Dani Alves of Brazil has spoken avbout Lionel Messi and on the possibility of an Argentina and Brazil semi final at the World Cup.
The Brazilian legend spoke to the media after Brazil’s Round of 16 win vs. South Korea. When asked about Lionel Messi, here is what he had to say:
“Messi right now is Argentina. Everything goes through him. Everything goes through his feet. I believe that he is in an incredible moment. Without a doubt, he is one of the players to take into account in this competition.”
Argentina will play the Netherlands in the quarter-finals while Brazil will play Croatia. Dani Alves was also asked about the possibility of an Argentina and Brazil semi final at the World Cup:
“We are not here to choose an opponent, whoever is selected, we are going to have th put everything we have into it to be able to fight for the objective. We cannot think of a semi final because we are in the quarter finals. Out of respect for Croatia and our opponent, we have to focus on this match. Croatia has a lot of quality players and deserves 110% of our attention.”
As per TYC chances of Dimaria starting is very low. Scaloni is a defensive coach which is why he might go with Parades in the midfield and play Enzo higher up the field. If Dimaria does make it then he will also stick with Molina who is a natural wing back. I know its a knockout match but the player who is best equipped to fill in for Fiedo is A.Correa, a natural right foward/winger. He has the skills to take on defenders and penetrate and provide good passes in the box. He is well rested and is a very hardworking player and has played with Depaul & Molina on the right flank multiple times with Atletico. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts.
Agree. Without Di Maria, only Correa can provide width, dribbling, and be a threat on counterattacks.
Maybe Almada but have not seen him enough.
My staring 11 for Dutch. Holland will have a hard time scoring against this lineup.
Martinez
Foyth—- cuti —-otamandi —acuna
———— ——— Guido —————
Di Maria/correa—Enzo ———Mac
————- Alvarez— Messi———-
The Dutch are confident they will beat Argentina, calling it Messi plus 10 average players. Lots of crazy statements in the media.
Three important takeaways
1. They were able to neutralize 27 year old Messi in 2014. They aim to do the same 8 years later and put a man marker (Timber) on him.
2. Plan is to cut the supply chain to Messi.
3. Molina is considered the weak spot. Nervous and weak with the ball at his feet.
Hopefully Scaloni and co come up with a good game plan
Meaningless words, coming from a meaningless man who thinks he is a great but has never won anything on the international level. with 1,000 games under his belt, having played against managers FAR SUPERIOR to Van Gaal, who had far superior players, you don’t think they have tried everything before? As I said before, our key to winning is a healthy DiMaria. If he gives us 30 minutes, we will win. Also, I am not a huge fan of this 2 forwards, 5 mids, and 3 central defenders. This is designed to maintain a lead, not to start a game this way. If ADM can’t go, I would start Julian Lautaro, Messi….If you need to sub, put in Dybala
I have a feeling that Scaloni will play de Paul-Paredes-Enzo midfield and a 3-5-2 like the start of the 2nd half. On paper it looks like 4-4-2 with Lisandro as a LB and Acuña as a LM but it really is a 3-5-2 with Acuña and Molina as wingbacks.
I am torn about this imo as I don’t think we need 5 people to defend their counters. They don’t have a big presence in the box who can occupy the CBs, so they make runs from behind. Memphis is pretty weak at this too, he is not a disciplined forward in that regard, like totally opposite of what Julian does. We need 3 midfielders for sure, but not sure about 5 defenders.
I’d play 4-3-3 with Molina and Acuña as fullbacks, and 3 midfielders – Enzo, Paredes and De Paul.
Van Gaal: “We still have a score to settle with Argentina.”
He is trying all his tricks in his book. Hopefully Scaloni and co doesn’t get provoked fall into his trap. We will still have to go with same approach that is keep it extremely tight in the back and wait for opposition to crack!!
You watched Brazil last night?
Van Gaal: “Yes, a counter team. But I had to read in the Dutch media how beautiful it was, it’s just a counter team! South Korea only went out to attack.”
