Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni talks about 1-1 draw, VAR, more

By
Roy Nemer
-
169

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni spoke about his team’s 1-1 draw vs. Paraguay in the World Cup qualifiers.

It was Nicolas Gonzalez who scored Argentina’s only goal of that match as Lionel Messi had his ruled off by VAR due to a foul. Scaloni spoke at a press conference after the match. Here’s what he had to say:

“The team didn’t start off well in the first 15 minutes. After the penalty, I think it was all us, honestly. The team reacted, created chances, they did what they had to do. We achieved the draw. The second half was all us and looking passed that we didn’t win, we have to value a lot what we did well.”

Regarding the foul on Exequiel Palacios:

“We are left without a player for several days or months, the knock was there and VAR didn’t review it. Balbuena was inside the area for the Paraguay penalty. There were a lot of passes before the disallowed goal.

“No one likes football like that. I believe that they have to look for a way to unify the issue with VAR. I’m not saying good or bad, just that to clarify the criterias.”

Lionel Scaloni also spoke about Nicolas Gonzalez:

“We always had the option of Nicolas Gonzalez in mind, we believed he could fill that spot. It’s great joy for him. I’m happy that he played the way he did.”

Scaloni commented on not winning:

“We’re leaving with a bittersweet taste because Argentina did everything to win. In the second half, we pushed the opponents back. We have to value the attitude of the team, that always believed in the win.”

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169 Comments

  1. I live far far away from Argentina but this is the most favourite sports team for me of any kind. I have been following this team for the last 2.5 decades.

    Could you please let me know? what’s wrong with the people of Argentina?
    Why always they chose the wrong people every time?
    1. Why Armani under the goal post? What quality you Argentines see in him? I heard that majority of the Argentine think he should be your keeper, but why? why not Emi or Musso? If its of quota then why not Andrada?

    the thing is what is understood by the whole world, why the people here can’t understand?

    2. Every fucking time, you guys get spoiled by sub-standard players like- Salvio, Acuna, Armani, Enzo Perez and a lot.. your substitutes are also horrible. on the other hand, why do Argentine coaches ignore the rightmost people in the team always?

    3. Finally, is this for your food habit from childhood or lack of awareness for fitness? I don’t find so many injuries ( let alone Palacio’
    s case) like this country ( people living the same geography as Uruguay, Colombia, Chile are not that much injury-prone. Just take the example of Aguero ( he could be all record-breaker for EPL, rather he misses 1/3 of matches every year), Maria ( always costs us in big matches), Gago, Rojo?

    Why and why?

    I wish somebody would answer these.

  2. Messi needs a meditation therapy to boost up his spirits and gain some optimism.
    Armani needs to retire asap.
    Hope….dybala, Aguero , di Maria are back in action.
    And AFA should look out for Argentines who play in European league…not in a sub standard Argentine league….

  3. For all the hype of Portugal, they played so average yesterday in a real key game against france. Any other striker than martial wld have made it 3.0. Midfield is bang average. I feel they cld be better than us in fullbacks & rest all departments we are better.

    • Bro….I think we should keep our mouth shut and don’t bash anyone or any team until we ourselves achieve something.
      Don’t get me wrong but there is a saying that “those who live in house of glass, should not throw stones at other’s”

      Just wait for Argentina to do well…
      We’ll celebrate as much as we want…but don’t jinx the momentum right now…

  4. Ignore or block button must be quickly brought to work in this forum as some of the users here are an immense headache….. I prefer block button cuz 6 or more reports should instantaneously block that particular account…. I dont think that wont be useful in the longrun because some of the useless brats here have more than 10 accounts…. So the only thing we can do is to ignore them…. When you see their useless comments just ignore them plz dont reply to them… Let them say anything useless just ignore them……

  7. I dont understand why Soso neglects Matias Palacios, the biggest talent in primera next to Almada and de la Vega, another wonderkid Hausch got some minutes, i hope those idiots Romero twins wont play anymore.

    • Covid symptoms and left out of this match day. Palacios played the last match. Alexander Diaz got his match due to Angel Romero absence and he scored and assisted.
      17 year old Hausch got some play time.
      San Lorenzo finally giving younsters a look in. Palacios will flourish if he continues to play.
      Francisco Flores is another top talent at San Lorenzo.

  8. Those bitches and stupid bastard Varzilain referee audio came when they were reviewing Palacio foul. They didn’t refer any kind of card because apparently Romero was protecting himself from colliding Palacio. So basically they are saying he brought out two knees to protect himself from Palacio. Are those idiots stupid in head or something?! Palacio was jumping backwards and Romero was jumping infront seeing what coming so he knew what he was doing. That is outrage man! FIFA must intervene! That is ridiculous in highest standard

    • Also for the disallowed goal on field Referee thought it was clear legal goal. When VAR(Varzilain var official) contacted on field Referee about goal he said it is legal goal but Var said possible offside for Gonzalez. There was no way was offside. The VAR refer to Referee that he should see the play where he thinks it was foul then direct attack but where Argentina didn’t attack direct. Now you guys sum up what is going on?

  9. Best line up for Argentina world cup Qualifier if everyone is fit

    Papu Gomez Paulo Dybala L Messi

    Lo celso M Lanzini

    Santiago ascersiber

    N Gonzales M senesi C romero J foyth

    D martinez
    Sub : Fausto vera, paredes, Palacios, De paul, N tagliafico, L martinez, Di maria, Almada, G pezzella, Lisandro, N perez, Alario, Montiel,Juan musso
    Vamos Argentina

  11. The match against Peru is going to be the last Argentina NT match of this decade. This decade has been actually good for us, we reached a WC final after 1990 and reached another 2 finals in Copa. It was a golden generation with Messi and his allies. If they couldn’t win it. It’s going to be even harder for us in the upcoming decade. But sometimes low expectations leeds to better results. Hope for the best

    Reaching a WC final itself is an achievement if u ask me. Hope we win something in the coming decade.

