Cristiano Romero made his Argentina debut in the team’s 1-1 draw vs. Chile on Thursday. Romero received high praise for coach Lionel Scaloni as the 23 year old defender had a stellar game.
Speaking to the media after the match, here’s what Romero had to say:
“I think the team played a good game and continues to grow, which is important. I didn’t know many of my team mates but they made me feel like one more on the team.
“I am very thankful to the coaching staff for this opportunity. I’m very happy to have made my debut in the Argentina national team shirt. Thank you to all of my team mates that gave me confidence from the first day I got here.
“This call-up gave at the best time of my career. This has to be the way to continue to grow. I’m happy with the way the group received me, for how they made me feel on the pitch and every day.”
Wait for it👀🔥
— Adwait (@Adwaitr10) June 4, 2021
Romero🥵🔥 pic.twitter.com/KHVw0DqRfO
Without fullbacks joining attack, there can’t be any good football. Even Sabella’s fullbacks Zabaleta and Rojo joined attack. Why Foyth does not cross midfield, I will never understand.
Even Otamendi as RB joined attack and provided crosses. I remember in game against Mexico, 2010 wc, Otamendi provided a great cross but Higuain failed to connect.
Rojo’s famos cross was failed by Palacio. Heinze as LB joined attack. Coloccini as RB against Germany joined attack. They are all natural centerbacks.
It has been 3 years since we are covering our weaknesses, it is time to shift into next gear.
It is just a single game if Messi’s shots had been ended up in goals we would not be having this conversation about fullbacks helping forward players. This is just a single match let other matches come and we will see.
@Kevin,
This issue has nothing to do with the match. A sensible person sees problem even when everything is working.
100% agreed. After Foyth came off we looked onto something on right side. If Scaloni played Tagliafico on left he should play someone attack minded in right side. The reason Foyth wasn’t crossing half way line is because they were trying to play three men in back while we had ball which didn’t work.
i don’t think players have free reign to run around as they please. I could be wrong but it seemed like tactical decisions by scaloni, any attacked Tag advanced, leaving Foyth – Romero – CB at the back. Molina came on but by then Scaloni changed tactics.
I watched Brazil Ecuador highlights. I think brazil as a team has regressed than that of Tite’s first two years. Coutinho and Dani Alves were key players for him. Without them Brazil lacks a lot of creativity.
In Ecuador game, Brazil’s most attempt for attack was cross from wingbacks as Fred and Paqueta failed to bring any creativity.
Anyway, back to Argentina. The problem with current team is inconsistency. We played good in last games of Copa 19. But when we faced Germany, we go outplayed big time in first half but we recoverd and also won against Brazil.
In game against Ecuador, we won but football was not impressive. Then we won a difficult game against Bolivia. But in next games, we drew against Paraguay but won against Peru with good football. In last match against Chile, we know what happened.
Look at Spain, they played crisp and sharp football against Portugal. Chemistry and football style is the work of the manager. Give this team to Pekerman or Bielsa, they will develop an identity and chemistry within a short period of time. This is where inexperience of Scaloni and co is costing us.
Designing an organized defence is not difficult, but designing an attacking game to break opposition defence is difficult and requires high level of skills from manager and players. This opinion is not mine but of Bielsa’s.
I always liked “el professor” but to brake oposition defences you have to be flexible and adapt to each oposition, rather than relying to single only approach. As i said, i always liked Bielsa, in 2002 world cup qualifiers we blew everyone up including Brazil, making a wining record, but unfortunately, no matter how unbeatable we seemed, barring our bad luck especially against Sweden where our missing chances were so many, his stubborness cost us badly!
On the other hand, Scaloni may be not as experienced and qualified as Bielsa but i think that he is very intelligent hence his ability to adapt and flexibility as well as his ability to make the right subs at times. The above cannot be taught but experience can be gained as time goes by. Personally i have lots of respect to Scalloni!
If all the players are available and Copa resume then I think we will see a identity of the team. If we didn’t see after this then we should start worry. But for now I am with Waveride. Respect Scaloni and his team and I sure they are in right path
Bringing in Facundo Medina to the AFA set up should be Scaloni’s next move. Medina and Romero would be the backbone of Argentine NT for years to come.
The problem again just like the past 25 odd years is not the players but the ability of our coaches.
I think…Scaloni will not play two offensive wingbacks (Molina & Acuna) at the same time. In that case, I think if Faith plays right-back, Akuna can play left-back. Again, if Tagliafico is played at left-back, then Molina should be played at right-back.
Playing two offensive wingbacks or two defensive wingbacks together would be bad for the team.
