International Friendly: Argentina – Mexico

You all know my opinion concerning how the 3-5-2 can work:

ATTACKING:

———–Clown———–
–Coloccini-Micho-Heinze—
———Mascherano——–
Zabaleta—-Gago—-Maxi—
———-Lucho————
—–Messi—————–
———-Aguero———–

DEFENDING: Heinze & Colo know how to play in a 3-men defence, they must start!

———–Clown———–
Zabaleta-Colo-Micho-Heinze-
———Mascherano——–
Messi—-Gago–Lucho–Maxi-
———-Aguero———–

This system depends on Zabaleta but i’m positive because he is strong, very fast and good tactically. Maxi, Colo, Heinze, Mascherano are used to 3-5-2. 9 players defend. This kind of system is the priority. Too bad we practice this 2 years after Pekerman’s tactical achievment.

DEFENDING like Brazil 2002 is risky because it tend to make you defend all the time and make you lose the ball quickly specially if there are only 2 midfielders in front of the defence. This would be better than what we saw against Mexico, but Zanetti & Maxi would get exhausted. I admit I don’t like this:

———-Stupid———–
Zab–Colo-Micho-Heinze-Maxi
–Gago–Mascherano–Lucho–
—————————
——Messi—–Aguero—–

ALBO,
Thanks for responding. I don’t want perfection at all, all i want is possession and nice short passes. This is how Cavenaghi can reach the ball in the box. Basile could have brought Aimar (even recovering) or Lucho in the #10 role instead of Messi or Sosa. I hope it’s not the end of our 3-5-2. Anyway, there are son many tactical problems.

ALEXA, Yes. It seems that this Pato mistake is the last one you can digest : ) Not for Basile, i’m sure. We have very good young golkeepers that are just waiting to be tested. I don’t know what happened to Barbosa? I will return to Villareal. Abbondanzieri is coming back to Boca Juniors for next season. What will happen if Carizzo gets injured in 2009? : (

DAY1STAR, exactly. I’m glad to read comments like yours because at the beginning, here, it seemed that we had played wonderful futbol, with 2 connections between Messi & Aguero.

Lucho has been voted best player in Portugal, just in front of Licha Lopez. I remind the ones that still don’t know his position that he is a central midfielder (#8) that can play on the right. With Basile, he has always been played on the left (France, Egypt, …) and has been destroyed unfairly here on the blog because of this. I believe he is one of the most important players we have with Riquelme, Mascherano, Cambiasso, DeMichelis and some few others.

On a different note, the “great”, the “huge”, the “magnificent”, the one that never loses a single ball, the guy who is doing shadow to Roman, Jonas Gutierrez, could go back to Argentina because Mallorca won’t buy him. : )

Dear Maxi don’t fret too much.

Skywalker is spot on with his Maradona anecdote. He was seen as a circus act at times in his early career at Barca & eventually developed into the greatest player of all time with a team built specifically around him.

Messi is a kid & is developing into a great player. His vision is not bad for a player ten years older than him & he can distribute effectively when required & keep the ball.

We need his dashes at time to upset the opposition who will be playing infront of us ten men & expecting our triangles .

Defenders hate players like him . We just need referees to be more harsh in their punishment when he is fouled cynically.

And JRR will be there to take advantage with his dead ball skills. Valeri can possibly take over this role.

We do need the likes of Cavegol working the line & creating passing lanes & space. Messi as first receiver needs players running off him constantly.

Such a fluid formation should not necessitate chaos as it appeared at times against Mexico with Maxi working round in the left back spot but thats a cause of having such a short time to prepare.

The personell certainly need changing. Zanetti by Zabaleta , Insua or even Escudero can come in at left back, in a back four but I agree a back three of Garay-Dimi-Gonzalo would be the best. Garay would provide the pace & Maidana at Boca is another further candidate.

Cavenaghi for Cruz. Its a pity Aimar is out of the picture. In the Copa he was badly miused & the few times he has played with Messi ie v Algeria , Angola, Mexico , USA & Paraguay they link up superbly because they play at a similar tempo.