    • ” sometime low expectations leads to highest results” is the line that is most true”
      In 2014 world cup.
      Copa America 2015 and 2016…the expectations were sky rocketing….and that burdened on the players…..
      I hope they win WC 2022 this time…
      Although my own expectations are extremely low…coz
      Brazil has got some good player including Neymar and Coutinho.

      Germany has sane, Gnabry, muller , Neuer , timo werner…..they are too strong and most of the players play for Bayern Munich.

      Portugal and USA have young talents

      I am already scared.

      This is Messi’s last world cup…..and winning it is like mission impossible…

      But still gonna believe in boys….

  12. A long post but a few legit points by me… And I don’t like to blame referees, but this is disgraceful.

    1. Paraguay should have been reduced to 10 men just 30 minutes into the game after the tackle on Palacios. Angel Romero injured him for 3 months. It’s a flying knee to Palacios lower back. Not even close to the ball and his intention was never touching the ball. Textbook straight red card ffs…

    Also, there was a two-footed tackle on Paredes where the Paraguayan was off the ground = another red card.

    2. 30 seconds of play between the foul and the goal. The argument is that the attacking phase began the moment González recovered the ball through a foul. However, the argument doesn’t take into consideration the fact that just seconds before the foul happened, Paraguay regained the possession through a rugby tackle on Lautaro…
    They can’t just ignore 80% of all fouls and then as soon as a goal happens, they start nitpicking and pointing to the fouls that they deliberately chose to ignore half a minute earlier.

    Apart from the fact that the goal was disallowed… Beautiful goal! Great link-up from Paredes, González, Lo Celso and Messi.

    CONMEBOL referees are garbage. This is well-known worldwide.
    VAR needs better structure, because how it is now, it is ruining football. As a concept, VAR is good, but the execution is terrible.
    As it is now, the only thing VAR has done is make match fixing more apparent. Which brings me to the next point…

    3. Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
    Assistant Referee 1: Bruno Pires (Brazil)
    Assistant Referee 2: Danilo Manis (Brazil)
    Fourth Official: Luiz F. De Oliveira (Brazil)
    VAR: Bruno Arleu (Brazil)
    Assistant VAR: Rodrigo Correa (Brazil)

    This is plain stupid. Anyone can see.
    Argentina and Brazil are the two most passionate football countries in the world, and the rivalry between them is the biggest in all of football.
    Then CONMEBOL/FIFA put 6 officials from Brazil to referee an Argentina game??? Of course they want us to end up with the worst result for their own gain.

    They had two Brazilians in the VAR room reviewing a textbook red card tackle on Palacios 30 minutes into the game and deciding that it’s nothing, and that the Brazilian referee shouldn’t even have a look at it. Same with the red card tackle against Paredes.
    They had two Brazilians in the VAR room reviewing our second goal and deciding it’s illegitimate because of a foul that the Brazilian referee and the Brazilian linesman decided was not a foul during play, but decided it was a foul in the VAR review. A foul that happened 2 seconds after another ignored foul on Lautaro close to the box.

    This game was stolen from us. Fixed. Revenge by corruption for Messi’s Copa comments on CONMEBOL corruption? They just proved him right once again.

    (I should note that CONMEBOL seem to put almost all officials from the same country in each game. For example when we play against Peru, all officials will be Colombian. In Colombia vs Peru, they were Argentine except VAR who were Peruvian. My point still stands. It’s stupid and makes for easier match fixing)

    4. Late and questionable substitution. Hope to see improvement here against Peru.
    Di María coming on for Ocampos after 60 minutes? Good.
    Domínguez for De Paul and Alario for Lautaro after 83 minutes? Too late.
    I also think Gómez should have come on instead of Domínguez.
    Really a shame about Palacios. Hope he comes back with a bang in 3 months. Lo Celso undeniably changed the game the minute he came on the pitch.
    ———
    Now let’s move on from this game. A taste of what’s to come. We got robbed on 2 points but we can’t dwell in it or change it. Focus on Peru game. We have the advantage of having one more day of rest than Peru have. They have lost 2 and drawn 1 so far.

    We are still unbeaten in the past 9 games.
    Vamos!

  13. Scaloni need to rest Lautaro Otamendi and paredes. Alario and Dominguez not bad. It’s time to give more playing minutes to both..Gomez also .it is not good for scaloni tochange tactics suddenly to 3.5.1. players can’t adapt it in a full time.if it is in middle of a game it is not so bad. Scaloni must use 4.4.2 always tht is so good and basic strategy..

  15. Sadly, Palacios will be out at least 3 months… speedy recovery for him

    The team is not click yet, Scaloni, Samuel and Aimar really have to evaluate the first half of previous game against Paraguay. Players just hit the ball in front with no clue and system; Messi is covered by 2-3 players and have no space to even passed the ball accurately. Just wonder Scaloni did not give a chance to Papu yet and agree with the below comment that Di Maria would be given a duty to take the corner instead of Messi. The trio Lautoro, Messi and Di Maria need to be supply from the midfield; not playing deep again.

    However, high appreciation for the experiment with 3 defensive players and bring Nico to replace Tag. It is something that needs courage and bold decision; Otamendi and Montiel had difficulty to handle the counter attack. Remember next match will be in high altitude and need a fit players and good defense and no room for experimental decision. Fix and confirm winning as the tournament is getting sharp

  16. Does anyone know and can specify what the problems between the AFA and Conmebol are? It is also blatantly obvious that the Conmebol and Brasil are against us. I don’t know why fifa won’t intervene. Can they?

    • Julio Grondona was corrupt mafioso but he was our mafioso. If he was alive, those minions in conmebol would not dare to do what they are doing now.

