Rewind: When Argentina Met Nigeria in the 96 Olympic Final

Considering Messi ran rings around half of this team in the 2005 u20 WC final our only fear shoud be complacency.

These guys can run all game & they will press from moment one & are not afraid to strike from long range. Their pace will test our backline & I assume like the Ivory Coast they will play the ball in behind & ont he diagonals over our full backs.

We must be prepared tomorrow to meet the physical challenge. The skill will then out.

Congratulations of a sort to the Lions.A bronze. Had they won their group as they should have it would have been silver at least.

Heres to an Argentina triumph. Certain Nigerian fans want to see Messi have his legs broken early .I hope the referee is on the ball as well as with Vasquez.

Cheers skywalker & co for all the information on the friendly v Belarus. Why Cavegol is not ahead of Denis in the pecking order is strange. You only have to look at this time at River to see how much of a team player he is. He is a complete striker. Denis is more of the target man a la Cruz.

Chau amigos.

what time those argentina play? in the usa

argentina is going to win 4-1

wat time is I’m kick off anyone? Plz

Posted from  United Kingdom

UK sorry not I’m

Posted from  United Kingdom

The game is tonight – i.e. tomorrow 12AM EST. Roman thats 5am British time for you.

Posted from  United States

You Argentina fans are arrogant. keep disrespecting Nigeria,…remember what happened in 96′. Africa has the most talented players in the world,….we don’t win tournaments because poverty and corruption does not allow us to support our players like South American and European countries. If you don’t believe me,…watch the game tonight.

MOOSE,
The first people to support & praise African futbol are Argentina fans. Argentina & African teams have one thing in common. They have both the FIFA referees against them. I am a Africa fan, but after Argentina.

AURELIUS,
I’m waiting for a real test for Cavenaghi or Denis. I mean 90 full minutes with Roman & Leo. Denis & Cavenaghi are both excellent but only play useless friendlies & pieces of matches. Basile should test each in the 2 next qualifying game..

So tomorrow is the day. I’m sure Batista & his players are confident. But they won’t under-estimate Nigeria. I’m sure about that too and not only because Riquelme has said it. I believe in Batista. All we have to do is to be compact in defence and when we catch the ball, make Nigeria run. I say it for the 36th time, if Messi & Riquelme help our midfielders when we don’t have the possession, we are invincible. It will be a very very difficult game as it will be played at noon! I hope Gago, Riquelme, Aguero & Mascherano are not too exhausted!

VAMOS ARGENTINA!

here’s my view on the Final… what makes this game so fascinating is that the strength of both teams (offense) is going against the perceived weakness of the other (defense).

Nigeria, albeit extremely talented, will get torn to shreds if they don’t commit to their lanes on D and respect the movement of the forwards. Their defense, like most African teams, loves to play up high and straight up. This plays into the hands of players like Roman/Messi who can thread the ball through tight spaces. There is a reason why Roman has been very good vs Ivory Coast and in general African teams b/c they tend to play the man up and any run by Aguero/Messi/Di Maria has been / will be lethal. I expect Roman to show his class in this game. It’s tailor made for him.

On the other hand, Nigeria can run circles around our D, esp on the counter and up/down the flanks vs our full backs. It is for this sort of game where a 3-5-2 would come in handy. I would actually push up one of Monzon/Zabaleta depending on where the attack is coming from to snuff the damage from the MF area instead of letting it pervade close to our goal. Stop the Nigerian threat at the point of attack is basically what I’m saying.

And from the way Batista has organized and changed his tactics to counter the opposition’s style of play, I have no reason to believe the final won’t be the same. I think Batista will ensure that we’re set up in a fashion that limits the danger on counter/long range attacks better than the Ivory Coast and Holland game. You saw it in the Brazil game with Roman being more involved on defense and I expect him to do the same here.

Not dis-respecting the Nigerian fans who seem to have come to this blog in droves and suddenly discovered the internet (I kid!), but there is a major discrepancy in talent and if the ref protects the Argy players, I think we’ll win handily despite passages of intense pressure from Nigeria (esp set pieces which can be really tricky for us).

Argentina 3 – Nigeria 1
Vamos Argentina!!!

Posted from  Canada

Moose,
Dear friend we have only respect for all our opponents. I request you to take a look at the goal.com comment threads on tomorrows game and you can clearly see who has all the hatred and arrogance within. As for povery and economical/political problem, Argentina is not an elite country and it has its own fare share of issues. So, lets not get prejudiced and hope to have a good game tomorrow. And we do read the press conferences that your coach Mr. Siasia handled and his accusations on Argentina as “divers”…I dont think you are aware of the fact that Argentina is one of the most fouled teams in the recent past and has imbibed a good deal of gamesmanship and ethical approach to the game over the past few years since Jose Pekerman. We all know how skillful the African teams are and so do Argentina. We lack the physical stature of African players and perhaps it may be difficult for you to understand that when a bullish defender tackles a midget sized figure in his full swing inside the box, it in any common mans eyes do look like a foul and in the most commensensical way of interpreting it, it is disturbing a teams playing style and is a foul. So stop complaining over the refs cheating the Africans and be more tactically aware of the situation. Atlanta 06 showed a lot of luck and ref decisions go Nigeria’s way (the winner was a clear offside goal)but we need to move on…let the best team win tomorrow.

