C.A.P. is a lifelong student of football, one of the 20 million Argentine men ready to step in as manager if the call was made and a supporter of Racing Club.
He has kindly agreed to lend an air of authority to this blog by providing match reports on the Argentinian games.
June 30th
Argentina 1 – Germany 1 (lost 2-4 on penalties)
Argentina are out.
In a low-level game, both sides took a lot of caution and didn’t risk too much.
The first half was slow with each team studying the play of the others. Neither team was dominant. In some parts Argentina was controlling the game but they were slow – in other parts it looked like Germany was going to react but it didn’t happen. Everything took place in the midfield, far from the goals.
The second half had more action.
Very soon Argentina took the lead with a header from Ayala – Argentina’s best player – from a corner.
Germany felt the impact and pushed forward. What was uncertain was whether Argentina could withstand the pressure and score in a counter-attack to seal the match.
As the game looked like it was drawing to the close, a seemingly unimportant incident determined the rest of the game: Abbondancieri, the Argentinian keeper, was injured and was substituted. This took up one of Argentina’s substitutions when minutes earlier Pekerman had swapped Riquelme for Cambiasso. This altered his plans for the match – in other games he added fresh legs towards the end to outpace the tired legs of the defence.
But this didn’t happen, everybody had assumed Messi would be put on to worry the German defence, but the manager chose Julio Cruz as he thought he could easily get in to the area and would have more effect due to his height. But this didn’t happen and the situation was complicated when Klose scored the equalizer with a header. From then on, both teams tried to score but extra time was inevitable.
During extra time, Germany were very tired and the key figure Ballack was having problems. They defended and hoped for a miracle, letting Argentina dominate possession but without allowing clear scoring opportunities.
As if the Argentinian team had an intuition, they were trying to avoid penalties.
At the end the penalties decided Germany continue in the championship.
Here we have the impression that luck favoured the Germans and it could be so.
But also the intuition and calm of the penalty takers and goalkeepers play an enormous part in this circumstance.
Germany shot four penalties and didn’t miss – Argentina got just two out of four.
It’s like tossing a coin, which came down for the Germans – for them it was good and a logical result – for Argentina, there’s the feeling that the result wasn’t completely fair.
The referee, came in for much criticism before (and some after) the match, but his performance was correct and he didn’t alter the course of the game.
To borrow the words of Gary Lineker: “Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.”
In Berlin, he was shown to be right again.
C.A.P.
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June 24th
Argentina 2 – Mexico 1 (after extra time)
Argentina pass another hurdle, much higher than predicted
Mexico played their best match of recent times and at times and in some aspects were superior to Argentina but couldn’t overcome the abilities of their opponent.
Mexico struck first and showed in the sixth minute that they weren’t going to be an easy rival. Soon after, Argentina drew level and the match started to even up. Both had moments of dominance and goal scoring opportunities. When Argentina was controlling the game in the middle of the field, Mexico put a lot of players behind the ball, but were ready to attack with high speed.
It looked like Mexico was moving as a unit and with more coordination, but the equal score was a fair reflection of the game.
Close to the end of the first half, Heinze made a foul that the referee judged a yellow card offence, though it could easily have been a red. This could really have affected the game.
In the second half things didn’t change very much and moth could have scored, but the result was still uncertain.
Pekerman made three changes before the extra time that were really decisive. The extra time was also equal until the great goal of Maximiliano Rodriguez from outside of the area which showed the only way to break through their tough defense.
Mexico felt the impact and tried to get an equaliser, but they didn’t have the same strength as in the beginning and also Argentina was controlling the ball to calm down the match. The entry of Aimar, Tevez and Messi tipped the balance in favour of Argentina in the last part of the match.
For Argentina, the star was Ayala, followed by Abbondancieri, Mascherano and Riquelme. The rest played irregularly.
For Mexico, Borgheti was the star who drove Argentina’s back line crazy, and in general the whole team had a good performance.
Argentina won, but just by a nose, as they say in horse-racing.
Now is coming Germany, a very difficult task. But then the Germans are possibly also not so happy to have to face Argentina.