      • you are absolutely right. Not only wouldn t dare to do something like that to Grondona but they did not even consider something like that.

    • Conmebol President Dominguez is from Paraguay and because AFA spoke for the corruption in Conmebol in last year Copa america after what happened in the game against Brasil Dominguez put us to his black list. in same time Brasil football federation backed him in the presidentcy in the elections of 2016.

      shortly this is the story.

      FIFA can t intervene in the afairs of Conmebol directly. not about this subject at least.

  17. Argentina need to fix defense badly, Brazil won 1-0 but their defense and GK command well where Argentina defense is error prone specially Otamendi. Still can’t understand why scaloni not dropping Armani.

    • Bro….if you have watched WC 2018 Argentina vs France game….you would realise that we could have won even with a shambolic defence and garbage midfield…if not for Franco Armani.

      That guy simply gifted 2 of the goals to France….
      His goal keeping is terrible.

      Just think….a little bit of better goal keeping from him at that time would have made up clinch over France….who eventually became the winners of WC…..

      Such a shame….

      I guess he is playing Armani because of pressure from AFA as Armani plays in Argentine league….not European league.

      They play Armani so as to save the pride of their Argentine leagues….not realising that it costed them hugely in WC 2018….but who noticed?? As usual the blame went to Messi.

  18. I know this qualifier would be hard for Argentina after Messi openly criticized Conmebol refereeing. Expect more disadventage in all remaining qualifier games. We have no other choice than scoring more legit goals that cant be debated.

    Scolani needs to get back Argentina trademark triangle short passing game. How come the current generation of players seems to have no idea how Argentina used to play?? All they do is pass it to Messi and expecting a magical throughball or dribbles. This is why we struggle to put a single goal in every matches. Yea we scored in all 3 games so far, but number of chances were absoletely limited.

    When Di Maria is playing, why not let him takes corner which he usually does at club and delivered many assists with it? When Messi ever assisted from corner at Barca? does Scolani even watch league games?

    We should play with 4 defenders with the lack defensive quality that we have. Its too easy to beat Argentina from the wing with speedy players. You get pass the LB or RB, then you’ll pretty much sprinted toward an open goal.

    • “Scolani needs to get back Argentina trademark triangle short passing game. How come the current generation of players seems to have no idea how Argentina used to play”
      I was wondering same since 2006 to be honest. We lost our identity. I am not blaming Messi do not get me wrong but Messi actually spoiled us and our coaches. However if you follow there is an idea this group of staff trying to put into those players. I liked some particular passing in last game. To be master of these play this group needs time. Hopefully these group get into next copa in time and get those valuable time they need to gel together.

      • Well, I think part of that is because all the recent managers has no confidence in changing the current system. Messi could actually play as supporting cast aswell as we all saw in 2006-2008 when Roman and Aimar were still there. In 2008 Olympics , you could see the goals and assists were scattered into various players (Roman, Messi, Di Maria, Aguero, Lavezzi, etc), they’re interchanging unlike today where’s its all has to start from Messi. If we gets 100 corners, freekicks, penalties, Messi needs to take all of them… this is what makes us stagnant.

        In 2012-2016 period, at least the attacking 4 (Messi, Higuain, Di Maria and Higuain) knew how to feed each other. Now we have no playing pattern when we attack.

  20. So great Varsil won 1-0 with 20 men against Venezuela. Referee was pathetic again. He sent off one of the Venezuelan official. Clearly was bias. Even Varsil goal was suspicious. If that was us they would ruled it out easily.

    • yes 100% agree .
      1) Taglifico should be back . So goback to 4-3-3.
      2) I guess Nico G will start over Ocampos .
      3) Start Alario over Lautaro . Especially since Lautaro was not 100% fit & struggled last game while Alario in red hot form.
      4) Scaloni should be bold to sub Messi if needed. Paraguay game post 70mins , Messi was clearly struggling & trying solo runs. When we have Papu & DiMaria in bench – coach should preserve Messi better & not stretch him for 90+mins in every game.
      5) While we all shout loud for Emi , its clear Scaloni will not move Armani. However illogical that is – Got to live with that for some time & trust Armani.

        • I also didn’t know tagliafico will be fully fit , that will balance the left side big time , he and Gonzales will kill it . In March foyth should definitely be our RB although he’s ideally a cb , and C Romero is a must if he continues to prove himself .

  22. With second successive yellow cards , Renato Tapia & Cristian Gonzales out of Argentina game for Peru. Tapia is an European based player & a solid miss for Peru in defensive midfield. I was seeing Chile – Peru match. While their midfield presses very well , Peru’s attack very wayward without Guerrero. They seem happy spoiling chances & their Defense will make crucial mistakes . We should pocket 3 points in next game .
    Meanwhile VARzil unable to break Venezuela as of first half . No Neymar, Coutinho, Casemiro & they are unable to get into a rhythm. With the way Uruguay played against Colombia, anything possible in Uruguay- VARzil game

  23. Varsil 0-0 Venezuela at half time . I’m watching the game they look sluggish , yes they have injuries just like we do , difference is we looked good from the 20 th minute on ,

  24. I gotta put this out there , who else is feeling down mainly because of the disallowed goal and it’s 2019 copa America semi final memories .

  25. yesterday the referee remind me something that i had forgotten.
    that AFA is in “war” with Conmebol the last one and half years.

    after last night game i don t have mood to speak so much about that game.
    it is clear that we are robbed two points that we deserved. we was not super but we didn t play and bad.we deserve the win. it is very clear that.
    unfortunately we like it or not we have to look the next game against Peru.
    we have to let Paraguay game behind and don t allow that robery distract our brains from Peru game because it is not far in time and exist the danger if we lose our minds to have bigger damage because of that. we need to take the 3 points. after we beat Peru Tapia have to do something about those putos in Conmebol.

