No Tevez, No Messi, and all is okay…

Yeah, the main issue is only the ball possession, which usually is a especiality of our game. We were lucky enough to score on our chances, but we really didn’t create many chances. Ball possession was only the major problem seen, and the midfield is to blame for that.

I don’t think Riquelme did a very good job to hold the ball in midfield, but he did well enough to put all the blames away with that ingenious pass.

Posted from  United States

Guys, what is your opinion on the right back position (Burdiso)? I think we are weak in that position and belive Arjen Robben will crate havoc on that side…I wish Zanetti should have been there…what do you think?

Posted from  United States

Guys, here is my rating:

Pato= 9/10; Made an excellent save between his legs, and didn’t look as bad as he was talked of before the game. Handled the pressure of first match amidst such criticisms pretty well.

Heinze= 8/10; Coming back to the first full-time competitive match after being sidelined for 6 months due to injury, he was very good. Could have gotten 10/10 but lost 2 points because of unnecessary foul on Drogba that cost him an yellow card.

Ayala= 9/10; Did a great job in checking Drogba, and for me also scored a goal that wasn’t allowed. Could have gotten 10/10, but somehow allowed little bit more space and failed to check Drogba when he scored the goal.

Burdisso= 6/10; So far, he was alright. Not excellent as the likes of Ayala and Heinze, but cope with the game

Sorin= 7/10; Looked dangerous in the flanks couple of time, controlled the ball well, and ran up-front and back superbly.

Rodriguez = 6/10; Put on an average display. Not of the likes of what Argentines are expected of.

Masherano = 8/10; Very good game. Strengthened the defence and held the midfield, except having some errors in the second half.

Cambiasso= 5/10; Less than average, and less reliable. The Argentine midfield must be taken by a player better than him.

Roman= 8/10; Good moves, assist and playmaking. Assisted in both goals scored and almost scored a third, but too slow in running, and a stamp of nervousness and sadness in the face! Needs to lighten up his face to provide morale to other team-members.

Saviola= 8/10; Showed good moves and dribblling on this match. Justified his inclusion with a goal, and made quite a bit of run. But, needs to do more to claim his stake ahead of Tevez. Could have gotten 10, but 2 points taken off for an yellow card.

Crespo= 8/10; Scored that vital first goal to build up the confidence. However, failed to show the class of Drogba. Since he was the most powerful and built up man in the squad, I will expect couple of long range powerful shootings on target to destroy the confidence of opponents

Palacio= 4/10; Horrible and disappointment. Failed to control the ball, and his body.

Lucho= 3/10; Did nothing, and picked up an yellow card in no-time for no threat.

Aimar= N/A; No basis for rating, played a minute.

PEKERMAN: 8/10; Made good tactics for the first half, but not as good in the second. Not a perfect starting line-up, and very very poor substitutions, need to be aware that two matches against England and Croatia were lost in no time when leading towards the end of the game; can’t make such loose substitutions in such a high profile opening match against a strong opponent. Could have gotten 6, but two additional points awarded for getting that all important 3 points in the first game against an strong opponent, making good start after the nervousness of shock first round exit in the last world cup, and somehow, managing to keep Messi, Tevez, and Aimar safe; although I am not convinced with their exclusion.

Posted from  United States

Cancer, when you are in Australia you can watch all games fee on SBS (a government channel). There should be no problem at all with reception in Melbourne as long as the house you are staying at as a normal UHF capable antena on the roof which is the case for 99% of houses. The only problem is that it is late at night.

Enjoy Melbourne

Posted from  Australia

Thanks for the info Watt. I will be in a hotel so hopefully there wont be an issue with reception.

Posted from  United States

ivan , are you smoking crack??

the defense, by all accounts, was great! giving up one goal to drogba is not a big deal! he is one of the best strikers in the world! pekerman has to be very plesed with the defense….

the main issue for argentina is wether maxi rodriguez and cambiasso can step it up for the next games….

Posted from  United States

S&M and Holland are going to hand Argentina their arses on a platter. Your primadonna, hold your shin and whince style of football will not take you far. Sorin and Riquelme need to start playing a proper game to survive this group. I did, however, like how Tavez played.

