Argentina to play Cabo Verde in Round of 32 at the World Cup

1. Hello Roshu/Sudhir. I have been following Argentina since 1986…

   @Mario

   I think Argentina can win without Messi-stats prove it.

   · Without Messi since 2019: 12 matches, 9 wins (75% win rate), 2 draws, 1 loss.
   · Goals: 26 scored (2.16 per game) vs 1.9 per game with him.
   · Defense: 7 clean sheets, 0.58 goals conceded per game.

   2024 Copa América final: Messi subbed off at 0-0 in 64′. Lautaro scored in extra time. System held.

   Current squad: 7 different goalscorers in last 10 matches. Midfield trio (Enzo, Mac Allister, De Paul) averages 88% pass completion.

   Key: Scaloni must use subs early- 66% of goals vs low blocks come after 70′. Fresh legs at 60′ = game-changer.

   Messi is must for Argentina, but we can cope without him- Scaloni needs “smart management”. 🏆🇦🇷

2. Before quarter final we dont have any tough opponents. Cabo verde has a solid defence. They will try to play defensively more.

3. So the Path is set till Quarterfinals.
   Cabo Verde plays with so much heart while defending, Egypt or Australia shall be next. While taking no teams lightly Argentina should be fine till the Quarterfinal. The team in fact I was really worried about facing in Round of 32 was obviously Spain and Uruguay.

   • True, but sometimes I get this eerie feeling playing against teams like Cabo Verde who play with so much heart and grit.

   • I prefer Spain than Uruguay,Spain cannot handle physical and aggressive play

4. @Chrisbrown
   For Argentina, anything less than winning the world cup is a failure, even if they reach the final. The pressure from fans and media can be brutal, and coaches have definitely left under that kind of weight.

   As for Scaloni, he does seem very lucky beside being a competent coach. The path to the semifinals looks relatively straightforward now, and Argentina has never lost a World Cup semifinal match.

5. The game is at hard rock stadium which is not air conditioned. Still hot and humid at 6 pm.
   I live 4 hours from Argentina camp.
   Tickets for quarterfinal in Kansas city is crazy. Does anyone know if one can go see them practice. I know teams are secretive about their training.

6. Thanks to the one and only, Bielsa! I still remember how his sheer stubbornness sent argentina crashing out of the 2002 world cup in the group stage like it was yesterday. That squad was, without a doubt, the strongest Argentina team I’ve ever seen heading into a Worldcup. every single position had a worldclass starter and an equally worldclass backup. Yet somehow, he still found a way to get us eliminated before the knockout rounds. An all time coaching disaster for the national team followed by spineless Pekermen. Anyways we’ve got a pretty comfortable path to the Round of 16 now but we should not underestimate any team!

   • There is no way Pekerman is your second biggest disaster when Sampaoli and Maradona exist. Trust me, Scaloni subbing off Di Maria for Acuna was even worse than Pekerman’s decision, but he got bailed out by Emi, which Pekerman didn’t

     • @ChrisBrown
       After the disastrous 2010 and 2018 world Cup qualifying campaigns, expectations under Diego and Sampaoli were already low. But 2006 was a completely different story. Argentina were every bit as good as, if not better than, france and italy, and I genuinely believe we were the better team than Germany. We controlled and outplayed them for almost the entire match, only to let it slip away because of Pekermen’s poor and cowardly decision making. That’s what makes 2006 so heartbreaking.

       • @SulaV

         I understand your reasoning, but for me, Scaloni subbing off Di Maria for Acuna will always be the biggest managerial blunder. The only difference is that we won the game. That final should never have become one of the greatest finals ever. For the first 70 minutes, it was one of the worst World Cup finals to watch, and then everything changed. Thanks, Scaloni, for the entertainment I never asked for, but he is my GOAT nonetheless.

         Argentina also had a terrible habit of pushing or losing faith in managers out after just one failed tournament. Pekerman made a mistake, yes, but his overall work in 2006 was outstanding. Instead of letting him stay, learn from that mistake, and build toward the next World Cup, we lost faith. Constantly changing coaches after every disappointment wasted one of the greatest generations of Argentine talent.

         Look at Germany and France. Low lost in 2008, 2010, 12 but Germany kept faith in him. He built an even stronger team and eventually won the 2014 World Cup. Deschamps lost the Euro 2016 , but France stuck with him, and he won the 2018 World Cup.

         Now imagine Pekerman with the Inter treble winning trio, Ballon dor winner Messi ( much superior than 2006) , Riquelme, Inform Veron, Di Maria, Prime Tevez and Aguero. Argentina probably wouldve won the 2010 wc. Cause 2010 squad was far better than 2006.

         We repeated the same mistake with Tata Martino after the 2016 Copa America. Yes, he failed to win back to back finals, but if we had shown patience and confidence, I believe Argentina would have been in much better shape heading into the 2018 World Cup. His team lost finals but never was incompetent.

         We finally showed maturity by sticking with Scaloni after the 2019 Copa America instead of losing faith in him. The results speak for themselves. For nearly two decades, Argentina rarely gave promising managers enough time to continue their projects, and I believe that constant impatience was one of the biggest reasons we underachieved between 2000 and 2020.

         You can trash Pekerman all you want, but you can’t deny he would’ve been a much better choice than Maradona to lead us in 2010.