So only 9 hours left to go? Can wait!

Posted from  United States

Nigeria is a very strong team. One of their forwards(Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi) played legue football in Norway for two years, and I know very well what he is capable of…very fast and with great dribbling skills. This will be a very tough game, I can assure you. I predict a 2-2 result(after one big blunder by Romero) and us winning on penalties in the end…..

I am African, (Kenyan) and I am as Argentinean as they come.

The Nigerians have great talent, no doubt about it. They are also very fast (among teh best sprinters in the world after the US, The BAhamas, Tri & Tob and Jamaica) and that’s their forte.

That said, Nigeria cannot hold a candle to the current Arg. team. It is way superior in terms of techniques.

I predict a 3-1 win by Argentina.

Are they showing the game on NBC?

RUNE,
Why would Romero do a mistake? You should try to be optimistic one day…

hey moose nigeria is not the first country who thinks god will save them and they will beat us

in fact serbia thought that in wc 06…. as did mexico every time

the fact is we are not arrogant just realistic

Posted from  Canada

Basile has picked the following players for the Qualifiers against Paraguay and Peru.

Abbondanzieri, Roberto (Getafe-España), Carrizo, Juan Pablo (Lazio-Italia), Zanetti, Javier (Internazionale-Italia) , Romero, Sergio (AZ Alkaar-Holanda), Zabaleta, Pablo (Espanyol-España), Burdisso, Nicolás (Internazionale-Italia), Rodríguez, Gonzalo (Villarreal-España), Demichelis, Martín (Bayern Munich-Alemania), Coloccini, Fabricio (Newcastle-Inglaterra), Heinze, Gabriel (Real Madrid-España), Mascherano, Javier (Liverpool-Inglaterra), Gago, Fernando (Real Madrid-España), Cambiasso, Esteban (Internazionale-Italia), Di María, Angel (Benfica-Portugal), D’Alessandro, Andrés (Internacional – Brasil), Messi, Lionel (Barcelona-España), Tevez, Carlos (Manchester United-Inglaterra), Agüero, Sergio (Atlético Madrid-España) y López, Lisandro (Porto-Portugal).

Posted from  United States

A couple of surprises there. A major one is the inclusion of D’alessandro who is replacing Riquelme, and a minor is that of Di maria. I heard that Gutierrez was left out because of the conflict between Velez and his previous club over money. Afa decided to get involved and has banned him from any games with the team until the strife is resolved.

Posted from  United States

i have been reading everyone’s post though i myself have not posted for a while. let me give a brief summary of the past 2 games we played. when i first found out we were playing brazil i honestly was scared to be honest but now looking back at the game there was no reason for it to be. from the start brazil came with there physical approach but unfortunately for them it didn’t work, they could’nt score that first lucky goal that would win the game for them. but i think that dunga was very naive to think this strategy would work once again. he had to know that the arg coaching would be prepared for this with the copa still fresh in every ones memory. the difernce in this game was every one got back. we played with confidence, didn’t look shaky at all, at the copa it seemed every time that brazil countered they would score. so i will savour this win for the rest of my life.

as far as the friendly goes i would not read much into it we did have chances unlucky not to score. the game was boring though and we were lacking in the creative department. for the upcoming qulifiers i question basile selection once again. does he some thing personal against aimar, he passes on him for d’ allesandro, give me a break and he refuses to give denis or cavigol a chance in a real meaningful game.

The team is looking good . I agree that all we need to do is play some good defense and be patient. Let them wear themsleves out with energy and agressiveness while we knock the ball around. The goals will come late in the first. or second.

Posted from  United States

Only one hour to go!!! Lets go NIGERIA!!!!!

May the best team win,….and no injuries on either side,..ameen.

where is everyone the game starts in one hour? Vamos a ganar!!

Posted from  United States

My predictions are no goals in the first 30 minutes and then it opens up. I expect at least 5 goals . Either 4 to 1 or 3 to 2 with di maria scoring twice as they will focus in on stopping aguero messi and roman and that will leave Di Maria with a lot of space and he has been very opportunistic in this tournament.

Posted from  United States

Also I was really surprised with Delassandro . Is he playing well in Brasil and keeping a cooler head?

Posted from  United States

is anyone up?
any chance of catching the match online?
I’ve got sopcast… can’t find it on the bbc, so I assume they’re not broadcasting it.