International Friendly: Argentina 5 - 0 Guatemala

I was at the game. The player that stood out to me was Mascherano. He is simply a beast in the middle of the field, backing his teammates up and winning balls. Riquelme was a little disappointing; not his class, just his lack of involvement. Guatemala did a good job shadowing him the whole game. Demechelis looks like a Gladiator out there. He was flawless.

John — I don’t think ARG needs to prove it can hang with the big boys. I think most coutries need to figure out how to handle ARG. Just a thought. Saludos.

Posted from  United States

-a

If Argentina lost or tied against Guatemala what would your opinion be? It’s one thing to be respectful of an opponent but quite another to drop your standards.

Glad you enjoyed the game.

regards

thanks daddy…

hey guys can someone give the numbers that the guys were. i am curious to know who #9 and #10 was.

Posted from  United States

The truth is, friendlies are a means of testing new players and evuluating which ones work best with each other (eg whether they are worth incorporating into a new squad– the result itself is meaningless (although it’s always great to win big)– it’s the individual and collective performances that are important. So, I tend not to agree with the “friendlies are meaningless” thought that you seem to have, John..

Just as another example: England’s friendly against Switzerland was meaningless, but the English media is making ado about the 2-1 victory as it is Capello’s first with the club. Does it matter much? Not really. For Switzerland, they are already qualified for EURO, so their friendlies are important in improving their game ahead of the group stage.

I meant ‘team’ not ‘club’.

Until later,

J-Argie,

There was no #10. Argentina doesn’t usually put out a #10 unless its a tournament. #9 was Higuain. #11 was Lavezzi.

Posted from  United States

-a

I never said or implied “friendlies are meaningless” so I will thank you not to attribute your words to me.

On the contrary a friendly games can be very important. If Argentina had played against Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Spain or Uruguay —just some examples—-it would have been quite entertaining and much more of a test. There is no such thing as a friendly between Netherlands and Germany for example. Now obviously playing against a Euro team at this point is not possible because of the Euro’s but there are stronger teams the AFA could have scheduled against.

I just stated what I thought was pretty obvious; this game was not a great test for Argentina, though it was a great chance for fans living in the States to see some brilliant players live.

Regards,

By Messay | February 7th, 2008 at 2:09 am

Hey guys whats going on. Just got back from the game….
like i told you guys i was sitting directly behind the bench so the action was just crazy…
all the players played well. The game was really easy (at least to me) argentina had the ball almost the entire time, the movement, the passing, the touches, the 1-2s were all amazing.
Fazio - had a decent game, but he made two bundles that could have cost us.
Demechils - was solid. rock solid. great in the air, great on the ground, he was closing the spaces really well from guatamalas attackers. You could tell he has spent a while playing Defensive mid.
Escudero - was incredible. He was extremely fast. ruthless tackles, and he was a tiny guy, but he played his heart out. he was great moving forward as well. he later switched position with (fernandez (i believe), and he was playing as a winger)
Zabaleta - good game. had good crosses, i could see a little bit of Zanetti. He was running the flanks well, good tackles and so on.
Banega - Amazing. his passes, short and long pass were so crisp so timely, he had great composure. i cant believe this guy is only 19. he really had a good game.
Sosa - bad game, really bad. about 2 minutes in the game he was hit really hard, and he didnt look good at all after that. He was right in front of me when he got tackled and i could see his reaction. he just didnt look good after that. He was subbed at the half for fernandez.
Riquelme - not a great game, but not so bad either. he did well enough, but i think he let banega do more of the playmaking, and on top of that, Guatemala had almost two guys marking him. whenever he touched the ball, there were two guys around him.
Mascherano - a crowd favorite, he made some awesome stops right by where we were sitting and the fans were going crazy (the Guatemala ones). his passes were also great, he was just typical mascherano. it felt so weird watching him stand about 10 yards infront of me.
Lavezzi - i didnt realize he was this fast, and this short. short short player, looks kinda like messi from a far. but had a good game, he was playing CF (i thought he shoulda been a second striker, but he he did good. his goal was awesome, and should have scored a second. he had a great assist. and was very very active. so bravo to him
Higuain - boy was I impressed with some of his controls, he ran all over the field. He had a few bad touches, but overall he was lethal. Specially inside the box. I really think he should be an inside the box player. his second goal showed what a great composure he has, it also showed me his awareness of where the goal was. he got the pass, turned around, without looking knew where the goalie was and where he needed to shoot. just great. his first goal was also great.
Ustari - well, he had one good save in the beginning but he wasnt tested.
I will say about 60 - 70% of the fans were for Guatemala, but there were still lots of people smiling and cheering when the goals were being scored.
I will post the pictures soon. i took about 400 of them. lol. have a good one guys
Posted from United States