The defense was not nearly great, you’re missing a lot of things. Ayala was great. Heinze was fine. The rest… creepy. Sorin worked well when he was able to come back from his stupid ofense dreams, on the second half he played against us. Burdisso couldn’t do it (as we all expected). Rodriguez and Cambiasso both played really bad. So there was really Mascherano and Ayala against them all, mascherano got tired on the second half and that’s when the team got passed by. Without the awesome Ayala we would’ve lost.

We all think Pekerman will change the team because it seems obvious and we hope he does, because if we keep playing like that, we aint going that far. I mean, there are not that many great teams, but ivory coast was a weak opponent, and we suffered from it. Saviola and Crespo are fine, Riquelme was also awesome but he was just bad when he got tired… so i would have changed it for Aimar right when the second half started. We got so many alternatives to play offense, our problemas are on the sides of the middle field and the defense. We so miss you Zanetti

Posted from  Argentina

you’re too critical

ivory coast plays too.

we’ll be fine… and pekerman will almost for sure start the same team…

Posted from  United States

“Burdisso couldn’t do it (as we all expected). ”

Burdisso was great. Look at his perfect tackling.

Posted from  Canada

I am afraid of the misconception here about IC being a very good team. IC is a good team, but they were dominated in the first half when Argentina was plaing more to its style and capacity so to speak. In the 2nd half, they just sat back and defended, which was a plan by Perk, which is a very natural thing to do if you are on top and you would like to secure the opener. For this reason only, it made IC the agressor and Argentina vulnerable, and therefore ppl think IC gave argentina lots of problems becasue they are very good team, which is not the case. IC is average.

Posted from  United States

I think the game was awesome, everyone played really good. It was a tough game, but we still did it, Arriba Argentina, Te seguimos por todo el mundo!

Posted from  United States

Can anyone of u tell me, Is Carlos Tevez and Lionel Missi are in the squad? If yes, then why they didnt play for the first match againg Ivory Coast. If no, what is the reason they are not in the Squad. Please tell me, other wise my head will break.

I was so tensed because these two kingkong, Don of Argentina were missing in the first match against Ivory Coast, But any Argentina won the match without these two players

Stalin Balboa
Tamilnadu, India

Posted from  United States

I thought Agentina got a lot of potential. Having shown their clinical skills, pradatory instinct, and water-tight team organization, Agentina take the challenge of Ivory coast in their stride. I think we must admit that there is sort of “slack” in the team in the 2nd half. Nevertheless, overall, Agentina is the best team so far! I believe all of the fans enjoyed watch Argentian 1st outing and look forward to more to come! ALL the best Argentina, I am a big fan of you and Maradona!

Posted from  Singapore

LOL are u serious with that comment. Burdisso did alright but if we were playing a team that knew how to finish and he gave away those balls to a oncoming opponent running full speed straight towards goal its going to be a nightmare. Like i said plenty of other times. “no matter how good or how bad Burdisso and the rest of the team/defense plays (even if they win the cup) there is no reason to not have Zanetti in the STARTING line up let alone not being there at all. (biggest mistake of all time even though i really think Pekerman is a smart coach with great strategies but this was really a huge blunder).

Posted from  United States

I think Palacio should not play, in fact, He played in order to save Messi and Tevez, the competition is long, we were leading 2-0 and it was only the first game.
Palacio is the last striker.
You say Saviola is not good ?
I think Saviola recovered his abilities, when he played for Barça, don’t forget he was as much (or more) loved as tevez or Messi. I’m sorry but I think THIS Saviola (in a good shape) is the fastest Argentinean and was probably the only one who could catch this Riquelme pass before the Keeper.
Although, I think Pekermann will switch the starting eleven for next games, we’ll see Tevez and Messi and Aimar, I think.

Posted from  France

zannetti is not on team guy! its too late to include him so do not mention him! what is the point ofmentioning him!

yes zaneti should be on team and argentina should have a top 10 economy..but it ain’t so

burdisso is on team..

talk about burdisso and stop with all the second guiessing…when they get kicked out of world cup if they don’t win it then its time to second guess

so far so good

argentina 3 points
first in group

or did argentina look so good in 1990 when they almost won?