  26. BTW Paraguay is not a super strong team but they are not Andorra or Malta where teams like Germany, France or Portugal can roll over with 5/6 goals. If you think Argentina should score 5 goals past Paraguay then you dont know football. And especially South American Football. Football is not that straight forward. You ll be surprised if France play Paraguay atm. South American teams work hard. BTW if you already bought PS5 make sure you buy Fifa cos thats where you can play like the way you want not in real world. My 2 pennies.

  27. I believe next game Nico should start on left side with Tagliafico back in his place. I really impressed with Nico. Also Lautaro movement should be more better. Hopefully he improves. Ocompas had bad game for NT. It’s happen,you can have off day. But I believe giving his form and confident Nicolas Gonzales should start on left with Tagliafico as LB. I loved his directness. Also team lacking understanding with each other

  28. Next match against Peru line up should be like this (4-4-2): Emi Martinez – Montiel Otamendi Quarta medina – De Paul Paredes Lo Celso Gonzalez – Messi Lautaro

    Armani and Ocumpos must be dropped.

    • I really feel low after last night game. My belief on system and fifa or CONMBOEL has gone forever. It will be tough for our young coach and Players to win people in the field and outside field too. It’s like we VS against 20 people in every game. How they played small dirty foul without penalised and also a KICK box to Palacio. Almost one day is going and no one from FIFA doing anything for this. Our fan and we should have been in field in last night to beat the referee

      • The most important thing is what AFA is doing about this incident. Do not expect FIFA or someone else coming forward to protect Argentina.

        Having said that, it is often difficult to prove actual intention in a competitive match. I don’t buy the argument that Romero wanted to take revenge for what Palacios did to his brother long time back. But, is it impossible? Off course not. Can you prove it? Off course not.

        Remember what everyone’s favorite player, Papu Gómez did to Biglia before the World Cup?

        • There was no way he should have jumped like this. He knows that. That was clearly danger play to harm opposition. I haven’t seen anything like this since Neur jumped in 2014 final. Romero knew what was he doing!

  30. I said it many times before and I love to say it over and over again, Lo Celso is the real deal. He’s something else man. What a player and I hope he gets even better..

    I don’t get it, why doesn’t Scaloni try Papu Gomez at least as a sub he can turn up a game in no time…

    Let’s hope for a great line up against Peru…

    But we still are unbeaten that’s good

    vaaamos Argentina

  32. Watch out for refs and VAR in tomorrow’s clash of Brazil against Venezuela.

    So far VAR has been active whenever Brazil is on the pitch. Probably lots of miscalled fouls, pens or one sided decisions on Brazil’s side,ending their game with 4-5 goals and hence the table topper.
    Not surprised, this is usual in Latin America. One goes up at the expense of other’s scarifice, in this case it’s Brazil.

    Remember when a former retired ref leaked confidential matters that refs in Spain favours real over Barca? Just shows where ignorance breeds.

    Politics and football……..can this two ever be separated?

  33. Hello godin how are you mate? I saw one of your comment where out of everyone here only you remembered me, bdw we might have difference in opinion regarding our gameplay, tactics, players but one thing is for sure we will always be good friends here
    Thanks for remembering me, I hope you are doing well mate

  34. 🚨Lionel Messi had stomach discomfort during the Paraguay game. The team doctors gave him chewing gum to eat. He has chronic rhinosinusitis which causes inflammation.

    [TyC Sports]
    I feel sad for him, he is taking pills to play for his nt and still gets bullied here in this group

  35. For next match Emi Martinez should get the starting role between the sticks I think he has much more to offer to Argentina and even in his interviews he has said that how hardly he wants to play for Argentina and wants to help Messi to win titles for Argentina.

  36. Time to stop the joke !

    For the next game :

    ———————Lautaro
    ————–Gomez——-Messi
    -Gonzalez—Lo Celso—-DePaul—Ocampos
    ———Tagliafico–Otamendi–Quarta
    ———————Martinez

  39. We were cheated by fifa again. My first world cup was 1990, and my father said “we were cheated by fifa”. Last copa, we were cheated by fifa . Either way…..
    We should be proud of the team.
    I’m especially happy with our movement.

    LoCelso came in the game with something to prove. He was everywhere. As many of the members here said, he should start.
    Lauturo should calm down, his nerves got the best of him, he could have scored two or three easy goals. But I love him still. Great future.
    Paredes played more of a defensive position and is molding well as our defensive midfielder.
    Depaul is very important to us, I enjoyed his yelling and attempts to organise team.
    Ocampos did well also, he just didn’t have luck on the left. This formation wasn’t for him, as we saw when LoCelso came in to make it more natural.
    Messi is messi, I am happy how he was dipping deep into our midfield at times. Reminds me of 2012 barcelona.
    The defense was organised especially in second half.
    I am excited to see Alario play more.
    Also happy di Maria is back. I know many dislike him, but if u know the sport then u understand that he is an easy choice for almost any national team. He loves the game, and isn’t afraid to try back passes and entertaining play.
    Armani did well I thought, I don’t know a goal keeper who could have done better. He was very involved in starting our play.
    Our new left back Nico not only scored but was menacing on defense. They couldn’t get past him most of the game. We have a new problem, a good problem, who starts at left back now???? Can Nico play rb also??? And allow taglafico as our lb starter?

    Btw, romero got a yellow card for his ugly foul, the ref gave it to him two minutes later after var called him. It should have been red tho.
    I don’t think anyone on our squad had a bad game. Even the foul for the penalty was silly, but we picked up and started to play.

    The best thing about last night is that our squad didn’t get too emotional and continue d playing professionally after first 20 minutes elapsed.
    Paraguay has a good relationship with our players for most part, many play in argentina. I was happy to see the squads chatting at end of match.
    Finally, it was a draw, but I’m happy. This team is coming together. Scaloni is finding a system to take the burden and stress off of Messi, which is what is needed to win tournaments.