Scaloni likes taller defenders so with Acuna 170 or Tagliafico 172 tall Foyth is the favourite on the right side, Montiel (175), Molina (175), and Lisandro Martinez ( between somewhere 175-177 who knows) will play def only with Foyth as right back. Look at Franca Hernandez 184, Pavard 186 (naturally a CB) Varane 191, Lenglet 186.
Brazil captain Casemiro on hosting Copa America:
“We cannot talk about the Copa America, even if everyone knows what our opinion is,” Casemiro told TV Globo post-game. “But we can’t talk about it, everyone knows that we think.
“It is very clear what we think about the Copa America, but now we have to respect certain hierarchies. It is clear that we want to express ourselves about it, but unfortunately now we cannot.”
“We are not going to talk about this, Tite already told how the opinion is.
“As the captain and leader, we already have our position. We want to talk but now is not the moment to do it.
“I’m not the only one, it’s not only the European players [against hosting], we are all. When someone speaks, everybody does it, or Tite, or coaching staff. We have to be unified.”
Like CONMEBOL is holding a gun to his head lol
Casemiro told a lots of things without saying anything at all.
Ecactly! If someone has a strong opinion and protest about it, he has to defend it and stand for it or else he should shut his mouth!
The way i see it, Casemiro and the rest of Brazilian players are playing mind games. Just to remind that Argentina never said that didn’t want to host copa america but to do it in condition to comply with strict pdotocols, something quite respectful but still not enough for Conmebol of course, who decided that Brazil can host it again even without nothing being said about strict protocols. Dirty politics again, and if you ask me, i don’t believe anything about Brazilian players are saying, about whatever they can say, because they don’t want to say nothing against the hierarchy, as they have straight relationship and bond with it.
I just don’t buy anything about those fake protests!
Sofascore ratings after 5 matches: 1. Messi 7,66 2. Lo Celso 7,50 3. Nico Gonzalez 7,40 4. Lautaro Martinez 7,34 5. Paredes 7,16 6. Tagliafico 7,03 7. Cristian Romero 7,00 8. Joaquin Correa 6,80 9. Guido Rodriguez 6,90 10. Otamendi 6,90 11. Foyth 6,85 12. De Paul 6,82…playing times affect ratings, but these are mostly starting players with full matches. Di Maria 6,73, but he played only 111 minutes in 3 matches, with these tendencies his full match performance average would be 7,78.
Neymar 3 penalties 1 action goal, Suarez 4 penalties, 0 action goal, Messi 2 penalties, 0 action goal (1 incorrectly disallowed goal)…
SMH now the Brazil squad is complaining about Copa. They should have decided to host it in the USA. Even though the logistics would have taken a bit more time. They could have postponed it for some days and organized it in US. Now what will happen? I don’t think this year the Copa will happen due to the Mismanagement by Conembol. Meanwhile Euro Cup looks to be shaping up well.
To all my mundo amigos, from now on you won’t face the dilemma of being unable to watch seleccion matches. You just need two steps, here they’re.
– Download a good vpn app.
– And install Yacine TV.
That’s all.
It’s Arabic but I watched the whole match without any interruptions, ads or even buffering.
Enjoy amigos.👍👍🇦🇷🇦🇷
Second position secured for now thanks to Brazil beating Ecuador but that was a lousy game from the selecao to be honest. I think they took them too easy.
So right now, the focus should be on beating Colombia who are pretty much solid and dangerous going forward.
It’s surprising that I haven’t been here for much long and hadn’t wrote for almost about a year but the amount of naivity in the comment section has spooned me up in frustration( the reason why i don’t write anymore and only read to see all the caged intellects splashing philosophy). I see people comparing the team with Paraguay, chile and Ecuador. My first question is, what makes you think like that? Is it because Argentina had a poor game last night and didn’t fulfilled your expectations ? Or had it something to do with the recent changes brought on the team ?
Scaloni has spent only a max of three years at this ‘pressure-infused-with-expectations’ team. And their unit is quite inexperienced and young as well. Remember he didn’t have Nico, lo celso and Acuna last night. If we look at his most usual line-up it’s with lo celso and Acuna along with the rest others that had given him the utmost trust in games. So stop giving in these ‘early superficial and laughable’ analysis. It doesn’t make sense.
I particularly remember a few words that papu gomez had said before he left Atalanta for Sevilla when he was asked about the recent rise of Atalanta, he said ” it’s good that we are being recognised and are getting acknowledgement from other teams but for us, it took many years to build this system before we got results. We had to work together and had to be patient for finding the right rythm.”
