Holland vs S&M…and a Troubling Trend

using a hockey analogy, they say a 2-0 is the most dangerous lead to have. b/c you’re not sure whether to press and play your game or sit back and defend. with a 1-0, you still gotta play; with a 3-0 lead, u can afford to sit back…

and I think in all those scenarios above (mostly), we’ve had a 2-0 cushion and sort of went into a shell.

on a completly different note:

but also, what needs to be mentioned is the way Arg. play. the south american type of soccer calls for 2-3 defenders attacking the player who has the ball to quickly gain possession back. but on offence, you will see several Arg. players close together to execute quick, crisp passes.

our type D, where we attack the ball carrier in waves can be exploited against strong, fast and physical teams and can lead to several chances at our own end. ever since Passerla left as the coach, Bielsa’s team repeatedly gave numerous chances while also setting up more than our fair share (execpt at WC 2002 when we went in to a shell). and the trend continues with Jose ‘Call me Mr. Taxi’ Pekerman…

It is a worry. Maybe substituting Aimar for Riquelme when Riquelme goes to sleep can fix it.

IC are very good but their defence couldn’t cope with our attack at all so clearly if we didn’t go to sleep in midfield we could score at least one more goal and win easily.

The other thing is to bring inanother fast forward instead of Crespo to make sure the (say Dutch defence has something to worry about and cannot attack.

Posted from  Australia

Focus? Seems like we can’t mantain focus thru out 90 min. As I can remember, during 1986 WC final, we led 2-0, then?

Focus has nothing to do with tactics, skills, or what so ever. But it’s part of the game. Can we improve it?

Posted from  Malaysia

i say worrying bout holland is and robben is EXACTLY what NOT to do..

as pekerman, and any saavy obsevers ahve noted, to win this world cup argentina has to play 7 finals..

we are now in number 2.focus is 100% on serbia game…. i mean 100%…. if we beat serbia by the way its doubtful we will have to worry about holland as we would have six points and its highly unlikely that six points would not be enough to advance…

the tendency to sit bacck after getting a lead is an argentine characteristic…it is engrained in our culture… and i doubt we will be able to change it…

i’ve seen it happen dozens of times since 86 (both at national team level and in local club soccer)…. the key is to do a better job of holding the ball and sleeping the game… something we are traditionally very good at… but to do that we have to have more ball possession…

the idea that argentina is just going to keep attacking the whole game is a non-starter i think… thats just not the way the team has ever worked… and i wouldn’t worry about it too much.. “suffering” (sufriendo) is a part of being an argentine national team fan!

Posted from  United States

No trend. Argentina got the 2 goals they wanted they attacked for a while in the second half wen it didnt come they sat back and tried to ice the game by not letting the Ivory Coast touch the ball. The problem was which isnt like Argentina is that we played many long balls to no one. Traditionally Argentina knocks the ball around to the Chant of OLE from the best fans in the world. But for some reason we kept giving away the ball for free by bombing it away which is very strange for an argentinian team.

Posted from  United States

Clearly Pekermans substitutions and gameplan misfired in the last 25 mins.
It was unbelieveable to see that he continues to persist with his flawed philosophy of taking the foot off the “gas” approach after dominating for the first hour.
This happened against England. It happened against Croatia and it nearly happened again on saturday.
Pekerman wake up!!! recognize your flaws and make adjustments.
There was no reason for replacing Crespo with Palacio(shud have been Cruz) and Saviola with Lucho(shud have been Messi). The other disturbing fact was that after the substitution. Argfentina’s Midfield and Defence started to target Palacio with long balls. Considering Palacio is half the size of Crespo and is not known for aerial prowess, it seems odd that a seasoned and succesful coach like pekerman could make such a huge tactical error.
So in conclusion,it looks like that Pekerman is either incredibly stupid(I doubt that) or exceptionally brilliant and is doing all this stuff to put forthcoming opponents off track in their planning.

Posted from  United States

all we have to do is beat S&M. Our path to the finals is better served if we finish second in the group.

Posted from  United States

Dont worry compared to the way ivory coast played s&m and holland should be a piece of cake for argentina ……..but i dont see the point in pekerman taking the pressure off in the attack zone ….remember we need to score as much goals and possible, forget just being happy with 1 or 2 make as many as possible and i hope this idiot plays tevez and messi soon !

Posted from  United States

Are we all Argentinean? So why the hell are we talking in english, would you explain me? C’mon don’t be a mask… “no seás careta, no seás!!”
La cosa es que al equipo le alcanzó con lo justo, no supo cuidar la pelota y menos mal que los muchachos de Costa de Marfil no tienen la técnica de Holanda, porque sino nos hacían 3. Tengo miedo y resaca del 2002… pero confío el Joe… me viví de punta a punta el mundial juvenil del 2001 con Saviola, Maxi como figuras junto a tantos otros cracks del hoy, el equipo no jugó como quería Pekerman, esperemos que el Viernes lo haga, no me gustaría ver la definición en el último partido y contra los holandeses.
Salute gente Argenta fuera del ispa, pongan huevos desde donde estén!
Francisco.

Posted from  Argentina

Guys,
We are not all argentines here.. but certainlt agrentine football fans…. and well-wishers….