  40. Isn’t clear what CONMBOEL doing after Varsil vs Peru and Argentina vs Paraguay? God I am so frustrated and angry. They got penalty bcoz he ran into LMQ but in the case of Messi he said it wasn’t foul when a player blocked Messi.

    • It is crystal clear amigo but still some people pretend that nothing is wrong. Just to add on this, the referee of the game between VARSIL and Venezuela is Paraguayan, to return the favour even though against one of the weakest sa teams.

  41. Scaloni improvised in absence of Tagliafico/Acuna and apart from for the first half some minutes it almost worked for us. May be he was not confident of Medina/Lisandro as LB. Nico Gonzalez had a great match so that validates Scalonis tactics.

    Lo Celso is a player who is till now not established his spot due to injuries at wrong time. I think he will have to be played more with Paredes and De paul. Players like him and Palacios takes some creative burden from Messi’s shoulder.

    I m glad that now we r not a Messi dependent team. Moving in right direction.

  42. Ok I just found out the name of a psycho who injured Palacios, his name is Angel Romero and apparently a year ago palacios harshly tackled (not injured mind you) romero’s twin brother during a River match, so I guess Romero thought he’d cripple Palacios in response.
    So to Angel Romero I say a big F**k YOU!! And I hope to dear god that someone does the same thing to you because karma is a b***h you A-hole!…………..ok now I feel alittle bit better.

    • Yeah. I have heard that too. Don’t worry he will get it back i can guarantee you. Next game if Paredes fit to play then Romero is going hospital too. It is certain. This group is like family and they won’t let it go for sure. But watch our players will get red!

  43. They clearly robbed us a win by dissallowing a clear goal from us which came from a beautifull team play, Paraguay player almost ended Palacio’s footballing career without even being awarded a card, let alone a red one and some “Argentina fans” are coming in here, with no means of dignity, to tell us to play like Brazil! We are Argentina, we are not like them, we are not asking for Conmeball to favour us as they clearly do with the shitty yellow team, we just want to play our game fairly and take what we deserve.

    No surprised why so many respectful members that they used to comment frequently in here disappeared and now you see comments from spoilt brats who are typing before they even use their brain!

  44. Soumya
    First of all, don’t talk to me like you know me, not because i bother really, but mainly because you make yourself seem like a fool.
    To answer to your silly, or i should better say childish question, i am 41 years old. Is that enough for you?? By the way, how old are you?? Because the only “cry baby” here is you! I have been watching our beloved team for three decades and yes, we are Argentina and we are playing against all odds. I never said that penalties are not a part of the game. So why VAR didn’t give us TWO CLEAR PENALTIES in copa america semifinal against the yellow frauds?? Can i ask these question or i am being a “cry baby” now?? Did you watch the Peru against Brazil game? Two penalties from which the one was questionable and a goal that should have never been count because it was a clear offside!! Aren’t the above enough to you to make you realise that something is wrong?? And i only mention the shity yellow team just because YOU WERE THE ONE WHO MENTIONED FIRST, “crying” about our performance and bringing the shitty yellow team as an example for us to be like them.

    Just because you are supposingly saying that we are Argentina, yes we are Argentina and yes we didn’t play at our standards but we deserved the win and that doesn’t mean that we have to score 3 or 4 goals just because they will try to find ways to disallow unfairly a goal from us.

    And by the way, yes i think i know what propaganda means, do you??
    How old are you??

    • Hi cry baby! I still dont know what is your point ! Every match can not go to the favour of opponents . So we should stop crying and rectify our mistakes . End of the discussion.

      • You still don’t get my point because you are talking faster than you are thinking.
        Anyway, end of discussion, the only right thing you have said up to now.
        I am not discussing with clowns!

  45. Fine performance from albiceleste..deserved a victory… Scaloni sticking with regular playing 11 is encouraging for the team.. Good to see Argentina playing with same 11 (with one or two changes here and there) after long long time.. Every position has a backup.. Long way to go but it is quite encouraging.. All hail Argentina

  46. First, CONMEBOL is a joke. Lets have Brazilian referee and Brazilian VAR referees for an Argentina game. This nonsense only happens with no fans, because those bullshit calls will get the referee killed in a stadium filled with fans. Maybe not, because he doesn’t have the courage to cheat us out of a game with fans there.
    Second, there should be multiple red cards on Paraguay. Palacios broke a vertebrae in his back. Several times they almost break Depaul or Paredes leg. Where is fair play?
    Berrizzo better remember this before he steps back in Argentina. Argentina, or any team, anybody who coaches this kind of play should be banned from FIFA

  47. Just finished watching the game and here are my thoughts:

    – Apart from the first 12 minutes (yup only 12 minutes) it WAS ALL ARGENTINA!

    – That Paraguay penalty was silly, Almerion RAN INTO Quarta.

    – Argentina again coming in from behind (like they did against Germany, Uruguay and now Paraguay). Good spirit from our boys.

    – That foul against Palacios didn’t deserve a card…..nope, that Paraquain player should’ve spent the night in jail! What an a** hole of a challenge and to think he didn’t even get penalized shows you how s***y the referring was in that game.

    – Celso, Nico G and De Paul were the best players in the first half. The former 2 continued to to be the best players on the pitch during the second half.
    Paredes moved the ball quite nicely and his forward pin pointed passes are excellent.

    – I hear alot of you criticizing Montiel but I thought he did well over all, especially in the first 30 minutes where he had a decent set of one-twos with De paul and Lio.

    – I also hear alot of criticism of Armani but he actually did very well, although to be honest after the aforementioned 12 minutes he had almost NOTHING to do, but I thought the way he stopped Almerion’s attack while pushing the ball out of his hand just in the nick of time (inorder not to concede a foul) was pure class. I still believe that eventually he will have to be replaced by a Musso or a Martinez or whoever but for now Armani is A-ok in my book.