It’s exactly the same; although this won’t be the case for Argentina as they had history of budding talents everywhere but the problem lies in integration and chemistry. These guys don’t play in same clubs and they only get little time to train together.
The reason Argentina were flexible and good in the past was because of the still-going-strong structure of the domestic league before the financial issues of both the country and football fell in and destroyed the setup. Think about this. In the past they had excellent bunch of stars in domestic league, they even beat heavyweights European stars in international competitions. It’s all about the structure and unity. Past Argentinian lineups were filled with reserves and players that had good connections, mostly because they played in same clubs in Europe or in the same clubs in domestic legue.
And before I end this, I would also like to quote a few words Neymar said while giving an interview with Gerard Pique where he actually shed a bitter truth about the recent change in football World.
It’s here- ” these days every small team irrespective of big players or great history, manages to play out against the big teams. They manage to somehow come out playing against this team and they even get results; it could be win or draw. You can see this through the example of Iceland.”
Thinking logically it’s very much honest and true statements from Neymar. These days the formula to play against big teams are totally emphasized on being brutal and parking the bus. And to be honest, it’s effective and it sure is!!
On top of it this is south american qualifiers which itself had a history of its own rawness and tough playing conditions. So yeah, this not surprising to me, it is absolutely not.
If you guys come down and think logically(i will be unhideously impartial and will speak the truth) it will take years to see results. I’m not being cruel to the expectations and dreams of albiceleste fans but I’m speaking the truth. If they win it will be a beautiful moment but since we expect something that should be consistent and will guarantee to long-term results, then, without a doubt, we should be patient and trust the process. It will take time.
Vamos Argentina.🇦🇷🇦🇷
My playing 11 vs Colombia. 4 3 3
Emi Martinez
Mollina C. Romero Foyth Acuna
De Paul Paredes Emi Buendai
Messi Aguero J. Correa
As Lo celso,N.Gonzalez and Palacios injured we do not need to rush them to team.
playing locelso or buendia alongside Paredes gave some support to paredes.Paredes can pass well if he get some chances up front and some release from No.5 role.Argentina need one Good creative player in middle. It’s looking arg. lacking creativity in middle.Angel correa alongside Messi willbe better than Maria I think in first 11
Ya I think coach intented for Dimaria to be the “Iniesta” png Messi build up. He did ok, but was too far forward moat the match. For me Dimarias best comes as a deep creative mid, breaking into counters, like how he played under Sabella and Mou. As a dorward winger, he is a headless chicken.
Ecuador lost good news for us. Neymar needed two chances to score from a penalty.
In World cup Qualifiers till 5 matches-
Brazil Scored 14 goals and conceded 2 goals.
Argentina scored 7 goals conceded 3 goals.
What’s your point exactly?!
No point just stats.
And? Germany won all WC 2018 qualifer games, they crashed out at group stage.
Good one Rattlehead.
European qualifiers are easiest.
Ok, now you’re saying European qualifier are easieast , yet the last 4 WC was won by European nations…. no?
and why Brazil crashed out early in Copa 2015 and 2016 despite being no.1 at the table during 2018 qualifier? also out early in Copa 2011.
> Ok, now you’re saying European qualifier are easieast
Yes, that’s exactly what Kevin is saying.
Try to argue that any of the Conmebol team are easy.
Argentina has to qualify against Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
Now tell me the same for the Euro teams:
France has to qualify against the mighty Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro
After loss vs Germany(7-1) Brazil were trash for years that is why in Copa they crashed out early. Later they gained form when Tite joined as coach
You can have easy qualifiers AND have the strongest individual team. What makes S.A qualifiers brutal is that even the weskest teams are dangerous or difficult due to altitude, etc.
I rather play monaco over Venezuela every single time.
“Germany won all WC 2018 qualifer games” what do you want to say not winning all qualifiers gurantee WC. Germany won all qualifiers for WC 2014 and France won all qualifiers for WC 2018 and they won WC. 9 out of 10 times nations with good WC qualifiers wins the tournament recently Brazil 2002 was an exception.
When the match was played, most of us would have thought it should be straightforward win for Argentina looking at the table standing, but that is not the case..
Just like everyone, i too have these questions.
1. Is it because Conmebol is tough?
2. Or Argentina is in transition building a team?
3. Or Scaloni does not have the creative midfield bench like England, Spain, France etc.
4. Or we have become too soft.
5. May be all the above.
There were days when Argentina used to beat oppositions 3-0 and somedays, the forwards have a hattrick. But recent years, We are so used to seeing wins which are not comprehensible or losing, which is eluding us winning cups.