Given the time to gel a few personell changes few teams if any can live with this talent & Tevez is still not about or Saviola who must not be forgotten.

And theres plenty of talent to come through. Icardi, di Santo , Meza & co. At present I’d have Romero ahead of Ustari. Hes developing into a top keeper with AZ havin some excellent games late in the Eredivisie season.

I do like your 3-5-2 formation which I suggested last year to cope with a lack of proficient full backs at the present.

The players ar buoyant & wont be going into the game against Brazil feeling worried. Brazil will have enough problems containing all our offensive jewels. Basile will tinker with the formation & the team can only gel further.

The sole weakness is pace at the back. Maidana,Garay & Insua when they eventually come into the team can rectify this.

Chau amigos.

And come on Spain !

AURELIUS,
I try I try.
“The personell certainly need changing”. “And theres plenty of talent to come through”. 2 years we are all saying this. Who is on the field? Pato, Cruz, Ibarra, … OK I stop
Where are you spending the holidays? Vamos Espana, Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Torres y Villa.

Venezuela beat Brazil ! 2-0. I wouldn’t read anything into it though. But a bit of a shock.

Posted from  United States

Hey! Friends GREAT POSTS from everybody.

I am going for the game in NY. Pretty good seats, I bought the first day it came on sale. Hope our team will behave more like a cohesive unit. Brazil can lose to all but changes against Argentina.

The first think that came to my mind after the Mexico game was, just because we 4-1, does not mean we played great. E.g. we played great against England but lost 2-3. I remember my wife asking, what happened after the loss, worried about the WC, I said to her I am happy we are ready for WC. This time even though we won 4-1, I am not sure we are ready for the games coming up. That’s it.

I think we all will agree that Messi can play better, but he was the MOM. Overall it was a poor quality game. Loads of errors. Argentina benefitted from most of them.

Why don’t Pato retire by himself. He promised so. I remember very clearly.

BTW,sometimes on EA sports I play like this

——-Ustari——–

Gonzalo – Demi – Heinze

—Gago——Mascherano

——–Riquelme/Lucho——-

Messi ————-Tevez/Maxi

—Aguero – Lisandro –

Since our back line is weak and slow and that is not something thats going change in a day, a 3-5-2 with sitting tight defenders is must for me. I don’t know what you guys think. It gives me a shiver everytime I see our defenders near the center line. Milito used to scare me on that.

Finally, recipe for Brazil, if I am a manager. I will just sit tight, no all out attacks. My defenders sit tight. Holding mid fielders sitting tight. They will be confused and attack, because at the end of the day they love to score, the do not want a 0-0. That opens the gates and passing lanes for me. Else there is no chance, physically strong and fast fullbacks and counter attacks will kill.

Ending note, at the end of the day I am happy to win 4-1, playing not so great. Because most of the people look at the score line and think that the winning team played great. And I want to win now. Its been a long long wait . I WANT TO WIN!

Apperently Aguero rejected Chelsea after they offered to pay off his €55 million release clause. He seems committed to his team.

Posted from  United States

Maxi, I don’t expect anybody here to like Abbondanzieri.
I already know everybody hates him.
But to call him a clown after what he has done for Boca in the past years, sounds a bit out of place to me.
He has won everything under the sun.

We simply don’t have a GK right now, (other than Carrizo).
Do you think Ustari is much better?
Our line of defenders has improved since 2006.
And our GK will be the last thing to find.
If, like you say, Carrizo gets hurt, we simply don’t have an experienced GK to replace him.
Ideas are welcome, insults not so much.