You absolutely no idea how much of craze is there for Argentina in Asia, perhaps more than in your own Argentina. Maradona is a glory to the game, and I wish to see many like him from Argentina.

By the way, I am from Nepal.

Posted from  United States

I have to agree with this post. As soon as we got a 2 goal lead every player relaxed.

What was worse was they didn’t even attack with conviction. It was disturbing.

Suddenly Riquelme was ridiculously trying to score from impossible positions instead of using the strikers.

It was as if everyone relaxed.

Posted from  Pakistan

i think pekerman did a good job (for the win!!!!) though at times we felt that IC were very near to a thrilling equalizer.

Regarding the approach in the second half from our team, that was not impressive at all i would say. why did we sit back and wait for the attacks from the african side? we would have carried on with our game, which ofcourse is to attack!! i remember riquelme calling gonzalez to come back when he was running to receive the ball in the penalty-box from the creative genius.

i am sure that we would not do this in the upcoming matches (at least aganist holland). i think the only reason why we survived last match was the poor quality finishing from the africans. pekerman might have been aware of this fact as well. but, then again i dont see a reason why we didnt attack.

guys, i think this is one major difference between us and brazil. they will press hard until the final whistle. ofcourse, they also do this at times. but not like us in the early stages of the second half; but in the last 5-10 minutes (remember the bringing on of denilson at this stages). That can be justified.

one final word. i agree that soccer is more of a “coach”’s game than of a player. but i dont find any reason what so ever for the late decision to bring on aimar. believe me, its such a humiliation for a player of his calibre. may be pekerman is seeing a “denilson” in him.

hats off to ayala and heinze for locking the “monster” drogba. Sorin was very good indeed. riquelme…..he is a class act. but hey, do smile sometimes. i felt really happy after seeing saviola scoring the goal and sitting near the corner flag in his knees. i think he has suffered a lot from the media.

Play our natural game and the cup will be ours. “VAMOS ARGENTINA”.

Posted from  India

Argentina, Why all the worries about Holland? We will win the next game against the Ivory Coast and you do the same against S&M. Game 3 will be just for FUN!

Posted from  Netherlands

Francisco - hay muchos que no son argentinos entonces es mejor hablar en ingles para que nos entiendan.

I’m getting really impatient with Pekerman not playing Messi or Tevez. Messi needs playing time to get in game form. Tevez is our best and most creative attacker. Aimar also deserves playing time, he was our best player in 2002. Palacio over Tevez? I guess pekerman is up to something to throw off future opponents but I think everyone would like to see the best team on the field.

Posted from  United States

whats this about Holland being a piece of cake? The way you guys played, i think your defence is going to be your worst problem when playing against Holland. Vander vaart will be fit again, and might replace Van Bommel or sneijder. Jew kaliens, a good defender, is going to be back for the Argentina Game. But as Royaltee said, if holland wins against ivory coast, and argentina against serbia, the last game will be for fun. But anyways, YOU underestimate Holland too much. Serbias defence lines are pretty amazin. and holland had a hard time trying to score goals. I would like to see how Argentina copes with them.

Posted from  Oman

Holland managed to score only once against Australia. Admittedly it was a friendly and Australia’s goalkeeper had the best game of his life but still. Holland’s defence will not be able to cope with our attack yes they are dangerous, particularly the wingers and we need our midfield to give 120% but we can and will beat them.

Posted from  Australia

and IC will beat Holland as well…

Posted from  Australia

Messi took care of Robben quickly and aesily in the Barca vs Chelsea game haha.

I think S&M will be a walk in the park, they are just defenders, and as for Holland they are no longer the team they use to be.

BTW Brazil lost to there reserves jaja.

I predict:
Argentina 2 - 0 S&M
Argentina 3 - 1 Holland

After we correct our slopiness we tend to phase into in the second halves, I’m sure our games will be alot more comfortable. This is our year!!

and IC will beat Holland for sure

Posted from  United Kingdom

Seriosly NK, holland is not what it used to be.
It is still of course a highly respected and good team, but I believe it won’t be a problem for Argentina.

NK is funny, I have the exact same predictions as you

As far as the other game I say
Netherlands 1-2 Ivory Coast

Posted from  United States

i agree that holland looked like nothing special…. not the same team as in 1998…

no one in their team has the class of a davids, bergkamp…

cocu is good but he’s on the tail end… robben looked very good i admit.. but he’s one player..

kuyt i thought had potential but it remains to be seen

i was encouraged, as an argentine fan, by the holland-serbia match..both teams looked like nothing special..

and i am not one of those argentne fans that thinks argentina will beat everyone 5-0 but i was just unimpressed with holland… czecks looked so much better than them today..even germany looked way better….

i think getting by ivory coast was huge!

Posted from  United States

I agree with you all with how we turned the gas off..
this is something i admired greatly about Marcelo Bielsa’s tactics.
That 2002 squad…was pretty compact and solid…their only downfall in the last cup was that they didn’t score..

Anyway i have faith pekerman will get it right.

They really seemed so *geared down* in the 2nd half it was actually very wierd to sit and watch for a die hard fan…it seemed so..
Different

Posted from  Trinidad And Tobago