@kindle420
This is your answer:
Wes Brown on Garnacho
He is a great young player, I love his attitude on the pitch, the way he wants it, the way he attacks. With young kids sometimes, it like, “give me the ball and I will give it straight back to you”.
‘But he’s not into that, he wants to show everyone how good he is. He wants to do well for himself and do well for the team. I think the manager has done well too holding off on him for quite a long time in that first period of the season.
‘I know he has been training with the lads every day and he has probably been a bit frustrated he hasn’t been involved a little bit earlier.
But that has helped him, getting that bit of anger out to show that he is good enough to play in this team. Now it is just about managing that.’
Brown added: ‘There are quite a few wide players, if someone is not playing well, there is a respect there that if Garnacho keeps playing well, he is going to keep playing. He steps everyone’s levels up.
‘We have quite a few players who can play in those positions so it’s a huge boost. It gives the manager a headache but it s good for fans if they are all battling and there is no sulking going on. That is what makes a winning team. You play so well that the manager just can’t take you out.’
I wonder why Argentina don’t have a speedy left winger compared to other teams, also both sides seem dead often relying only on attacking from middle.It would better if we have lethal attack from two sides like in the middle we do.This also hinders a balance attack or team.
We do have them.
Garnacho – ignored by Scaloni
Zeballos – injured during a Boca game
N. Gonzalez – not recovered in time
Take 1 game at a time…. Beat Netherlands then next opponent..
Come on lads. Ned is good team. Its 50/50. What bladdy brasil already. Step by step. This will be very diffucult for us. On another hand, i am from croatia and from first hand, unfortunatelly, brasil will vi through pretty easilly.
Brazil have a hole. It is the left side defense. Their left side attack is as dangerous as Argentina right side as they usually put: an attacking fullback, Vinicious Jr, and Neymar has tendency to operate from the left too more than the right.
So any team that is strong on their right side will exploit that weakness. I watches last night yes both Vini and Raphina defended the left and right side, but Vini is more like attacking left winger/forward left. Ney played Messi role defensively, mostly just walked around. If they got countered then their left side is wide open as only their fullback would defend.
I think Scaloni analyzed this in Copa that’s why De Paul spotted Di Maria free and we scored the only goal there. In the end if was Di Maria vs Renan Lodi in Copa. Now it is another fullback. Any smart team would exploit Brazil weakness here.l: Their left side is deadly in attacking but at the same time it is also their weakness.
Our focus should only be Holland right now, for team and fans.
An uninitiated can’t see through their opponent team and give up and crumble before the game begins.
Brazil sucks. This is my opinion about them.
Is it just me who thinks scaloni is just invincible and he has all the answers in his pocket?
I don’t know I have never trusted an Argentina manager like scaloni, I loved pekermen and sabella too but i think scaloni has an edge over them.
What do you guys think 3-4-3?
Emi
Cuti-Ota-Licha
Molina-RDP-Enzo-Acuna
ADM/Correa Messi Julian
Bro it’s just amaze me to think that playing 3 in the back in this stage of the tournament is a good idea , all those team that we are going to face have pace physicality and skills, with a shaky defense we can’t risk having 3 people in the back , we need lb and rb to balance the back .
Think about it it is actually 5.
Are u saying arg defence is shaky? Its above avarage and we have three world class center backs. Goals have been scored against all the heavy weights. We have been improved a lot since the first match against Saudi. Last goal score by Aussies was a deflection.there was nothing much defenders could do. Keep ome faith guys.I am very sure scaloni has all the answers. Netherland is actually scared of us eventhough they dont want show this. They have good players but whole of their players are not world class.I am sure they also have weaknesses as well. I trust our forward line. They are capable of breaking any defence line in this world cup. We were able to break the dead lock against bus parking teams as well, where all the players defendes.. I fully trust messi and co. Insha Allah we will win easily.
My 11 would be 4 4 2.