For Germany, in every sense, to keep going towards the cup is vital. To lose would be a national disaster of huge proportions.
For Argentina to get to the quarter final is already a big achievement compared to Korea in 2002, but of course they really want much more.
On Friday 30th at 12 o’clock (local time) the whole country will be paralysed.
Until then…
C.A.P.
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June 21th
Argentina 0 – Holland 0
A predictable result – now the real World Cup can begin
The draw was the right result for the match although Argentina were slightly superior in the first half.In the second half, the Dutch drew level and there were chances for both sides. The priority for both teams was not to lose, though both would have been very happy with the win. The match was intense but there weren’t too many goal opportunities.
Argentina had three clear chances and Holland two.
In the end they were both okay with the result because there’s not too much between playing Portugal and Mexico in the next round. Maybe speculating on the future Argentina could have avoided Germany in the quarter finals, but not losing has far more importance than that speculation.
And the fans would have hated it.
Argentina had two outstanding players, ‘Raton’ Ayala and ‘Apache’ Tevez, though they all played well. The expectations about Messi remained expectations, he didn’t play badly but he went alone too often as if he had something to prove.
Now is the turn of Mexico, a rival who appears weak though you have to be careful. In a world cup, no one is immune to a bad performance or an accident or mistake that can eliminate you from the championship.
Now the real world cup starts, and Mexico is the first test.
C.A.P.
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June 16th
Argentina 6 – Serbia and Montenegro 0
Argentina squashed Serbia and Montenegro.
The match was defined in the first half with an undisputed 3 – 0 lead.
The Argentinian team was very sharp and converted almost all of their opportunities.
With an excellent collective performance with Saviola standing out, Argentina is already thinking ahead to the next stage of the championship. The Serbian and Montenegran team were without soul – they lost their chance to classify with a dismal performance.
The second half was unnecessary. It was like a training session for Argentina to test some players and gain confidence for the coming matches.
Finally we got to see Tevez and Messi who everybody had been clamouring to see and both of them scored. The 6 – 0 result was almost beside the point.
In the rest of the competition Argentina’s not going to get such an easy game as they had today. But after this performance the other teams will be worried about how status of the South American team has risen so fast.
And now it’s the turn of Holland…
C.A.P.
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10th June
Argentina 2 – Ivory Coast 1
Argentina were slightly better in the first half – the 2-0 lead flattered them a bit. In the second half Argentina speculated with the lead. They stopped to attack and tried to run down the clock. They looked like they could have scored again if they’d tried, but slowly Ivory Coast pressured them and got back into the game. In the last minutes, Argentina ended up holding on and it even looked like a draw was on the cards.
In conclusion, Argentina won well but a draw wouldn’t have been a very unfair result.
The best Argentinian players were the defence (Abondancieri, Ayala and Heinze) and Saviola.
For the Ivory Coast, the captain Drogba was outstanding.
In general Argentina weren’t convincing. Maybe it was just nerves because it was the first match, but also because there’s a lot at stake and there’s a lot of media pressure on the players. The strengths of the team and the quality of the players didn’t shine through on the pitch.
None of the substitutions had the desired effect on the game.
The fans are generally unhappy with defensive strategies. The ideal is to play well and win – like the Brazilians. This isn’t always easy to achieve. Often the best results come from defensive and speculative teams.
In Argentina there’s a debate between two styles of play: that of Cesar Luis Menotti – manager of the 78 World Champions, and that of Salvador Bilardo – manager of the 86 World Champions (and runners up in Italy in 90).
The first is all about beautiful football, always attacking and trying to score more than the opposition. It’s offensive at the price of the defence.
The other is all about defending, speculating with mistakes of the opponents and once they get ahead it’s about defending by any means possible.
In general the Argentinian fans prefer the first style, because it’s more fun to watch, but if it doesn’t produce results it soon faces criticism. In the last few years this type of football is out of fashion as the results weren’t so good.
But the other style has won a lot of success nationally and internationally and has won over the fans even if the spectacle is not always recommended.
C.A.P
July 2, 2006 at 6:42 pm