    – Ocampos sadly had his worst match in the Argentina shirt thus far and Messi had ONE of his worst matches but it’s ok because everybody has a off day at the office.

    – The VAR annulled goal was a joke, nuff said!!

    – Overall a solid match from our boys and they were honestly robbed 3 points, but hey this is the WCQ COMNBOL, where everything can happen and players aim for the spine and try to cripple each other! It’s no wonder that SA football has become a joke.

  48. I feel FIFA hopefully makes a rule that CONMEBOL based referees should be in-charge of UEFA Nations league, EURO WC Qualifiers and Euro Cup while Europe based referees can be in-charge of Copa america and South American based World cup Qualifiers this process could be helpful in reducing favouritism which certain referees show towards a particular team during a particular match. How you guys feel about such a rule.

    • Always felt for that. But the real authentic problem is communication, I mean language barrier. Also the painful reality is FIFA is all about business and money. Do you think they are ready to give extra money for referees travel across the Atlantic? It’s confusing every team finds a plan against us, but we are having the same approach for every team.

    • thats a good idea … but the european Players would be shoked about the desicions 🙂 the stupid Brazil ref. yesterday let the Players kill themselve in first half. in Europa is savety first rule. But first at all i would not take a brasil ref for Argentina games and gauchos for brasil games…becuz the rival thing its always in the brain – thats human.

  49. Again How wasn’t that red card even there were VAR active. They rewind and replayed the foul after we scored but they didn’t come to conclusion about the foul. It wasn’t like we scored right after foul,we passed right side of field then left side of field then middle and scored,but they tracked back the foul. Against Peru in last fixture Varzil every goal was a scandal. Poor Palacio. Feel bad for the guy. It will be huge task for Argentina to play fair now on. It is just new way to help Varsil and their associate again with VAR. After Julio the Don demise nobody cares about our opinion or value anymore

        • i think was top. he run much more than for barca. he dribble he passes alot, go in headers ( normaly he dont go for that ) he fight, after loose the ball he pressed, freekicks was good – the wall everytime was to near but ref. not saw it. he scored. take balls behind midfield to be in the game eveytime … he played against a wall and he is 33, not more 25 and play with cracks together ! what he can do more ? after the game he was tired … not everytime i can say that after barca matches. for me he was very good yesterday

        • What do you expect from a guy who is 33 year old, has burden of whole country and now a club on his shoulders.
          Who…last year saw the worst defeats in UCL semi final in Anfield and then in Copa America….and recently lost 8-2 to Germans…..

          Give the guy some time….he is definitely gonna bounce back…..

          All we have to do…is to cheer them up along with giving healthy criticism.

  51. People are expecting too much from Argentina when Liverpool were in red hot form they used to beat other mid table or lower mid table or top Premiere League teams with 1-0,2-0,2-1 margin.
    No team can score 3,4 or 5 goals consistently in 90 minutes.

  52. I don’t think we created enough chances to win. We didn’t penetrated properly. I mean fans are comparing argentina to Barca for creating chances but not finishing chances. Believe me this team was nowhere near current barca in terms of creating chances. These SA teams suck. They won’t let you play good football except when its brazil or uruguay. They press like beast for 90 mins. Scaloni has a lot of homework to find a solution against such press and bus parking

    • yeah thats true. i not saw many chances, because we had no ideas how to broke the wall. through the middle is sure not the right way… but with lauta and messi we cant come over the side and bring in high balls 🙂 after 60mins u should change the way to Play if u see u cant do something. i not understand why not lauta and alario in front and messi Comes from background for example. so we had min. 2 Players in the area … hmm we will see but yeah scaloni should think about it.

  54. stop crying for var decision . Even if the decision is wrong we should have been score at least 4 goals to this paraguay team. Accept the fact that our defense is shaky since Sabella left AFA . Whats wrong with these coachs . why dont they realize our defense is the weakest section ! Only sabella is the man who realized it and worked on it.

    • “score at least 4 goals to this paraguay team”
      Really mighty Brazil couldn’t beat them
      120 with one man down in thier back yard with full of fans
      Argentina won that game in terms everything. But VAR and refree robbed them. But the problem is guys like you
      Expecting arg to win every game 4-0.
      Football doesn’t work like that.

      • bull shit when did brazil play with paraguay in this qualifier !? which match you are talking about !!! If we can not score at least 3-4 goals to this team how we will compete against big teams !! brazil scored 5 goal to bolivia 4 goals to peru in last 2 matches in WC qualifier . Get your fact first and dont overrate this team . we support this team with our heart so we have right to criticize my team. If we can not rectify in qualifying matches when we will get our chance to improve !

        • Copa 19 mate in case you don’t know
          BTW paraguay beat arg at home
          Last world Cup qualifier other way
          They took 4 points from arg
          Do you know SA world Cup qualifier is the Hardest one in whole world.
          isn’t like playing vs san mariano Andorra Luxembourg Latvia list goes

          • What dude ! are you comparing copa 19 matches with 2022 qualifying matches!? copa match is knock out match no team play all out from the start where as in qualifier matches are league type . Every big team try to score to win the matches.
            May be you dont know only 2 teams qualify from each group in euro but in SA 5 teams qualify from the group.

            More over why are you comparing 2018 WC world up qualifier with 2022 WC qualifier ?Then i will also compare 2014 qualifier with 2022. Argentina score 3 and 5 goals respectively in 2014 WC qualifier.

        • Soumya
          How did Brazil scored four goals against Peru? With two penalties and an offside goal?? If this is the case, then we can score four as well. But on the contrary, despite that we didn’t play that well, we deserved the win but they robbed as for once again because they invented a foul prior to 12 passes! I mean seriously?? 12 passes before?? Why did the referee then allowed the game to be continued and then all of a sudden decided to go 12 passes back to search for a foul??

