the Leverkusen squad from the get go.
Sadly it will take more time for palacios to shine and that Chilean aranguiz has also signed new deal so it will be hard for palacios to get minutes.
Cox4 my friend i see what you mean. I am not an Argentine but i am also proud of supporting Argentina because i was thrilled by this team in a way i never did by any other team. Argentina is football itself to me, i really love this team, i believe that Argentina deserved more wcs and even more copas and i am eagerly waiting seeing us on the top of the world again.
Neuer changed the dynamics of Goalkeeping, best GK of the decade without any doubt.
Neuer change the dynamics yes. he could kill anybody like tank without get punished.
Neuer is a fraud without any doudt.
waveride my friend honestly if in one senario that the world cup will take place in Argentina and in semifinal we get humiliate like that Brasil had there is no way to support that team in final unless that team s opponent will be England or Chile.
no other way exist.
that was really shame for Brasilians but in the end it don t disturb me.just opposite. this behaviour make me more proud as Argentine.
I meant 1954 wc for Germany, not 1958.
This final will always be hurting us until the day we finally win again the wc. That is the truth for all of us! Because of the break due to coronavirus, tv here in Greece is showing old matches from 2014 and 2018 wcs, they played this infamous final again and i couldn’t rewatch it. I haven’t rewatched this final since i watched it live.
I remember that Brazilian fans were routing for the team that humiliated them by 7 goals on their own soil just because THEY COULDN’T STAND the fact that Argentina was at the final, aiming to win it in their own country, what a disgrace!! Unfortunately we lost and we clearly were the best side, and yes that was a penalty indeed!
And ofcourse the Brazilian disgrace was continued in 2020 copa, after the 2014 disaster (i am not sure which of the two was more disastrous for Brazilians, the fact that we made the final on their backyard or the humiliation they had in the semis). It was unthinkable for them Argentina making a tournament final again on their backyard, let alone winning it, after what happened in 2014, so we all know what happened in 2020.
Brazilians and Germans are the dirtiest national teams, Brazil shoudn’t have won in 94 and especially in 02, and Germany in 90 and as Csabalala correctly said in 58 as well.
Again, our wounds won’t be healed up to the day we reach the top of the world again.
Lets be fair here, if we’re gonna talk about a team not deserving a world cup we have to put Argentina in that list because there was some foul play in ’78.
Just curious Waveride, why didn’t Brazil deserve to win in 94 and 02? I don’t remember there being any foul play.
As for Germany, well they got lucky with that penalty (even Matheus admitted to it) but honestly that Argentina team, minus Diego / Sergio and Canni, was awful. They were awful throughout the tournament and got to the final by playing some of the ugliest football I’ve seen from nation known for it’s flair.
Germany win in ’54 was highly questionable since a German scientist discovered that the Germans dosed up on the precursor to what we know now as Methamphetamines, but it should be noted that, technically speaking, it wasn’t cheating because the substance wasn’t banned back then.
Now the real embarrassment came in ’82 when Germany, who were on the verge of being knocked out, conspired with Austria to fix their final group match and knock Algeria out and that is the reason why the 3rd games of the group stages are played simultaneously.
With all due respect Mamoun my friend, if don’t remember that anything was wrong with Brazil in 02 wc just watch the match against Turkey. Once again, Brazil had a very easy group wigh an unknown back then Turkey which turned to be a powerful team. Turkey was surprisingly better than Brazil in that match and if i remember correctly they were leading by 1 goal. Then they fouled Brazilians just outside the area and referee awarded a penalty for Brazil imstead! Afterwards Turkish were annoyed by the referee’s calls and a Turkish player kicked the ball straight to Rivaldo’s legs but Rivaldo fell down holding his face acting like that the ball hit him in his face. The result was a red card for the Turkish player leaving Turkey with one man down.
Do you remember Brazil’s match against Belgium? They ruled out a clear goal for Belgium as of being an offside! They were foul calls for Brazil several times that helped them go through.
As for 94 wc, they didn’t deserve it simply because of what they did to us.
Now as for Argentina in 78 wc, i am sorry but i wont accept this kind of allegations as they used Videla’s regime perfectly in order to take away the glory of our team’s accomplishment. My friend Cox4 was the only one in here who said things exactly the way were regarding 78 wc, i couldn’t have said it better.
Finally, about 90 wc, you are right, we were not good at all, but keep in mind that Diego and several other key players were playing with injuries but still Argentina was proved to be to hard to be beaten fairly and despite missing Canni in the final, they needed to cheat in order to beat us.
Friendly.
South Korea winning against Portugal,Italy and Spain was the highlights of pure corruption in WC2002. conspiracy in eliminating such power houses made it easier for Brazil to win.
Ascacibar is injured? He was not even on the bench yesterday, Hertha started to shine without him after the pausa, will be very hard to start again for him. I never rate him highly, he is one dimensional, not the type we find. I hope Palacios will start against Mönchengladbach today.
Nope, he’ll start when he recovers. He was an starter before the covid pause and with the break neck pace of the coming games (inorder to finish the season in time), Santi will get his chances.
I still rate him highly, he’s a physical beast (despite only being 5’6), he has an excellent reading of the game, which is why he excels at interceptions and he’s an excellent passer to boot (good, accurate, forward passes) and he’s got the Argentine grit that made Samuel, Ayala and Mascherano successful.
Palacios not on the bench neither, maybe injury too?
Most likely, the kid is no stranger to injuries, he missed out on Real Madrid and copa america because of injuries, so I really hope he won’t end up like Gago and Lamela (talented but made of glass).
Thank You El Pipita ! You deserved an honour, bringing 2 Copas Final and WC Final. It is not an easy job. The blame should not be yours, it is unfair to blame you alone. Love and Peace
To be fair, I think Sabella biggest blunder was taking out great form Lavezzi in favor of still injured Aguero. Aguero was injured 4 times that year including in the middle of the World cup, but because he’s a big name, Sabella felt like he had to field him simply because he’s Aguero.
I remember there’s a moment when Aguero received a through ball with only one defender ahead of him and he slipped on the grass instead when trying to accelerate lol
Germany had more possession but obviously Argentina had the better clear chances, and Germany already had few yellows by half time and everything was looking good for Argentina even after Higuain missed his chance badly.
Ahhhh he finally speaks!!!
I remember the Krauts crying about an ITALIAN REF. calling that game when over 65% of all ARGENTINES are of Italian descent including none other than La Pulga and many on that roster.
That was a PK but I believe the REF. refused to call it because of the magnitude of the game……..but then again how many times have this team suffered from BULLSHIT CALLS, whether in Copa America, qualifiers and even in friendlies??
2014 should have been it and playing on Brazilian soil would have made it as if ARGENTINA had won 10 WCS all in one.
It hurts to continue to talk about this even after 6 years!!
Every time I see That piece of shit Neuer hitting Gonzalo in that match like that I feel frustrated. f..k him . He did it intentionally 100%
I’m glad to see him being clowned by South Korean haha
if the Italian mafia referee had given the clear penalty and at least yellow card (for me is clear red card) to the German pig now we will be 3 times world champions.
of course we have big fault too because we didn t score not even one of our good chances but that doesn t mean we should avoid to say that they stolen us.
anyway.
old sad stories again.
Germany would only had 2 if Codesal didnt give them a free penalty in 1990 final.
yeah bro, don’t remind me of that bogus penalty.
1954 final against Hungary was a cheating too.
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