WCQ: Argentina to host Ecuador Tomorrow

Guys! Such a typical first half. Loads of possession in the opponent area but no chances created.

I have to admit, Veron quite easily the best in the lot. What exquisite long balls. From the right corner of the midfield to left corner to Maxi. No complaints about Veron.

Mascherano is great as usual.

Messi just started to chime in.

Riqulme average too.

Just wonder, how long this will go on. 60% ball possession and no real chance. Same happened with USA. If we score a goal early then we can score more. same reason, there are open spaces.

Maxi Lopez, Daystar I was watching closely about how many of us defend. You guys are right. We are hardly 5-6 most of the times.

Also, I see Mascherano covering one goal post for the corners, the near one. The other one is always open.

I am still hopeful. Just get a feeling we will score one soon. Another thing, the presence of Riqulme surely gives you hope that there could be something special.

Riquelme is a little off form. There should be a sense of urgency - because right now we are walking the ball.

Gago coming on probably for Riqulme.

GAGO on for MAXI

The wall is too near. Another FK opportunity wasted.

Sadly our oldest players Veron and Zanetti are probably our best players on the pitch. Stupid foul by Demichelis. This is woeful.

Demicheles suspended for Brazil game

Ecuador deserves that. This is horrible.

Demichelis will miss Brazil game.

He has been constantly making tackles on the left for Heinze.

DOWN 0-1

oh shit

Posted from  United States

Where the hell was Pato standing??? Unbelievable! Or is it really?

> he’s truly woeful tonight (and fairly often).

Off day today but what do you mean by “fairly often”??? Looks like we have another Riquelme hater who seems to see only his off day.

Sick and tired of this game. 50 passes, no penetration, cannot create chances. Argentina is a hyped team also.

Veron is pulling the strings quite well. This is working out quite well with Messi and Aguero flanking Cruz. What we miss is the tenaciity of Tevez. Corner …

Aguero and Cruz missed at least 5 chances in 5 minutes. There is no urgency unless you concede a goal. Simply pathetic.

I think we should bring Battaglia for Riquelme, push Veron forward.

Too many misses. Again we deserve to lose. No urgency unless you concede. More than urgency its like panic. I would drop Riquelme and get Palacio in

Riquelme and Aguero should have been substituted long ago. Basile has screwed up no doubt.

It will be a 0-2 at the end a counter attack. This sucks.

Argentina is going thru a Barcelona syndrome. Cannot score goals.

GOAAAAAALLLL!!!!!!

FINALLY - atleast we didn’t lose.

That is what they get for wasting time nuff’ said.

Looking back:

- Argentina’s offense did not click because Aguero and Riquelme were not in form.

- Mascherano had to substituted and Argentina’s defense looked very shaky from then on - probably shows how Mascherano dependent the team has become.

- Burdisso and Heinze were terrible.

- Zanetti was well below his usual but still better then most others.

- If required Basile needs to be able to substitute his main offensive players like Riquelme and fall back on a different plan at any point in the game. Riquelme has not recovered from his injury and it is stupid to make him play all 90 minutes. Today he completely disappeared after 60 minutes.

- Pato Pato Pato: WTF is he doing in the NT colors? He was called into play only once in the game and the ball literally flew over his head before he could react. This guy is a freakin’ comedy show.

- All is not gloomy btw. Argentina kept fighting till the last kick and that payed off big time. Their game was completely ineffective but they had self-belief.

Quite frankly, that was unbelievably bad. We were slow, even turtles are faster than the pace we were playing at. Where was the closing down, where was the hustling.
Bad game for Riquelme, looked a bit out of sorts.
Burdisso terrible passing.
Pato instead of being on his line was too far forward so couldn’t stop the ball.
Demichelis made some great interceptions.
Heinze ok but slow, not enough pace.
Zanetti played ok in spurts.
Veron some nice passes but lacks pace.
Mascherano played well, hopefully it’s not a bad injury
Messi slow to get going but once he did was our most dangerous player.
Maxi didn’t play too badly.
Gago played well when he came on.
Aguero missed some chances but assisted Palacio at the end.
Cruz missed chances also but sort of expected that after the US game.
Our passing was terrible, i know that we were being closed down really quick but we were playing really slow. I said b4 this game that the line-up that Basile picked didn’t have enough pace, i hope he doesn’t pick a similar line-up against Brazil. We need pace in the midfield and the defense.
Sorry, Maradona that i couldn’t answer your question, i was downstairs watching the match on TV, i only just came up now and saw your message.

Well, i suppose we should all live in the hope that they were saving everything for the game against Brazil.