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Argentina v Chile: the dangers of shallow analysis

October 14th, 2007 | By: Linda | 35 Comments »

So, 3 points in the bag, and a nice surprise for most of us, I think it’s fair to say, in the form of Juan Roman Riquelme. Or was it? Thinking about it now, it was clear that I, personally at least, was a bit caught up in the media hysteria and angst about his call up, for which I apologize. After all, these silly media fads are the reason so many ill-thought out opinions about football can be held by so many. Just because the people with the typewriters and the printing presses write simplified puff pieces which don’t hold up to logical analysis doesn’t mean we have to believe them.

In this instance, everyone fretted about Roman’s form, given his lack of playing time at Villarreal, including yours truly. But if I had thought about it a bit harder, then that media talking point would have unravelled: one, his playing style doesn’t depend on a high level of fitness, and two, the easiest way for Basile to get a functioning team that could compete and knew how to play with each other was to go back to the one he’s fielded enough times before - a team and a formation that Roman can just slot into, because of his familiarity with it, and with the other players.

So there you go. I’m not saying it was the best solution, nor is it a permanent one, but even the doubters have to say that Basile got it right this time.

(I don’t tend to write traditional match reports, but for one of those, complete with goal videos, Hasta El Gol Siempre has you covered, as always.)

Other positives:

I thought the backline did well enough, especially Demichelis, who must be enjoying his second chance at breaking into the national team.
Messi didn’t score (just to check everyone’s expectations, we’re not expecting someone who’s actually a winger for his club to score every game, right?), but he looked pretty lively, and as usual, gave the opposition defenders palpations
Mascherano - surely one of the best defensive midfielders in the world - was great as always.
We saw the benefits of a team who have played together before: good passing and decent build-up play.

not so positive:

same finishing problem we’ve had ever since Crespo got injured. One of the commenters suggested that Basile needed to avoid the temptation to play all his big name little strikers and go for a partnership that includes a better finisher, and I’m inclined to agree at this point.
The Mascherano-Gago combo is an idea, but I can’t help thinking that Masche’s talents are not best utilised when he’s bombing down the wing.

Other notes:

congratulations to Sergio Aguero for making his competitive debut with the national team.
Ayala is a big miss, but Demichelis and Milito aren’t bad, and I maintain Garay should also get another chance. Don’t forget Gonzalo Rodriguez either - he was one of the best defenders in La Liga before his injury problems started. Hopefully he will be fit soon, because I’m convinced he’d be in contention.
Heinze had an injury scare, but he should be fit for the next game, away to Venezuela, who just beat Ecuador off this tremendous freekick.

Tags: 2010 World Cup Qualifying, chile, match report, wc qualifying

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 35 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Sam | October 15th, 2007 at 8:30 am

One small thing to your reply, rather than the post itself, Linda: it’s not only national teams who play dull defensive football. It’s infecting nearly every level of the game. That’s why so many neutrals have become enamoured of (as a Man United fan it pains me to say it) Arsenal in England, or of course Barcelona in Spain. At national level, it’s why Argentina are, shocking though it sounds to anyone who remembers them in 1990, winning many hearts after recent glorious failures at the last World Cup and this year’s Copa América. It’s all very well claiming that only the winners are remembered, after all, but don’t people look fondly on Holland ‘74, Hungary ‘54 and even Brazil ‘82?

As for JRR, personally I don’t think it’s good to have a team relying so heavily on one individual, it’s what led them to come unstuck in Germany and again in the final in Venezuela a couple of months ago - if Riquelme has an off day, which he only ever seems to do when the pressure’s really high for Argentina (never for Boca, oddly), the whole team suffer, because he’s at the centre of the game plan.

Which is to say, magnificent player, but the team as a whole need to find a way of playing which doesn’t involve him, at least quite as much. In my opinion.

Finally, Johnny Centreback - the number 10 might be dying, but Riquelme’s demise doesn’t represent that, because Riquelme isn’t a true number 10…

By Albo | October 15th, 2007 at 10:35 am

I don’t think Riquelme “represents the death of the #10″.
I believe that the lack of players like Riquelme represent the death of #10s

By MaxiLopez | October 15th, 2007 at 11:08 am

I didn’t have the time to read the posts but I have these questions:

Was Cambiasso and Heinze very offensive?
Was there a big space between the 3 defensive midfielders and the defence?
Mascherano had too much work?
Did Argentina got counter attacked and manage it?
Did Riquelme lose many balls?
How was Maxi?

Please guys respond, I didn’t see the game I wanna know!

With this 4-3-1-2 formation, we need a “Sorin”.

I am waiting for the games against Uruguay/Brazil.

Bye guys.

Posted from United States

By eddie | October 15th, 2007 at 11:23 am

did anyone else notice argentina missing the simple passes for goal opportunities? Seems like sometimes fancy should take a back seat to easy goals, at least until we are up a goal or two.

Posted from United States

By Batistuta | October 15th, 2007 at 11:24 am

Brazil drew to Columbia, poor performance. Columbia deserved a goal. I think only Uruguay plays a threat in South America to Argentina this qualifiers. I watched the highlights on google and it seems that everything was good with the exception of the 2 forwards. Some change needs to be done guys.

Posted from Australia

By Debasish | October 15th, 2007 at 11:34 am

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=447096

Do you think this will actually happen?