         • Agree 100%%,they didn’t believe in their coaches

       • Your forgetting Germany deliberately broke the goalies ribs

         Why does no one remember this

     • France did not score the goals from Acuna’s side. The biggest issue with the final was Scaloni still keeping a tired Otamendi on the field after 70th.

       • Otemendi hadn’t OTEMENDI-ed since the punch the ball vs Columbia he had kept his shot together for a long time apart from nasty elbows here and there along the way

         He went full otemendi for that peno all he had to do was kick the ball away

         He started showing off and France got a peno

   • 2002 was a great team, but a sad tragedy. .. 2006 was also an amazing team, one of my favorite team up until 2019. I don’t blame pekerman. I blame our defense, ayala, coloccini, demechels… They were a disaster against Germany. Maybe pekerman made the wrong subs, but we can say that about 2010 when maradona never played milito.
     Bielsa is too eccentric, his training sessions are too tough for these short tournaments and during game he wants a full press and then wonders why his players are exhausted. He just interviewed now in TyC and said the goalkeeper decided he wanted to come out after half, but valverde was his decision so that he can have two 9’s with more reach.
     No balance El loco Bielsa

     • No blame on Germany and breaking are goalkeepers ribs DELIBERATELY after half time were they planned it

   • The 2002 team the less we remind about them, the better. Its for me the all time best Argentina Team ever to send for a World cup, Pound to pound that has to be the best ever team Argentina had in all positions hands down (Apart from the Goal Keeping position may be but Burgos, Cavallero, Bonano was no slouches either), The result meanwhile was beyond embarrassing. A Tragedy which has still not left my heart till now. The long haired team…

7. I’ll be honest—I was secretly hoping Saudi Arabia would beat Cape Verde so Argentina could get a shot at revenge for that shocking 2022 opener. But Cape Verde held them to a draw and earned their place instead. So now, the defending champions face a different kind of challenge.

   On paper, Cape Verde looks like a “good draw”—a debutant nation with just 500,000 people. But don’t be fooled. Their biggest weapon is defensive resilience.

   We saw it in 2022 against Saudi Arabia, in 2018 against Iceland, and even in recent qualifiers where compact defenses frustrated us. Cape Verde isn’t just any bus-parker-they’re elite at it. They held Spain to 0-0, drew Uruguay 2-2, and conceded only 1 shot on target across multiple stretches. Their discipline is almost robotic.

   If Cape Verde can keep it 0-0 into the second half, the tension will rise, Messi will drop deeper, and the crowd will get anxious-exactly what they want. Their goalkeeper Vozinha is a wall, their defenders throw their bodies at everything, and they’re patient enough to wait 90 minutes for one counter-attacking chance.

   But this time…our team is different from 2022. We’ve evolved…more calculated, more patient, and less reliant on desperate heroics. Scaloni has already shown he can adjust tactics—practicing a 3-5-2 formation, using Enzo’s long-range shooting, and relying on set-pieces to break low blocks.

   I just hope Argentina plans well against them. No complacency. No frustration. Early goal, and the bus collapses.
   Love from Nepal 🇳🇵🇦🇷

   • Saudi Arabia would have been better. But Cabo Verde is still better than Uruguay or Spain. Cabo Verde are a good team, but not that good in finishing. 1 of Cabo Verde’s goals against Uruguay was due to the mistake of that Argentine origin GK of Uruguay – Muslera.

   • Hi loki… Roshan dhakal here from Nepal ( my username is roshu)…nice to hear from you the comments… die hard fan of Argentina since 1990…
     After a long 36 yrs we are as defending champions in wc…
     I hope Argentina go further in this wc… which part of Nepal are you from??

     • hi sula v, loki and roshu me here sudhirfadi from pokhara, nepal . i am here in mundo family from 2012. previously roy used to entertain with awesome coments regarding albiceleste … sulav view on argentine football is what i find interesting and point.

       • I’m from Kathmandu… originally from nuwakot Nepal…nice to hear from you guys…I did my medicine degrees(MBBS) form Bangladesh year was 2002 and lot’s and lot’s of Argentina fans were in Chittagong.. unfortunately Argentina were crashed out of group stage..bielsa was manager that time and ironically Uruguay crashed out and manager is bielsa..in my opinion Argentina have a easier path to wc final provided that Portugal didn’t topped Thier group…
         Lots of sorrows pain agony were ended last wc… hoping for back to back wc wins..it’s difficult but possible..
         Vamos Argentina

   • “We’ve evolved… more calculated, more patient, and less reliant on desperate heroics.” Really?

     So far, five of our goals have come from one player. We’ve created very few clear-cut chances inside the box, and our ball retention hasn’t exactly reflected a “calculated” team. Against Austria, we were surrendering possession almost as frequently as they were—every 26 seconds versus their 27.

     At the moment, it still feels more like a Messi show than an Argentina show.

     Scaloni has earned our trust, but before the knockout stage I’d like to see the team rediscover the fluidity and collective confidence that defined the 2022 campaign. The burden cannot continue to rest on one pair of shoulders.

     I’d also like to see Julián Álvarez play with a freer mind. Whatever is happening off the pitch with the Barcelona–Atlético situation can wait. The Round of 16 won’t.

     This is the time for everyone to step up. Messi can still be the difference-maker—but he shouldn’t have to be the entire difference.

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