Emi
Molina. Romero. Ota. Acuna
De paul Paredes. Macallister Enzo
Messi Julian
Sub – dimaria in , mac out. 65th min
Lisandro in, Paredes out. 70th min
Dybala in, Julian out 75th min
Montiel in, Molina out 75th min
Tag in, Acuna out 84th min
Your 3-4-3 in my opinion is the strongest team on paper we have. But we never tested them from the start. It has a chance to be the team in the second half tho although Scaloni went for more 3-5-2 in the second half (sacrificing Di Maria for an extra midfielder).
Yes that’s how we should play, for those who don’t know, Argentina already played like this during the 2nd half of the matches against Poland and against Australia. It’s more a 532 than 352. That allows Enzo to play in his favorite position.
And atlast only 3 matches remaining for the glory. The toughness, obstacles and many fights made during these scaloni era is one heck to be remembered. Who ever comes face it. Each of our players are ready to give it all in the ground. All we need is that luck which we missed in the last 8 WCs.
So its a long wait again for Asia, the gap between giants and the minnows are narrowing, but still the giants remain giants. One or 2 upsets are happening for sure,but havent seen any team performance from a minnow team to say that. Yes this team is gonna win the WC. Croatia was the closest other than the giants. But Croatia has always been a dark horse second tier team capable of beating any team. Not a minnow.
Anyway Brazil steam rolled past Korea. Croatia would have a hell of a task up for them. What about today. Spain and Portugal will they have an easy go.
This time we have ample rest in our hand. So hopefully all our players will be rejuvenated. Scalonis pragmatic approch may look bad. But it is what won us something so we have to trust him and be okey with the imperfectness or the ugly nature of our wins.
Brazil are playing like their past teams, full of swagger and cocky (with their annoying celebrations. Brilliant drilled and managed by Tite. If only we could have someone half as good as Tite.
France on the other hand is all about Mbabbe (9 wc goals and still only 23, scary prospect)
Go cheer for Tite then. Lol. What’s wrong with some people ? Always thinking that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. I’ll take the Scaloni project over Tite any day. Don’t forget too that Scaloni trounced him at the Copa final on home soil.
Two things I observed:
1. Brazil offense in this match is not indicative of their strength due to very low performance of SK. True test is with a more organized defense.
2. When SK attack well Brazil defense look ordinary. Their midfield was protected by their wingers… I think this is our strength..we can beat them there with proper wing back play and a strong central midfield.
That being said, it does suck that they were put in a position to rotate their squad in the match…which I resent we were never in a position to do…
Tite give chance all his 26 players to play some minutes.Tite also allowed Brazil’s number three goal keeper to play and Scaloni kept a player like Dybala on the bench. Dybala is better than Rafinha but he never got the chance to prove it. Scaloni fans will now come up with a new argument.scaloni should learn something from tite.
You compare Dybala with Rafinha is the same as comparing Pogba with Bale. Complete nonsense. Go back to your PS4 game kid.
You will cry.hahaha
Burger off to your Brazilian blog. We don’t give a damn about what Tite does or doesn’t do.
Scaloni should learn from the match between Brazil vs Korea as Brazil neither stopped nor adopted defensive strategy. Brazil has strong defence but they preferred to be in commanding position by scoring four goals.
When you play a team like South Korea, who aren’t skilled or physical, it’s easy to play your game. Let’s see how it works against Croatia. It didn’t work against Argentina as we have beaten them the last two times.
This arrogant group of players will not win anything. When you are not tested early it always bites you on your ass. Remember, this is the same country that had 7 put on them by the Germans not too long ago and haven’t won shit in 20 years. They act like the trophy is theirs.
San isidro you are always on point but some guys in here seems they just started watching football.
Korea Republic made so easy for Brazil just like Senegal made England look like great side .
Thank you my friend for your kind words. Sadly some people look at Brazil and they fall in love with how “pretty” it looks. The facts are South Korea had no business being in the final 16. They aren’t a good team and the moment was way too big for them. Same thing happened last time they played. Brazil can be beat in two ways. First way is to be highly organized and catch them on a counterattack. We beat them this way in Copa, and honestly Messi missed an easy goal in the final minute and DePaul had a chance too. The second way is you need a high work rate with highly talented players. We can win this way too, but this is less likely for us because our work rate is awful. If you look at the World Cup statistics, Argentina has the worst work rate of all 32 teams. Simply stated, our players do not run. This is just a style I think of Argentina football.