Posted from United States

By Albo | October 15th, 2007 at 11:35 am

It’s Colombia, not Columbia. Sorry for the correction.

By Linutis | October 15th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

According to Goal.com:

…Other team news suggest that Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero could replace Carlos Tevez in the team, and Argentina could play with one more midfielder.

By AC | October 15th, 2007 at 1:22 pm

Congrats on the new gig Linda. I’ve been away for a little while and came back to the news that you’d taken over the Argentina duties here. I wish you all the best, I reckon you’ll now get the audience you deserve here at the World Cup Blog.

By toddutah | October 15th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

Nice game by Argentina. According to some we would be lucky to tie Chile I knew we would win and play fairly well. I think the time has come to give Aguero a start in place of tevez. I think that on the national level Tevez could be a nice spark in the second half but for me Aguero is more of a goal scorer. I thought Cambiasso played well but against venezuela I would have maxi on the left and start lucho on the right .

Posted from United States

By day1star | October 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

After having watched the match for the second time here are my thoughts. Tevez, Messi combo is not working. Individually they are both great, though i think that Tevez hasn’t found his form completely as of yet.
Both goals were from brilliant freekicks, but what do you do when the freekicks don’t go in, coz using Tevez, Messi up front is not going to get us many goals. I thought that the Aguero, Messi combination looked much more dangerous, if it hadn’t been for great defending by the Chileans it would have been 4 to 5-0 in our favour.
More worrying though is the trend not to finish games off, we sort of relaxed too much in the second half and were lucky not to be punished for it. The defense did pretty well, Milito played much better than in previous matches.
I would like to see Aguero start with Messi in the next match and Tevez subbed in in the second half.

By toddutah | October 15th, 2007 at 3:10 pm

Guys if you are up 2 to 0 and you have another game in 4 days i think it is just commen sence you are going to cruise a littel and just pass the ball around and of course we created enough chhnces to score another couple of goals. The more i think about it the more i want to see Aguero with messi.

Posted from United States

By toddutah | October 15th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

What a great attitude!!!

Real Madrid’s Heinze raps Barcelona president Laporta
tribalfooball.com - October 15, 2007

Real Madrid defender Gaby Heinze has criticised Barcelona president Joan Laporta over his stand against international football.
Laporta wants national federations to pay compensation for players injured while on international duty, but Heinze said: “Laporta does not know what it is to wear the shirt of his country.

“Because of his failure to pull on the shirt of his country, I think, he should not talk because he does not know what it feels like.”

Posted from United States

By Messay | October 15th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

Ohhh, how much I respect and Love heinze.

He just bleeds for his country. remember how hard he trained to recover from his injury for the WC. which is the main reason he had a fallout with Sir Ferguson. This guy will do anything for argentina. I hope he becomes our captain one day. he deserves it.

a true Tiger.

By The weekend wrap-up: Internationals! - Barcelona - The Offside - FC Barcelona Football Blog | October 15th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

[...] Good to see the albicelestes off to a good start. Check out Linda’s brief post on the game here and a video of the goals [...]

Posted from United States

By J-Argie | October 15th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Inter Milan president Moratti targets Napoli’s Lavezzi
tribalfooball.com - October 15, 2007

Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti will have Napoli midfielder Ezequiel Ivan Lavezzi scouted for the rest of this season.

Gazzetta dello Sport says the young Argentine is the latest midfielder under consideration by Moratti as he plans for life without Luis Figo next year.

By Albo | October 15th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Sam, you say above that Riquelme is not a true #10.
Can you elaborate on that comment.
Why do you think that Riquelme is not a true enganche?

By marindrianto | October 15th, 2007 at 6:13 pm

Those who live in Indonesia can AGAIN watch Venezuela vs ARGENTINA on RCTI 19 October 2007 at 03.00 am. Riquelme, show time.

Posted from Indonesia

By Native Son | October 15th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

I did read the results of this game in our local newspaper and how I loathe watching a game while already aware of the final result.

That said, it was a great game. ARgentina played well and Chile is no pushover too. I don’t know what befell Brazil but they always start badly and improve with time.

Requelme was wonderful. He seems excited and how about his cool ball contro!!

By maradona | October 15th, 2007 at 10:20 pm

Tim Vickery’s thoughts on Riquelme:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/7044557.stm

Posted from United States

By ortega85 | October 16th, 2007 at 4:10 am

Albo, did you mean the channel TyC Sports? I have it on directv, but it doesnt broadcast Argentina’s games. this is the link for their programs on tuesday the 16th. http://www.tycsports.com/programacion.php?grilla=1&fecha=2007-10-16&pagina=0

Posted from United States

By Linda | October 16th, 2007 at 5:10 am

maradona, thanks for the link. Always a good read, Tim Vickery.

And AC, thank you. I do my best.

Posted from Australia

By Albo | October 16th, 2007 at 10:32 am

Ortega85, these particular games are carried by Fox Sports but only in Argentina. I have Fox Sports USA and they don’t show them.

By online casino | November 21st, 2007 at 10:06 pm

nice play, i liked the 3 forward definition, i hope it goes again with crespo next time…(crespo, messi, tevez) …or KUN as Tevez got red carded in the Colombia game…unfairly might I add….

Posted from Colombia