Posted from  United States

nothing kills me more than all these media pundits calling the Euro the best soccer tourney in the world. and they follow it up by saying if you are a casual fan, this is the tourney you want to watch. come on…

oh god, this swiss czech game is horrible, atleast the 2nd half has opened up a little better. but it’s sad that like the Champions League vs Copa Lib., the Copa America is completely disregarded by FIFA as it doesn’t produce the money the Euro does. While the South American defences aren’t upto scratch, teams from the Americas try to score as opposed to Europe who try and defend and for the casual fan, I’m sure they’d rather see 4-3 games as opposed to this stuff on display right now. Any day I’d rather watch a Urg vs Venez game rather than the long ball up, long ball back approach of these Euro based teams.

a- im in the same section

Posted from  United States

Infobae reports that Coloccini had to leave the Albiceleste team and urgently fly to Buenos Aires.
The cause, an undisclosed personal problem his son had yesterday.
Looks like he won’t be playing tomorrow against USA, but he is expected to return for the game against Ecuador.
Bummer

Posted from  United States

I’ll be watching CONMEBOL WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS than EURO.

With regard to Brazil’s 2-0 loss to Venezuela, IMHO, Brazil doesn’t have a quality team as Argentina does. The only thing they do is refuse to lose to Argentina by being more physical and thus disrupting Arg. game and disorganisign the midfield.

NativeSon.. I disagree. Brazil always down to the competition in friendlies and generally are not interested in these games. You can’t rate Brazil on games like these. They have always been like this.

No one can question Brazil’s talent. Yes they may have switched to a European based style, but you can’t say they don’t have quality in their ranks. In fact, overall they maybe better than Arg. They have better GK, wingbacks, central D is about the same, they have just as good number 5s as we do, attacking MF is canceled by Roman/Messi + Kaka/Pato (not even mentioning Ronaldinho), strikers are more or less of level as well. and Brazil’s youth system is on par with Argentina. We produce skilled lads, they produce behemoths who are strong and have top level skill as well.

We adhere to the beautiful game, they just win world cups. sad but true…

sky — thanks so much! That’s one of my main pet peeves on the planet. I wrote an impassioned diss on one of the journalists who made that claim on the guardian.

I;m looking forward to the eruo cup because i’m a football fan, but there is no way in hell that it will be better than the copa america. European teams don’t take the risks that American teams take. I’m always also sort of shocked by how little their players care about playing for their countries. Compare that to Messi and Riquelme, who are doing everything they can to play in the Olympics, of all tournaments.

The portuguese game has been zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Also, except for Ronaldo and maybe Fernando Torres, The Euro Cup is missing the biggest superstars in the world. A tournament without Messi, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Riquelme, Drogba, Riquelme, Essien, Eto’o…. that’s the eruo cup.

The level will be high, and great teams will participate. But it isn;t better than the World Cup. Please!

Posted from  United States

The probable starting lineup for tomorrows game is:

Zabaleta—Demichelis—Rodriguez—–Heinze
————Mascherano—–Banega————–
—Sosa——————————Gutierrez
———Lisandro Lopez—-Cavenaghi———-

Basile has stated that the lineup will be composed mostly by the substitutes that came in during the match against Mexico. He might choose to play a 4-4-2 with these player. The US usually plays with only one striker and attacks well on the wings; good at crossing.
The actual starting lineup will be announced right before kickoff.

Posted from  United States

Oh, and we will get the chance to see the new away jersey on the pitch tomorrow.

Posted from  United States

This could be that ‘golden’ opportunity Torito Cavenaghi has been waiting for so long.
I hope he doesn’t think about it too much and plays his best game.
And I hope someone gives him the ball.

Posted from  United States

Well I just saw these highlights of the Brazil/Venezuela game. Two things struck me – Venezuela showed some nifty moves and Brazil’s squad was stacked — Robinho, Dani Alves, Adriano, Luis Fabiano, Diego. Most of their A team was on that field. No Kaka, no Ronaldinho, but still amazing talent that didn’t produce in that game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yEaoJQdOAg&feature=related

Brazilian fans sure do show what they are feeling, even in Foxboro Stadium!

When I see these games I’m always floored by how much talent there is in South America.