Agreed, we did not play to potential, assuming all the players had a long season.
Defense – Scaloni did a good job with defense, experimenting and getting some things right.
Midfield – May be due to recent injuries, we are missing key midfield players being rested with Copa America in the mind – Argentina most creative players have always dealt with injuries since Riquelme days – Lanzini, Pastore, Lo Celso, Palacios, Battaglia..Buendia to be seen
Forward – In the current form, i would have played Papu Gomez at some capacity, but without service from Midfield, i am not sure if Lautaro or Papu would have made any difference or any forwards.
Hoping for an injury free midfield.
As always Vamos Argentina!!
The LACK of creative midfielders has been major problem since Roman retired.
Since then we put all the playmaker tasks on Messi . Imagine Messi play more upfront behind a proper playmaker, he’d have scored 150 goals at this point. Instead he has to pick up the ball from 40 yards out with nobody to link up with 9 out of 10 times he gets the ball.
Sabella was able to tweaked that weakness by playing defensive/counter attack football . However, Messi , Kun, ADM & Pipita were still super fast at the time and we also had Lavezzi who can run tirelessly on the wing, opening space for Messi/Kun/Pipita to score.
Look at the goal againsts Switzerland & Belgium in 2014… from midway line, we stole the ball and only passed the ball twice and it ended in the back of the net. The same with the first goal against Nigeria & Bosnia. We can score with just 2-3 passes that started from halfway line.
Now what do we have? Paredes , who’s very slow and limited in skills.
Brazil midfield so dull. Their fullbacks are not being able to impose against an ecuador who are not even attempting to attack. Interesting to see how tite changes tactics in 2nd half.
they are livelier on the right flank with danilo more effective than his counterpart. But presiado is the weaker full back and sandro just not being able to support neymar in attacking him.
tite is patient so far (fred + casemiro agains ecuador really? if scaloni did the equivalent he would be crucified here) and waiting for the backline to make a mistake.
By far the best man I saw on the field last night.. I been saying this for a year now, his call up is long overdue.
I want to see more of romero and licha martinez duo.
We definitely need a change in midfield and up. Palacios or lo celso. Ocampos tries to do too much fancy foot work and it just ends up killing the play..
also replace di maría with González. This kid is a beast. If he continues this way he’s going to have a great future. Just hoping his injuries don’t keep him from exploading…
Can anyone comment on paredes??? Is it just me or is he not getting the job done??
I guess I’m just missing mascherano in midfield. I wish masche was in his 20’s.
Imagine if Ota was in Romero’s place, Vargas would’ve scored that one. This guy is a mix of Samuel and Ayala. He has El Raton’s high jumps and Samuel’s tough tackles.
Yeah that tackle was great. Ota was never a chump at tackling though so i wouldn’t assume he would have failed.
What about the goal against though – Otamendi was also a WALL against free kicks. First free kick without Otamendi’s big ass noggin and of course they scored. Not sure how good Romero is at heading but no one can question Otamendi’s arial ability. His head looked like it belongs amongst the Easter Island statues.
“Ota was never a chump at tackling though so i wouldn’t assume he would have failed”
That was then, this is now. @Chori, the Otamendi you are talking about is the aggresssive and tough one we all liked back in 2015, 2016, and 2017. He isn’t the same anymore and if Scaloni plays him ahead of Licha vs. Columbia we are at big risk.
Yeah, he definitely dropped in form and i dont watch him at Benefica so i cant comment as to his current form or how hell perform if hes starts. i actually lost faith in him after the France game where he went ballistic and wasted so much precious time. If i had Darth Vaders death grip, i would have choked him through the TV.
Watching Spain/Portugal …….what a joke! Spain should have scored at least 3 goals, Morata is Useless and Portugal is nothing special with all the so-called talent they have.
what’s the issue with Brazil players, boycotting Copa America? can someone explain?
They’re contemplating not playing in the Copa because of the obvious and will make it public sometimes after their game tonight.
Like everybody else thought, why is Brazil any better than ARGENTINA? especially when Brazil and the idiot running the country did the least to stop the spread with lies and all the things that came along with it.
I hope it goes back to ARG or move it to the U.S. , Brazil should be punished for the way they handled the pandemic and NOT rewarded.
“Brazil should be punished for the way they handled the pandemic and NOT rewarded.”