Posted from  United States

Well, unfortunately, it’s impossible to schedule friendlies against ‘top sides’ on a regular basis. Plus, that seems rather exclusionary.

Anyway, they’ve played friendlies against many different teams over the past 2-3 years: Brasil, Switzerland, Australia, Spain, and a few others which escape my mind at the moment.

i will give my break down tonight Great game .

Posted from  United States

Caps and goals count as a real fifa game so that means Higuain has scored more then the caps he has for the national team.

Posted from  United States

Ya, it means that Higuian can’t be considered for France now, right?

Higuain is officially a AFA player and cannot be called by France.

Posted from  United States

http://pepexe.com.ar/

Posted from  United States

Hello my fellow Argentine football lovers
I was lucky enough to be at the stadium and watch my favorite Argentine destroy Guatemalla. It was a great experience watching Riquelme and Mascherano. Mascherano is just adorable. I do not know how to put this but the goals were so easily scored. I do not know if it was because Guatemala was not a strong team or that how it is in general. Because on tv it all seems so complicated. Has to be a camera trick vamos Argentina

We trashed them without messi and aguero.

Posted from  United States

Great goals. Happy that Pepita and Levezzi scored.

Posted from  Norway

nice highlights of Argentina’s dominant win over Guatemala

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN61lmGu_Do

Messay, nice review.
I believe Guatemala, without their 2 best players, are not the right team to measure anybody’s game.
To me, they were terrible, and our guys took advantage of the opportunity.
I agree with you, Carrie, a couple of goals even looked easy.

Now all that said, it’s such a pleasure to see our albicelestes play a high level of football.
They are good and wonderful to watch, no matter who’s in front.
Personally I was very impressed by Banega.
He took the “responsibility” last night and it’s great to know that Riquelme can have an off night and there’s another enganche to make everything work.
The 4-3-1-2 became a 4-2-2-2. I hope this means good news to our dear friend MaxiLopez
Other players who were fun to watch, Demichelis. He is the boss of the back line.
His style of football reminds me of Redondo (Demichelis used to play the # 5 position).
Mascherano, solid, as always.
Also Escudero, Higuaín, and Lavezzi, who’s goal was pure “tango”, but honestly, too easy.
The whole game was easy for our guys (except 2 or 3 saves by Ustari).

But it’s a great thing for our young players, to build confidence in themselves and their teammates.
Argentina have a very personal style of football. It’s noticeable even in sub-23 and younger players. They’re fun to watch (most of the time)
Imagine adding Messi, Agüero, Garay and Gago.
That’s closer to the team Basile wants come WC10.

Posted from  United States

I posted my whole story (with a few pictures) on the following link:
http://www.fbtz.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1037695&postcount=621

I am currently uploading a video compilations of videos and photos that I took of the fans throughout the game. That will be posted later.

- Gonzalo

Posted from  United States

My video has now been uploaded -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Y0eTObMGI

Posted from  United States

Had Argentina lost, those who are claiming here that this deserved win doesn’t mean much wouldn’t be saying the same thing.

As a matter of fact, facing a weak side such as the Guatemalan team that ARg. faced on Wednesday, one would expect such a deluge of goals.

I actually didn’t know the results until I saw the news today on Gol T.V.

It was impressive!! It can only get better.

Sure, it tells us that Argentina as usual wins against mediocre teams but when it comes to facing real teams the pee in their shorts.

Any news on the druggie communist pig Maradona?

ARG/USA in NY in June…

Mixed emotions, anyone?

Posted from  United States