All 7 teams other than Brazil have the skill and strategy to beat them. My question is, what style does Brazil have other than to try and overpower you? That is what happened with Germany. They gave up a couple early goals, pushed all their players up on the attack and got destroyed by an organized team that took advantage of all the holes they left in their midfield and defense. Maybe they learned from that, maybe not, but we will find out.
What a circle jerk lol. What you say about South Korea, is applicable to Mexico, Poland and Australia too. Poland especially made absolutely no effort whatsoever. But Scaloni still put in that extra defender.
Your logic is totally flawed all the three teams you mentioned were playing defensively by parking the bus against those teams Argentina scored 2 goals each and could have scored more if not for the missed opportunity , without giving any opportunity or very minute to the opposition statistics do not lie
What is flawed is your ability to use punctuations. Tell me, genius, what is the mastermind logic behind subbing in an extra defender against a team that is parking the bus?
So what’s your answer? Even though we are leading we need to put in another forward to score more instead of protecting the lead as in beating a minnow by 10 goals makes us look better. Its arrogance like that which gets you killed. You have the lead, you protect it. Simple as that. Football 101. Your mentality is 100 percent PLAYSTATION
Well this mostly due to oerformance of South Korea, though it was allways more than obvious that Brazil may win as they did, but i would rather concentrate now firstly to Netherlands and hopefully after that think about Brazil as it obvious that everyone in the world more ir less would like to have this as Semi, which i can understand, but in fact i do only care about Arg so in the end and at theese stages, Ok some teams may be better thain others, specially team like South Korea who played against Brazil with such a questionable tactics, that may lead to many to wonder why ? So, Yes offcourse Brazil is strong as we all knew from the beginning and soon we will find out who will be the winner from Brazil vs Croatia or France vs England or Arg vs Netherlands etc…any how my only intrest is only about Arg so i won’t comment more about others as i will rather wait and, maybe hope for sone results, though there might nor be that many favourable one’s left, but now Arg must concentrate purely on Netherlands and how to beat their tallest goalkeeper of the tournament for example or even more importantly how to keep and play the Dutch without having them score etc…so hopefully game by game we can maybe be able to think about the future etc…
If Croatia can man mark V.Junior and play dirty with recovering Neymar Brazil will struggle. Today Neymar got lucky that Brazil scored 2 quick goals and Koreans didn’t have to defend much from there otherwise they could have easily tested his recovering ankle. They need to approach like how Poland played against France. They had 2 players double-teaming against Mbappe. If Croatia try to counter attack Brazil from the get go instead of playing safe they will be down by couple of goals like Koreans.
However we need to get past Netherlands first. The last 15 mins against Australia is exactly what we can’t repeat. The multiple misses, the desperate defending and saves, missing tackles , unmarked players in the box and most importantly losing opponents and letting them shoot! (Tagliafico SMH) !! We did everything a weak team does against a strong team to lose. It was a great eye opener and much needed experience and hopefully Scaloni & Co learn a lesson from it and find a way to not repeat them. The last 10 min was nothing but pure mayhem!!
Yes, the Korean’s should had apployed completly different tactics and played hard and physically strong even they are clearly not that physical, but they didn’t even dare to tackle instead just defended by ballwatching and let Brazilians score continuisly as it was very weak performance from them as Croatia had to battle it with Japan as Japan showed much more character in their game as only against Costa Rica they suffered as they are not goid with ball possesion and dominating the game with ball so Yes i was very disapointed about Korean’s performance over all, though it did not surprise me at all, who won the game, but in the fashion they did with all their dirty dancing was not really never chalkenged by Korea as it looked like straight from the beginning as they were affraid and clueless what go do or either paid off to do so, lol!