This is an important point. If irresponsible behavior comes without repercussions it slowly becomes acceptable. It’s understandable if Brazilian players want to boycott and make a statement against the insanity of their president. But at the same time I fear that the tournament will get canceled if it’s not held in Brazil now, it’s supposed to start next weekend… At best it might get postponed and moved to a country with a better covid situation like USA, but when would that be? We’ve been waiting for so long and it would be incredibly sad and frustrating to see it get canceled last minute…
Since the next WC is in late 2022, then they can move Copa to late 2021. Its still going to be 1 year gap before the WC
I don’t believe that is possible, playing two major tournaments back to back plus the club season…….. Not possible.
Nobody wants Copa cancelled again because we all feel the same thing…….A WIN is needed and we want that damn monkey off our backs.
Where was the Brazilian football federation this whole past year, sleeping? now they want to speak up, I bet they would be more than happy to host had it not been for the virus…..more money to line their pockets and fans in the stands to support their shitty team.
Happy to see Romero having such a good debut, looked like he’s been part of the team for years. Also with Licha coming on in second half, they look solid together and I hope they are both starting against Colombia. The right wing changed dramatically when Molina came on, and probably the same case would have been for the left wing if Acuña played. Lo Celso and Gonzalez dearly missed and midfield lacked creativity, would have been a different game with them..
Chile only had 1 shot on goal, we had 7. Typical that they create nothing all game but manage a perfect free kick into a perfect pass to an unmarked Sanchez… Bravo had a stellar game and saved them. Emi wasn’t even given that opportunity but had a good warm-up for the next match
All in all not too fuzzed about not winning. It’s been a long time and several new faces in the team. I hope the coaching staff realize what was missing and what needs to be done for the next matches
We played average. Few early thoughts
1. Any other day, one of Messi’s attempt goes in and we win 2-1. We have been winning like that. Not that we have blown away opponents.
2. Very happy to see new and correct players and them playing well. Will comment on players later.
3. There were some favorable results around. I want Brazil to beat Ecuador today. That will help us.
4. I don’t buy the theory of our players were away from each other. Its true for everyone.
This will be a difficult journey. I am happy if we stay in second position and qualify without much drama.
More later…
Can someone please explain what is going on in Brazil? Which players don’t want to play and why? Do they want it moved? Could this help us?
Mollina should play Right Back and then C. Romero and Foyth as CB pair that would be great duo. Foyth and C. Romero as CB duo would be perfect these two have all attribute of Center Back.Then Argentina defence will become solid wall.
Your infatuation to certain players is so persistent that it is getting to another level. Next time when Foyth has an average game and Lisandro has a stellar performance, you probably would still insist on Foyth as a DM. Foyth is a promising player and I think he should play as a right back in certain games to solidify the right side defensively, but reiterating the same comment again and again doesn’t prove your point. Spare your time and energy for something better than this, dude.
Foyth was good he made many good interception and he was pro active in defending. Lisandro Martinez has good game but his height and physicaliry is the problem. I want Lisandro and Acuna at Left Back. Foyth had good game that is why Scaloni did not substitute him early. It’s not infatuation when player is good he should be praised. What he did against Arsenal, Man United can not be ignored those teams have world class forward players.
Last ten minutes vs chile players on the field
E martinez = 28
Cuti Romero = 23
Lich martinez =23
N. Molina = 23
N. Tagliafico = 28
E. Palacios= 22
A. Correa = 26
R. De pual= 27
L. Martinez = 23
J. Alvarez = 21
Only messi was over 30
Argentina didn’t play great definitely wasn’t bad ether. i thought Rodrigo de Paul had fantastic game Probably he and cuti Romero was outstanding ones I love lich martinez what player what a defender he has everything to be a great modern defender.Cuti Romero and lich martinez must be first choice defenders from now on.
Is Senesi better than pezzella or Martinez? I think Scaloni should scout more CB’s and left backs.He can not depend on one Romero. Need more squad depth. Romero, Foyth,Molina are real talent. But i doubt about Martinez, pezzella and tagliafico. Need more talent in defense like we have in mid field and forward
Lisandro is one of our best center backs. Senesi is not necessarily better than him but he is better than Pezzella
I am talking about martinez quarta not lisandro. Unfortunately so martinez in the team.
i’m not having any doubts about LMQ. Incredible form at River, played great first few games in NT but his transfer to Italy cost him his form. I’m assuming he’ll bounce right back but that largely depends on how well Fiorentina does.
Enganche, I missed it in game but now i understand why you said “Taco Tackle” after that play. 🙂
👏👍
What a great tackle.
“Brazilian players have decided not to play the Copa America which is being hosted in Brazil. Some are apparently contacting other players from different national teams to see where they stand.”
How serious is the problem? Does it mean Brazil may pull out of hosting or they may end up having a depleted side?
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