Monday, January 29, 2007

In all fairness...it was unfair!

It would have been unfair. Yes. Very unfair. And yet, it was unfair. Very unfair.

How do I explain what I´ve just wrote?

Simple.

It would have been unfair for the likes of Lionel MESSI, Sergio AGÜERO, Gonzalo HIGUAIN, Fernando GAGO and a number of very talented Argentine players that I´m sure are looking forward to playing in such an important competition as the Olympic football tournament next year in Beijing.

Unfair for all the fans (like you) who follow anything that wear the Albiceleste colours regardless of the competition, sport, gender, venue...you name it.

Argentina won the all-important game against Uruguay in the dying moments. And (it hurts when I say it) IT WAS UNFAIR.

Not because Uruguay were better. Not because they deserved to win. Not because the competition format was appropriate (in fact I think it was criminal making these guys play crucial matches every 48 hours). It was unfair simply because Argentina didn´t play for the win. We did NOTHING to win it and we shouldn´t have won it.

I´m very disappointed with the team, but specially with Hugo TOCALLI, the manager.

Let me explain why.

From what I saw, Argentina were never going for the win. It looked (right until the very end) that we were OK with one point. But NO, Mr. TOCALLI, we were not OK with one point.

I must admit I was a little bit concerned everytime I read one comment from TOCALLI saying: “Our first goal is go to the Youth World Cup”. And by the looks of it, I was right to be scared.

But the worst thing is that we could have even lost by 3 goals and still be in the Youth World Cup and with Paraguay beating Chile earlier, we were going to both tournaments with only a 1-0 win. So there is nothing in the World that can justify such a strategy even though TOCALLI got the result because everybody, even Mr. TOCALLI, know that we got away with that without even trying to get it.

I have to say that this was the worst U20 national team I have ever seen and I think we are very fortunate to have qualified for both tournaments.

And I have to say that I´m very very very pleased that despite those facts, we will have a team to defend the gold medal in Beijing 2008. I hope to see MANY changes and I would like to make the most of this opportunity to ask everybody who should be the 3 over-aged players (older than 23) that should go with the youngsters to the Olympics.

8 comments:

Seba said...

Javier SAVIOLA (wanted by Valencia) scored yet another goal for La Liga leaders, FC Barcelona (defeated Celta 3-1).

In other news, Maxi RODRIGUEZ is starting the last phase of his recovery after the surgery he needed in his knee. His comeback is scheduled in two months. Vamos Maxi!

Atlético Madrid is after the newest Argentine sensation, Martín ACEVEDO. He plays left-back for the youth teams of Boca Juniors. The curious thing is his age: He is only 12!

Manu GINOBILI came up with yet another heroic performance for the San Antonio Spurs. He blocked Kobe BYANT´s shot to send the game into extra time and suffered a hit by Kobe´s elbow in his nose and lip. It was not enough to send MANU out of the game and he returned with 2’14” to play. He finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists to help San Antonio beat Los Angeles 96-94.

Seba said...

And David NALBANDIAN is no longer a Top10 player after 51 consecutive weeks in that elite group. He is now place 11th and have confirmed that he won´t play the Davis Cup match against Austria in February.

Seba said...

And Pablo AIMAR have suffered yet another injury (sprained knee) that puts him in danger of missing out of Argentina´s friendly against France (also in February).

Seba said...

Another excellent article by Tim VICKERY:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/6308967.stm

Anonymous said...

The article and your post were realyl good Seba. The bit in Tim's article about the Brazilian backline growling made me giggle. I have to say though that I don't think that it was quite that unfair that we won. Yes Uruguay played better and we were lucky to score when we did, particularly when we weren't pressuring as we should. However I don't think that Uruguay deserved to win either. From what I saw, neither team was playing to win. In fact, watching the game, you would think that both teams were playing a friendly. They were playing not to lose.
I don't know if it was tiredness (I agree that the tournament was ridiculous in the lack of resting time the players got) or just tactics but it wasn't a great game for either side. They did pressure a couple of times but, especially in the second half, seemed content to defend the tie (which would help them). In fact, I thought that their DT made some defensive or questionable substitutions.
So while I agree that this is not the ideal way I would have wanted to win and A LOT of work needs to happen before we got to the Sub 20 World Cup I don't think that either team deserved to win. If we were going on who deserved to go to Beijing I would have given that right to either Paraguay or Chile who at least played like their future depended on it. It was luck and luckily for us, it was on our side.

Still Seba, I get what you are saying and I agree to a degree (that was what I was trying to say in my long winded post).

Manu rocks. Can't say anything else about the guy.

Poor Aimar! He was getting another chance at the national team, and has been playing so well at Zaragoza and now he has to recover all over again. I really hope he recovers in time.

Yay Maxi!

-argentinafan

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Too bad i never had the opportunity to watch those matches as so did many Asian fans. From what i hear, doesn't sound so pleasing and i reserver my judgement on the boys until maybe i have the opportunity to see them play. But to me i think, all that matters is that we qualified and many great teams always had that special element of luck maybe. Im just happy for the qualification and looking forward to the WYC in CANADA and the 2008 Beijing games. A big thanks to Paraguay for doing us a favour too.

Regards,
Alwin

Seba said...

Just to point out that I should have said that it was unfair for TOCALLI. The boys did their best and credit goes to them for "surviving" such a horrible tactician and a mediocre group leader.

I heard an interview on the radio last night and he was still going on about the fact that he want them to play not to lose and that the important thing for them was to qualify for the Youth World Cup.

Bollocks! I'm so mad at him! And this comes from the guy who was sitting right next to PEKERMAN when Argentina went defensive with 20 minutes to go against Germany. I´ll never forget that.

I may forgive a guy who doesn't know much about tactics and is lucky enough to be guiding an Argentine national team...but I won't forgive a guy who doesn't want to win while he is there!

That's mediocre.

Now I hope that COCO will manage that side in Beijing 2008.

The Youth World Cup? We simply don't have what it takes to become a great team and we don't have a Lionel MESSI this time around.

I don't know about the level of performances of the rest of the national teams (apart from Brazil, Uruguay and Chile) that will be taking part of that tournament...but I'm not confident in what our boys can achieve. At least guided by TOCALLI that is...

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