Argentina national team coach on the team, the match against Brazil, the young players

By
Roy Nemer
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39

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni spoke to the media after the team’s 0-0 draw vs. Brazil where he spoke about the team, the match against Brazil and the young kids.

Lionel Scaloni has now qualified Argentina for the World Cup and is undefeated in his last 27 matches. He spoke to the media about the team after the match. Here’s what he had to say:

“It’s something magnificent and something you dream about. How proud we are and thankful to the players. The difficult times will come but you have to be prepared. The World Cup qualifiers are difficult and the balance is positive. In these two matches, we took four points against two very difficult opponents. It has matured us.”

Scaloni also spoke about the match against Brazil and the draw:

“It was tough, hard and difficult. They came here to play their game, to try not to allow us to play and at times, they succeeded. The fundamental of it is that the team adapted to the circumstances. In the second half, we were a little better.”

In regards to the young players on the team:

“The result is very important but also that the kids go out. It’s the new blood that pushes us from behind.”

Regarding the possibility of playing against European teams:

“Today, there is no possibility to play against the Europeans. I don’t believe they would be superior than the teams here. Maybe they are different.”

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39 Comments

  1. There are some players that need to be dropped completely especially Likes of pezella and Nicholas Dominguez. Scaloni should take this seriously and integrate likes of facundo Medina and Marcos senesi to the team. They are younger and doing very well at club level. Somebody mentioned about Augustin Almendra. I rate that player higher than likes of Cristian Medina and Dominguez. Lastly Lautaro needs stiff competition in his spot, Giovanni Simeone currently is outperforming him in series a in Hellas Verona. Giovanni Someone is a better finisher than Lautaro

  2. Friends, what do you think of this experimental lineup for remainder of qualifiers. Starter/Sub:

    Lautaro / Simione

    Messi, Dybala / DiMaria

    Papu / LoCelso, Parades / Licha, Buendia / DePaul

    Acuna, Pezella / Ota, Romero, Molina/Montiel

    Emi

  4. On a must win night at worldcup if one of our playmakers out of nick we need someone to come from the bench i am never a fan of mac alister but his record this season is better than nico domingoz who somehow always get chance for national team where as mac alister have 2 Pl goals and 3 assist.
    Or we must try thiago almada we need creativity at mid to kill europian defence with a brilliant through ball or corss in a tense match

  5. Messi Dybla duo upfront will be far better than Messi Lautaro.
    Even Icardi should have been called. Everyone knows Lautaro misses many chances and he can not take create or shot for himself.

    • Icardi cannot be near the team. Can you imagine his wife anywhere near the WC? She’d create some ridiculous publicity stunt during the tournament and destabilize the entire team. I’d rather take my chance with Gio Simeone any day over that train wreck of a couple.

  6. People, Brazil’s defense is one of the best in the world. Messi is clearly recovering and out of form. Relax, We are qualified with a lot of very competitive games remaining. With their remaining games, Argentina need to test different strikers/DM’s and tactics. Give the regulars a break. I like the idea of Lisandro at DM, I liked his performance last night against the stiffest of competition. Enjoy the next 4 games with a Mate and let everyone else suffer until the last game for once

  7. Apart from that one Columbia game, this Brazil team has been making the rest of the South American team look like Gibraltar or San-Marino or some weak Euro team. Yesterday, they had couple of players missing but we were in total control of that game. They were defending the whole match looking to hit us on counters , but our defense did their job perfectly and kept them shut the whole match. Molina had Vinícius Jr, the new sensation at Madrid in his pocket.

    The reason we weren’t able to convert our possession and constant pressing into chances was because our main man Messi wasn’t totally fit and was out of form. He has been injured ever since that tackle from the Venezuelan player. Some of you think Messi shouldn’t be playing the whole match and press the opponents and be subbed once tired! He hasn’t pressured in his entire career and now these people want him to press the opponents and sub him in the later stages of the 2nd half. Who are you going to sub him with?Dybala, he can’t replace Messi, may be he can be a sub to Lautaro instead of J.Correa , who has been nothing but mediocre in the last couple of matches, but Dybala can’t do what Messi does. Messi was heavily marked yesterday, creating spaces for other players who totally failed to capitalize their chances. Leo looked a lot fitter and sharper compared to his previous games.

    Look at Julian Alvarez , he has been scoring goals left and right for River. But when he got his first taste of world class defense , he looked like a young inexperienced player who is clearly not ready to be the backup to Lautaro. Obviously Julian Alavrez need to play more against world class teams and that is why he should move to a midtable team in Spain or Italy so that he gets ample time to hone his skills. Messi had flashes of brilliance yesterday and once he is fully fit I am sure he will get back to his usual business. For Argentina to win this world cup, we need Messi to be fit and in form. Otherwise no matter who you sub him it will make no difference.

    Pezzella is too slow. He didn’t even attempt a tackle on Vinícius Jr , instead directly pushed him down. I am sure Scaloni will replace him with Lisandro Martínez as our third CB soon. Other than rush of blood, Otamendi was solid. Lo-celso however is totally out of form. I will still stick to my argument that if you want to see Lo-Celso play like in Betis, he will need to play higher up the pitch. He is a little soft to be playing a role of a deep CM. However the problem is we already have a ton of attacking players for those attacking position. But we do we replace Lo-celso with? Anyone that replaces Lo-celso will either be too defensive or a defensive liability. We don’t have a replacement for Locelso. Depaul was the best player again. The only negative part of yesterday’s match was our failure to convert our pressing into goal scoring opportunities and that will only come when Messi becomes fully fit. When unfit Leo tends to give away possession a lot which has been the case at Psg also. Like it or not the truth is if we want to win the next wc , 35 year old Messi will have to lead our attack.