Posted from  United States

TO WHOEVER SAID Ivory Coast is weak…

WTF to you!?

Ivory Coast played excellent. Great ball handling, organization, good team work, FAST as a mother fucker, and strong like a cement wall.

Ivory coast was the hardest team in the group for Argentina.

You will see, Holland and Serbia will not be a problem

I predict:
Argentina 3-1 Holland
Argentina 2-0 Serbia

I have so far matched Argentina’s score of 2-1 with ivory coast and germany’s 4-2, but my other predictions didnt do too well…
Anyways
watch out for Argentina!!!

BTW, anyone saw Italy play today?
They are dangerous…specialy to Argentina…what do you guys think?

Posted from  United States

Has anyone noticed that in this worldcup, significant number of goals have come either in the first few starting minutes or in the last dying minutes?

I think concentration will play a better role in this worldcup.
And recently or mostly, we haven’t been good at concentrating esp in the end. We have got to be very careful.

Posted from  United States

i’m sorry to say, Perkerman doesn’t look a good coach, and argentina does’t look the world cup squad that may win the cup, sorry sorry , i love them to win, but it will be very dificult ,
i saw Italy , look at the world cup squad how they playing, what a great defence, midfild , attack , what a great coach Libe, portoagl also they look a very good team you can see that there is a good coach behind, great Scolari ,
cheque, Holand, , , i think argentian’s squand needs allot allot of work,
Ayala, Crespo, Requilmé ( even he is very slow but he can make goals) and some how Mascherano and Heinz these only 5 players look as wold cup champions ,
we need to play like Italian player , NO ball missed , great great positioning on the ground , no spaces , great difence great goal keeper,, befor attack think in the difence,
ohh again , i think very less chances to win this would cup in fornt of Italy and Brazil ,
Perkerman should stop droping in Love with his juniors players,
i’m sure if Carlos Bilardo or Alfio Basilé were there you will not see 60% of these players ! Cambiasso ahh, simling and looking afraid on his legs while Ayala is fighting in the defience
sorry again , this is not the would cup team

Posted from  France

WHAAAT??????????No way omar!!!
Argentina still is the best team so far.,they may have some mistakes ,but believe me Pekerman will fix them.I think he is a great coach.Italians are great. but we just have different Styles.
and another thing..the Goal keeper..Pato did a superb job!!!

Posted from  United States

Lucia,
i alos hope that argentina be the best team, but no way after seeing Italy yesterday we are so far, did you ask the question , why argentina won the wc 78, and 86 and played the final 90 ? one of the mean factors behind the host in 78 and maradona in 86 , there was some diferent tactics
i remember what Sir Carlos Bilardo said when he became the coach in 1983, he said south american players have football skills when they just born, but they need to be built physically and have high stamina to be closed to europien teams and make a heavy competion. after that did you see argentian playing at the least in semi final these last 16 years ????
we need to play like europian teams, again like Bilardo’s stratigy , and we don’t need south american style , this is useless in the WC, in sout american cometions, yes you can play what ever,
i just would like to remind you , that Brazil have taken Bilardo stratigy i have read one artical, they stuided well why argentina won the 86 wc and played the final 90 , they were very closed to win and they lost by an incorrect penalty, and we were playing very well 82,86 itself and 90 but we lost
so they changed thier style from 94 , they won 94,2002 and final 98, you see ! and argentina back home from the first round
if argentian’s federation of football still thinking like that i mean to select some one like DONKY beilsa
i can’t say tha perkamn is ont a good coach at least he won the u-20 wc 3 times, but he is not a very good coach as i see, i’m sorry i see him playing with an old style relaying on south american talents and skills only, this wont bring the cup to BA.

Posted from  France

Well..I sure hope you are wrong..But we’ll see…You can examine Brasil today..another South american style!!!
I give you the point of Stamina…But no more. When I watch Argentina’s game ..,passes,I just believe they are really the best.
But of course..I’ll confess one thing…I am an argentinian.ha..ha..

Posted from  United States

Messi and Teves is futbol…..
anybody can stop this players. today or tomorrow. they are futbol and futbol and more futbol………..

OMAR, You have no clue what you are talking about. Your point of view is baseless.

Posted from  United States