Group A Match 1: Ivory Coast Vs Argentina

The silverlight software NBC Olympic feed is really crisp…..and live… download it after the game and you’ll get everything even on demand

Posted from  United States

That defender Pareja looks good from the 15 mins i’ve watched

wheeewh—- game over….

Posted from  United States

Who had the assist?

Posted from  United States

Acosta has saved this team more than once. Good for him.

Posted from  United States

A win is a win.

regards,

Lots for Batista to work on but three points secured. However to progress further the defence particularly both full backs need to be drilled better.

Romero for Ustari that was painful positioning.

Start di Maria .Width & getting to the byeline is essential. JRR exemplifies at times what is wrong with us. Too slow at times. We cannot play like this all the time.

Messi is at the defence but JRR takes the ball away again & the momentum is lost. No criticism of JRR .I love posession football. But we need to mix the game up more & once again a lack of movment off the ball.

Aguero can be a lazy bum at times as he was today & selfish too .. a strikers instincts but it would be nice to throw uin Denis or Cavegol off the bench if they had been selected rather than a similarish type replacement in Acosta.

The humidity definitely does not help & the team can only meld better. Oz will be more defensive I guess more withdrawn & lack the blistering pace of the IC team so should be relatively more comfortable.

Brazil hardly shone either against Belgium so there we are.
Saludos.

I’d rather not click as a team now and scrape through than peak now and fail later. Yes spoken like a true amateur I know, but superstitiously I don’t want to emulate anything 2006.

Posted from  United States

Well, it’s the exact same scoreline that we beat the Ivory Coast by in the WC2006.
We were playing too much through the centre, not enough width, and Lavezzi was trying too hard.
Di maria gave us more width and more options, and in the next match i would start him in place of Lavezzi.
Remember, this was the first match, and the first one is always a bit nervy, i’m sure they’ll all settle down by the next game.
Should give props to the Ivory Coast they gave us a good test.

Gago didn’t play all that well. Pareja did some really good work. But, i think i would like to see Fazio in place of Zabaleta, so we have lots of height in defence.
Don’t think we should worry too much, some players were trying too hard and need to relax, once they do that they will be fine.
Aurelius, you summed it up pretty well, i don’t think that Aguero played badly though.

We played a lot better then Brazil did in their first match. There are still things that can improve but I’m satisfied with the result. Some of the Roman-Messi interlinking was great to watch.

Posted from  Belgium

I saw all the match and i got to say we didnt play all that bad. We have to show some respect to the Ivorians. They were more physical and hard to break down. What we needed after the 1st half was change of tactics for sure. Lavezzi shouldve been replaced by Di Maria who was so much livelier and secondly we shouldve got another striker instead of Aguero maybe Denis or Cavegol!! Defensively, Pareja and Garay were good but Zabaleta isnt that good at all, he was caught out several times only for Mascherano to resuce him again n again. Monzon was average, though he was kept really busy by the Ivory coast right back, but did a better job than Zabaleta.

In Midfield, Gago was a little off his usual slick passing and tackling.
Riquelme,Messi and Mascherano were Immense!! they held argentina together for most of the game..i just hope we keep on improving as the competition goes on!!

Posted from  United States

I don’t see any score….does anyone know why they played the fifa music and not the olympic music when the teams marched onto the pitch?

Posted from  United States

Barca only let Messi play on the conditions that:
Firstly, the AFA will pay all of Messi’s wages for the total period of any injury sustained in the Olympics.
Secondly, that he won’t take part in any of Argentina’s friendlies for the upcoming season.

Blatter has said that after the Olympics are over, FIFA are going to clarify the rules into law, so that this situation never develops again.

John, your reference to our “inferiority complex” excludes you obviously, so when you say
“we will …” who are you talking about?
Your inferiority complex is smaller than ours?
So who are “we”?
Argy fans?
You think argy fans have an inferiority complex?
So where does that leave you.
Are you part of a “superior” level of fans?
Are we ALL talking about Brazil in this blog?
You have a big mouth and you are NOT an argy football fan.
You are a disgrace to argy football.
GO BRAZIL
GO ARGENTINA

Posted from  United States

For anyone who didn’t watch the full match for one reason or another, here’s the link for the full match, ENJOY:

http://www.justin.tv/brujita_veron2/187302/Argentina_vs_Costa_de_Marfil_JJOO

Riquelme-Messi, connected to perfection in both goals.
Pareja had a great game.

Posted from  United States

Oh and I forgot to mention:

The brazilians watched and got scared…

Posted from  United States

Albo — funny stuff!

I agree about the Riquelme Messi link-up — great moments between the two. THe second goal reminded me of that trick goal against Colombia, where Riquelme released Messi to play against the entire defense and create a goal. The two are at another level.

I’m still waiting for Gago to take control of the field. When he doesn that, I can’t see how Arg can go wrong.

Posted from  United States

mane , john — if you think that Brazilians watch Arg without concern, then you don’t know anything about south america. Of course you are probably the same person and just are trolling, so why do i even bother to write…

Posted from  United States

>>>I can assure you the Brazilians don’t do the same.>>> says john

Check their blogs, charlatan

http://globoesporte.globo.com/
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/especial/2008/olimpiada/

Posted from  United States

You support them then, but i support only Argentina, Brazil are crap!

day1star thanks for the full match link
i hope you so the same after the match against australia.
might miss it due to work

Quote from the Brasil website after Argy vs Brasil game .

Slowly Dunga’s reign of terror looks to be ending. The samba steady free flowing essence of Brazilian football has been lost, replaced by the dour, dark and disturbing image of a team faking their true identity. The showing against Argentina proved it all, we could’ve been beaten we could’ve been attacked but we were spared by Los Hermanos. They probably laughed at what has become of us, a team putting strength before skill defensive before attack. We may have won the Copa America, but in actual fact we really lost. We allowed Dunga to stay in charge and keep giving his same defensive mediocrity, the same bull shit we endured with Parriera before, and same bull shit we need to see less of. What I mean by Parriera is he was of the same school of thought, defence and counter attack (confederation cup, look what happened when no one performed at the World Cup), and that defensive crap of caution and being scared to lose has dogged us our traditions as Brazil. Watching Argentina give the Brazil team a reality check was what was needed, they mirrored us in mentality and it was obvious they weren’t being expansive by pushing too many men up, but in truth they still dominated the majority of play. Argentina played well within themselves, and Dunga’s Brazil had no answer, no prayer, just disorganisation of a useless midfield and a few moments of Robinho.

Posted from  United States