  8. I am not fan to have messi and di maria in a 433 because they are not at age to make the difference by themselves, both of them need to play in a more axial position, 352 is the best system with the players that we have and offers many possibilities in attack

    – 10: messi, di maria, lo celso, papu gomez
    – half 9: messi, dybala, angel correa, Julian Alvarez
    – 9: lautaro, Julian Alvarez, Joaquin correa

    most of all, we don’t have winger who can stay at the flank, dribble and cross, we need our fullbacks to attack more and defend higher.

  9. One thing I see is we can’t win WC with this performance. Messi and Di Maria will be both one year older. We need all players in top form at the WC like what we had at Copa.

    Back to Sabella’s days in 2014, a few key players dropped form including Gago, Aguero. Even Messi and Di Maria were not at their best.

    • yes, to be honest, that wasn’t a football game. many people here made fun of Portugal but we didn’t play better last night. If we refuse to attack and press more aggressively and just happy to have the ball and that’s exactly what going to happen. our fullbacks, once again, as I said before the game, are not natural defender and not made for a defense of 4.

  10. These two matchs showing us how important is lautaro and lo celso to be form and fit since we dont have proper backups to them we can just pray that they wont have a out of nick night in worldcup matchs.
    I think lautaro cant handle the pressure of being the leader of attack we see that with inter this season

  11. Vamos Argentina !!! Congrats to Scaloni and the players ! Well done. Now its time to :
    1) introduce new players like Gio Simeone as a # 9. And I truly think that Scaloni should definitely work with Licha Martinez in a # 5 position in front of Cuti and Ota.
    2) let Messi rest, let him focus on PSG and the CL
    3) build new tactic plans and prepare Qatar 2022.

    • totally agreed on 1 and 3, lisandro can cover the fullbacks and his passing is great which allow him to play as quarterback.we definitely need that kind of rhythm change especially when the opponents have defense in place like against Brazil.

      on 3, Scaloni did a great job so far, far beyond my expectations but there are still things to improve, Dybala, Julian Alvarez, Joaquin correa and angel correa are all great players, they should have more playing time.

  12. I am totally disappointed with lo celso. Last two matches he didn’t perform at all. There should be a proper back up. I believe we need a physical player in that place who can defend as well. I can suggest a name that is Agustin Almendra. Almendra can be a back up plan for lo celso. He is proper box to box CM. Physical. can defend and also can contribute passes.

    • the context was not easy for him. he is a team player and need his team to press high so it’s much easier for him to combine. don’t expect anything from him if the team cannot play well, he will be the lo celso of Tottenham he is not the type of player who can change the game. if the whole argentina team press high then you will see a brilliant lo celso who know covering well di maria, messi and De Paul and bring the fluidity to the attack.

  13. “Today, there is no possibility to play against the Europeans. I don’t believe they would be superior than the teams here. Maybe they are different.”

    I agree with Scaloni. The quality of the South American teams are very high. I am sure whoever 5 teams that represent the South American continent will go really far in the World Cup. I am sure all 5 at least will make it to the World Cup second round (top 16).

    Brazil and Argentina today for example. They both display a complete team performance defensively and offensively. Defensively, almost impossivle to score against both Argentina, who have conceded only 6 goals so far in 13 matches and conceded 0 goals in the last 6 matches. And Brazil who have conceded 4 goals in 13 matches.

    I hate Brazil, but I strongly believe that South American teams quality is not worse than the European ones. Europe has won the last 4 World Cups, I think there is a good chance it will not be a European team anymore this time, especially the World Cup won’t be held in Europe.

  14. We have to be extremely proud of our boys in baby blue. Que orgulloso!!!!
    From what I’m reading, we have qualified for Qatar (thank you baby Jesus).
    Now it’s time to buckle down and start trying a few other new players/positions, but keeping the same players.
    Most will probably disagree with me, but I honest to God feel we are in desperate need of a striker..
    since I was a kid we always had world class if not some of the best # 9 in the world, now it seem like we are lacking in that category..
    I love lautaro and alvarez, but they don’t convince me. Julian is a bit young still and Lautaro needs consistency.. he doesn’t score very much. I feel like he scores more often on the NT opposed to Inter.
    Please don’t take my comments negatively, I’m so proud of them and grateful for winning the copa America and qualifying for Qatar.
    But, are these (lautaro, julian, Correa, dybala) guys truly the best of what we got as strikers??
    Some call out for Alario, but he’s always injured. Call me crazy and most will probably disagree on here, but I still want Icardi to get his REAL chance.
    He needs to stop focusing on his damn wife, start to score goals again like he did in Inter and hope scaloni gives him the chance he deserved in the past..
    anyone else have any ideas of world class strikers that should have a chance??

    • I agree with a proper back up 9 is needed but if the news is true that the World Cup will have the regular 23 players squad only. Then I am sure Scaloni will not add new players. I mean I don’t see any reason how any of those 23 are dropped if they are called regularly and played good regularly in the last 1-2 years.

  16. With today’s game, for the first time in Argentina’s history we reach a record of 6 clean sheets in a row. From being characterized by a having a bad defense a few years ago to having defenders bailing us out on even the most dangerous attacks is an astonishing change. Wonder if it will go longer

    • What nonsense are you saying? I was just informed by an expert a couple of hours ago that Brazil are playing just as well as San Marino could and the fact that we drew with Brazil if anything proves them right that Argentina could not beat European micro states!

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