          Let me ask you something: If it was Brazil, would the same thing had happened??

          You should get your facts first, but take into account all facts and not just the ones you like because telling half the truth is the definition of propaganda.

          • Wow! Do you even understand the meaning of propaganda? How old are you? Do you think penalties are not a part of the game? I dont want to compare Argentina with brazil but atleast dont be a cry baby! We are Argentina we should play like Argentina. Our expectations will be high. We will reach world cup to win it. We love our team,we support our team we will criticise our team.

        • hy soumya … i think we should be real and know that we havent that team who can score alot. if u look wich Players yesterday are in big big teams and play every Weekend ( in the top leagues not for PSG for example ) and who is one of the best on the pitches around the world … you will just have messi, lautaro, Maybe ocampos. the rest are not that heroes yet. And when u Play against a wall like Paraguay did … that is horrible. so Argentina need Players who read the game and personality who push the others to win. earlyier we had veron,masche,ayala,kily … and much more. they had amazing class, they all played every weekends for the best teams and all was big personalities in the clubs. so then u can score much more gols for sure. Now we must be true that we have no system, we never have same 11, we have no automaticly processes, just all is spontan and Scaloni hopes into the class of messi and 1 or 2 Players more. thats my view! best regards

          • I think we have enough talent in attack and mid field what we lack is some solid defensive player. That is our weakness .If Mid fielders are busy help defense to fill our loop hole how will they concentrate on their own position ? how will they concentrate on attacking ? What Sabella did before he fixed the defense first bringing GARAY ,Rojo etc etc . But what scaloni is doing ? He never worked on defense . At this age messi had to come down to build the game when we have so many mid fielders .Why? becasue mid fielders are busy to help defenders . Defense is always vulnerable under scaloni . With out a solid defense no team can win any tournament .

  56. 2 shot on target at home to Paraguay from long range and we played good? we were really bad i think watching Argentina play is one of the worst thing u could do in football right now .what is the purpose of depaul he always find himself in traffic when he could just pass the ball easily. ocampos where u start with him he is not good no. Joaquín correa and papu gomez are much better.in modern football u have to pass the ball fast to create openings otherwise it is easy for the opposition to defend we are so slow. we can not blame matinez quarta what could he do in that situation but i believe romero senesi and licha martinez are better defenders than both otamendi and martinez quarta.tim vickery always doubted matinez quarta potential

    • Tim vickery is joke himself.
      As Argentina fan never bothered
      What tim vickery says about arg nt
      The guy always praise likes peru Colombia Uruguay.he always find something to critisise arg thier defending are shambolic and says
      much worse than that give me break.
      Don’t come here and bring likes Tim vickery And espn pundits
      As lmq is really good defender all he need another good defender who complement him Not otamendi
      “I think watching Argentina play is one of the worst thing u could do in football right now ”
      Mate you overexaggerating this one right?

      • no i hate slow teams i get up 3 in the morning and all i see is side passes i love argentina but so many argentina teams have dispointed me only sabella tata martino and pakerman teams where good may be basile

  57. It seems paraguayns are so lucky tht disallowed goal of Messi. Very very disappointed faith of our favourit Arg . arg got couple of good chances. Badluck and clr misses cost us.Also personally I don’t like today’s tactics of Scaloni.I think it is important to rest Otamendi and find some good plyrs in Cb with quarta.

  58. Argentina played really good in second half but in first 40 minutes they were bad. Paredes and Lo celso were best player in the pitch.Messi was good. Lautaro Martinez has good positioning sense but his first and final touch is quite bad, his header are average needs to be more clinical there should be power in his shoots.
    There was good improvement in second half,Argentina going good but some holes need to be covered.Defence looked good LMQ is good in passing the ball short or long but in defenive contribution he lack many things like when he is one on one with opposition player to take header he goes for pushing the opposition player that is lack of confidence,how his header went to Otamendi’s hand lucky that was not ended up as penalty for Paraguay. Montiel did nothing good and nothing bad he was very conscious or may be nervous about his role in the game.He is trying to secure his position in the team that is good spirit.
    Argentina is improving that is for sure, we just lack some player in the pitch.

  59. tbh were not that bad today. apart from the first 20 minutes we played well especially after the penalty. I believe that alario should get a chance because he is in good form (not saying lautaro is bad). I’m really uncomfortable with three at the back and I hope tagliafico returns so we can go to a back four again.

  60. We played better than any other WCQs. We were unfortunate. We had better possession as well as fluidity. Depaul involved more.Lo celso is a must. Nico gonzalez did well. Lautaro must be more clinical.

  61. We are used to the disgusting adamencies of our coaches for a long time. Something never changes. First why the hell three at the back. That’s never never suited us. Psychologically we feel deep inside we are vulnerable because of one man missing (to make 4) at the back. Second why we played LWQ for this match. He should have played against Peru. He’s from a long trip from Italy after Covid test. Just one day rest and next day playing high intensity qualifier. Why Scaloni is so adamant in playing him in this match. Won’t a coach don’t take the basic fatigue concern related to his long trip just a day or two before the game. Why we pick guys like Medina who don’t play consistently but ignore Romero who plays regularly and experience in high intensity matches like Liverpool or Inter. Also why Messi is still adamant with right position. Considering his experience and potential why not he move to central to give space for Dybala or Di Maria in general. Either defense should be perfect or defensive midfield should be perfect. Both are average for us. That takes away our chances against the likes of Brazil Uruguay Portugal Spain.

    Berrizo should be getting more pay than Scaloni. Queroz for Colombia should be getting five or ten times more than Scaloni. If those countries with not so popular leagues and TV audience are willing to pay more for an experienced coach and we hire Scaloni only because of financial reasons then not sure Football Gods will help us.

  62. I’m really sad to lost 2 vital points today..refree took 2 points from us..no card for foul on palacious..goivani was a best player in the pitch. Should give emi Martinez at least a match..