Forsure Croatia tactically more equipped alao more experienced at this stage will try obviously something else as i’m hoping for strong physical battle specially from Crotia’s middfield and their wingers as is till wished that i would had seen Uruguay one more time again Brazil !
> he last 15 mins against Australia is exactly what we can’t repeat.
Can’t be stressed enough.
I’ve followed this forum for years now I may start chiming in. Hello everyone! My family is all from there and I’ve grown up with lots of heartbreak. The last time they one was 1986, the year I was born, and I think it will be so special to watch this time lift the cup now that I have a baby boy of my own. Anyway…Enough introductions…
I think we can’t miss the fact that we were on just 2 days rest against Australia. Argentina simply looked gassed, and it was for good reason. They put up two massive fights in the previous week. That picture of messi laying on the floor. I know what that feels like playing sports. You just cant do any more because your body just will not allow it. Every day your body gets to heal provides exponential benefit for these athletes.
I often say how the 2014, 2015, and 2016 finals they were on the wrong sides of the group draw and bracket and they did not get that extra day of rest like the other teams may of gotten going in to the final. I think the group draw and our schedule has been in our favor. Having 5 full days off with no matches, and ADM getting 9 full days off, is going to be a major plus. I am excited to see how they come out with fresh legs, already 2.5 weeks into the tournament gelling more and more every day. VAMOSSSSS ARGENTINAA CARAJOOO!
Because of panick and tiredness we need to improve. If we were 1 in Saudi Arabia game we improved and i will rate the australia game as 5 now we need to be 7 to beat Netherlands and 9 to beat Brazil and maybe 10 to beat France. Lets see we can reach there or not.
IMO Brazil played like the prime Mike Tyson. Very aggressive and trying to knock out the opponent as soon as possible. If any team can play the role of Evander Holyfield, Brazil would lose. There is a counter to such team.
The setup now is pretty similar to France ’98. We meet Netherlands at quarter final, Brazil is waiting for us at the semi final, and France is waiting to meet us at the final. WC’ 98, it didn’t happen, I think it’s all crazy Ortega’s false, really hope we can make it this time. It’s the tough path we’re taking. Netherlands might not be as strong as ’98, but they’re disciplined and have a good coach.
What did Ortega do?
Head butt holland goalkeeper and got red card
He hit Dutch’s goal keeper, and got red at the last minutes while we’re one man up, and scores was 1-1
We would have won 1998 World Cup had it not been for Ortega’s indiscipline
This team resembles the 1978 team…the 1998 team had the talents but was not coordinated like the current team…In 1978 everything went through kempes and they were very solid at the back.
oh yes, true and Croatia qualified for quarter.
Isnt it true that in the NED game in 1998 ARG had 2 shots on bar as opposed to just 1 by NED? In that case weve been really unlucky…..
It was evenly matched. Bati controlled a brilliant Veron pass and hit a thunderous shot against the post. you shouldn’t blame Ortega but Ayala for being outclassed like a school kid by Bergkamp. Ayala was also screwed by Owen in the earlier match. Ayala was a mediocre but overrated player, who went onto play 2 more world cups. Sad but true, if AFA was and is not corrupted then we could have so much success and joy.
3-5-2 against Netherlands:
Cuti – Otamendi – Lisandro
Molina – DePaul – Enzo – Paredes – Acuna
Messi – Alvarez
I think conservative Scaloni should use this formation given that ADM and Lautaro are not fully fit.
In this way, we also have a few good PK kickers on the bench. MacAllister/Palacios/Dybala can be subbed in during extra time.
Three benefits from playing 3-5-2:
1. Start all of our phenomenal CBs
2. DePaul and Paredes can provide more support to our best midfielder – Enzo Fernandez
3. Start only two forwards sounds lack of attack, but these two are in really red hot form.
We need ADM for wide plays and creativity
everyone is talking about Arg vs Brazil in Semi, but first, let’s beat the Netherlands. It will be a tight match and Scaloni need to prepare every detail. Right player and formation.
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