Posted from  United States

You know what confounds me about Brazil.. When we play their ‘B’ team and Dunga is forced to play his meat and potatoes players and pretty much grinders all over the park, 3 defensive minded MF players, Brazil really do have an upper hand against us as they bully us over the park, take technical fouls, gang up on Roman/Messi and wait for one of their wing backs to free their strikers and score on the counter attack.

However, when Brazil is forced to play their all stars, all of a sudden, Dunga cannot get the same commitment to defence from Kaka, Pato, Ronnie, Adriano. This is Arg’s best chance to beat Brazil as we can carve up teams that don’t physically abuse us all over the park and aren’t playing with 10 men behind the ball. Sort of what France did to them at the WC. In a weird way, I wish Brazil do play their best players against us as it’s our best chance. Yes, we will be susceptible to the quality of their players but our chances do increase and especially if we score first. Guys like Baptista, Cicinho, Ze Roberto scare me more than their star players.

Of course, we could have another Ronaldo 3 penalties situation against us, but I conveniently tend to forget. And not going to bother with the Confed cup when they were stacked and we had guys like Bernardi, Figueroa & Delgado playing. Rather, I like to remember the time when both teams fielded their best players & I was in Buenos Aires for that memorable 3-1 win, esp that Roman goal with the blazing left foot. what a scene…

Adriano scored 3 in 2 games against us.
He feels he owns us.
He can’t wait to play us.

Posted from  United States

NATIVESON,
Friendlies results are not important. Don’t worry for Brazil. In 2007, we had incredible “quality” and were destroyed tactically. Lets focus on our many problems before talking about Brazil.

SKYWALKER,
I believe European teams are more competitive, in general but they are boring (except Spain & maybe Portugal). They are tactical and it is interesting to watch, sometimes. I admit I won’t watch a lot of Euro games. Germany will face nobody until the final, as usual.

ALEXA,
The bad point concerning Copa is the suspense but the futbol is so nice.

ALBO,
I have nothing to add concerning Pato.
“And I hope someone gives the ball to Cavenaghi”. It will be Gutierrez & Sosa’s job. It may be a 4-3-1-2 & 4-4-2 without the ball (I hope so). Vamos Cavegol!

I’m not sure at all Basile is going to play 3-5-2 against Brazil. Maybe he just only wanted to test it and intox Dunga. Otherwise he would have played 3-5-2 also against the US? A & B teams must know how to play same systems.

I can’t wait the Brazil game to see if we defend with 8 players and if Basile has understood all the problems.

A few points-

sky -
I agree with what you wrote. I wish Icould get a torrent of the Brazil/Arg in Arg game. I’ve only seen the Roman goal from it.

In general, I think that Dunga is creating a team where he doesn’t have to depend on Brazilian superstars. They are breathtaking (the real ROnaldo, Ronaldinho, Adrian), but they have too many ups and downs, and their stars don’t last long. This is tragic for football, and you can tell that Dunga probably doesn’t even want to have to deal with them. He would rather field a reliable team that wins most games. Their new crop of great players — robinho and diego, are as small as Messi and Aguero! So Arg can manhandle them too, let’s not forget that.

Brazil will always find a way to play Arg tough, but they cannot be world beaters with just utility players, no matter how technically-sound. This is a major problem for them, and it will be interesting to see what they do.

Albo –
Adriano is a great great player (someone who I always enjoy watching), but he’s spending his entire career delusional. Surely there will be one game when he doesn’t score against arg!

Maxi — I’m not sure what you mean?

Why does Germany get the easy draw every time? They get it EVERY time. And this is the second major competition where they come in as practically hosts.

I’ve procrastinated work enough.

I’m not sure I understood you?

Posted from  United States

Does anyone know what channel (in Canada) it will be on (if at all)? live streaming video etc? and what time?

Posted from  Canada

The game starts at 7:30 pm eastern.
In USA it’ll be on one of the ESPN channels and in Spanish on Telemundo and Telefutura.
I don’t have any info on live streaming but I’m sure you can google that one.
Saludos

Posted from  United States