  63. 2 vital points lost, we can’t relax for any match against any opponent in these qualifiers, it will get tighter and tighter moving forward. Anyway we can’t expect to win all the matches either. It’s an okay result. Considering the injuries. And the disallowed goal.

    More concerned about Palacios injury. It looks horrible. Hope he recovers soon. Nico Gonzalez and Lo Celso had a great game. But that doesn’t mean they will perform great in next match. No player can consistently play great in all games. Not even Messi. Everyone will have an off day. Quarta, Paredes, Armani everyplayer will have an off day. No need to bash. I think apart from that penalty play. Paraguay didn’t had that many clear cut chances right? That means our defence was doing okay.

    Only query with Scaloni was why play Montiel in a back 3?He should have played a Proper CB on right side of the defense. 3 at back means the Right side CB don’t have to do the overlapping runs via wings like a RB does. Isn’t it. May be I m wrong. But still I think the defence did gud as per me.

  64. My take away from this game
    1: I am very unhappy with what happened to Palacios. If this injury keeps him out more than a few weeks I fear it could be a major setback for his career. Especially considering the fact that he’s struggled for no reason with Bosz, now he has a legitimate problem on top of that. The other player definitely deserved to be punished for that. It was an awful challenge/clash (it was so mindless and bad I actually don’t know what to call it). Let’s just hope for the best
    2: How did we play? I see some people that complain as if we played absolutely awful. After the penalty and especially after the goal we played much better. It is also worth noting that many players are out injured (Saravia, Foyth, Agüero, Dybala, Tagliafico) to name not all but a few. Losing Tagliafico and the others means that Scaloni has to improvise and change his system. Even with this new system, we played quite well. We created more chances and had more shots. We played a higher line. As mentioned before it was not perfect but given the issues we’ve had that is to be expected.
    3: Nicolas Gonzalez. Kind of surprising to see him in that position but he actually was pretty decent. Some people complain about his passing in the first half but that does not define his whole match. He got the goal and I was pleased to see how fast he is. He sped past some defenders. Obviously I don’t expect him to be playing like that any time soon because he is not a defensive player but for this match it was good.
    4: Lo Celso. Man what a player. He absolutely changed the match. Sad about Palacios but maybe his injury is what allowed us to draw.
    5: The disallowed goal. Absolute bullshit. I had not even noticed the “foul” that occurred. It was like 20 passes back. And to my grand surprise the referee was Brazilian 🙂. It was a wonderful attacking play. A great team goal. Lo Celso would have two assists. Scaloni is very right about CONSISTENCY. If they were consistent with Var Brazil would have not won the Copa America. It’s like Conmebol and the referees do everything possible to prevent Argentina from winning.
    6: The defense. Was it solid? No. But I don’t think it’s a cause for alarm. It only depends on these factors; 1) that our defenders have time to get used to their new teams and Europe. By that I mean MQ, Romero, Valenti, Perez, Amione, Foyth, Balerdi etc. For some defenders this could be a matter of months and some years, but either way I see a better future. 2) That Scaloni starts to select players better, which may come soon. I expect Emiliano Martinez, Romero, Senesi to be included someday soon. These factors would make our defense more solid than today.
    Overall, I would have liked a win and we deserve one. But that’s football and conmebol for you. Hopefully Scaloni will make changes and have more options by the Peru game and we win.

  66. To put things in perspective , if we had won today – it would have been just the fourth time ever that we have 3 successive wins at start of wcq. Source – goal.com
    So guess we are looking fine for now. Some minor defensive tweaks & progresive calls like emi martinez should sail us through wcq.

  68. LMQ gave the penalty and look what Armani was doing to save the penalty. Completely useless Armani.No confidence on penalties.Armani does not dive for penalties he just let his body go down,in this way he can not even reach far corner of the goalpost leave alone to save it.

    • I think those moments can happen to any defender & gk. But not playing emi martinez over armani is just not wise . If nothing else , this is something scaloni shld boldly do.

    • Armani is pathetic, quarta can’t defend he is just good in passing, lautaro is overrated whose first touch and ball control is horrible, montiel has to improve, Nico Gonzales did much better as lb then taglifico in his nt career, otamendi is finished
      Messi is Messi but he had a off game today,
      Lecelso and paredes were good
      And I don’t understand scaloni’s pathetic gameplay and his favourism
      I also don’t like this boca-river privilege , come in its argentina select players who deserve not because of any external pressure

      • absolutely on point, how in the fucking world that piece of shit is armani starting I honestly don’t understand. Lo celso was brilliant and I’m sure after this performance he will be a starter. CB LMQ and Otamendi is useless, I’m sure the way c. romero is performing it’s only a mattrr of time before he becomes a starter and foyth will come back after his injury although he might be deployed in RB, but we still have options like Lisandro Martinez who plays in UCL he for sure deserves a chance

  69. This team is nowhere near the team which played vs Brazil and Uruguay in Saudi Arabia. Otamendi and Pezella best pair. Armani should be dropped he was not playing out from back looks like 80’s goalkeeper. Tagliafico, Acuna best for LB role, Foyth, Sarvia best for RB role.Alario should start over Lautaro Martinez, Lautaro Martinez is over rated. J. Correa is better than Ocampus.

    • Hey Kevin aka Kavi, could you do us a favor? Could you put a permutation-combination sign in front of your comment and save yourself some time and energy? We get what you want to say just from a single comment – no need to inundate the forum with multiple versions of basically the same comment!! This is irritating. To make it worse, you use two different user names so that you could repeat even more; such a genius idea!!

      This forum is not a place to show your tantrum. As an Argentina fan, you are welcome to comment, but please do not denigrate the quality of this Blog by saying the same thing again and again, especially when all you say is bashing this player or that player. Please give us a break, dude!

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