Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Argentina 4-2 Colombia: Players' ratings

It's never too late!

Wanted to do this straight after the match, but I have to sleep from time to time!

ABBONDANZIERI: Another shaky performance by him. Granted, our defense is not playing their best football and he suffers from that. But PATO is not giving us guarantees. 4/10

ZANETTI: A great assist to RIQUELME for Argentina to turn the game around. A top display in every aspect of the game. Still wonder why he was left out of Germany 2006. 7/10

AYALA: Showed his class in more than one ocassion when he stopped Edison PEREA one on one on his back foot. I will miss him very much once he retires. 6/10

Gabriel MILITO: Was slow to react, leaving PEREA on-side in the first goal. Saw a yellow card and will miss the next match. But he recovered and played a decent second half. Still, not enough. 5/10

Gabriel HEINZE: Not much work to do defensively. Did not gravitate on offense. 6/10

MASCHERANO: Another fine display by MASCHE. He is EVERYWHERE. Always on time. Very clever and with the ability to recover the ball and pass it to a team-mate with only one touch. He suffered the match's most blatant foul by ARIZALA but kept playing like nothing happened. 8/10

VERON: A great first half, in my opinion. Suffered a lot of fouls too and tried to connect with MESSI (did it well at some stages). Faded in the second half. 6/10

CAMBIASSO: Played a better game than with the USA. Not very confident with the ball, but ran a lot and helped MASCHE recover some balls. 6/10.

RIQUELME: Man of the match for me. Scored with a header (not very usual of him). Took a great free-kick, showed some good communication with MESSI and had the best pass of the game before Diego MILITO saw his chance saved by CALERO. 9/10 (if only he celebrated with joy, he would have taken a 10/10!)

MESSI: A very good game by Lionel. Despite not being in the score-sheet, he created a penalty and a free-kick that allowed Roman to score our third. The importance of Lionel is that he is not afraid of running at people, and that creates problems to the opposing defenses. He is even learning how to get rid of the ball and give it to a team-mate. 7/10

CRESPO: Unlucky to get injured. Played 20 minutes, had a header that hit the bar and then scored our first goal. I think he is finally starting to get some credit. And I'm happy for him. 7/10

Diego MILITO: The same old story. How do you judge a striker's performance? Obviously they are there to score. Diego played 70 minutes and scored once. Should have score a couple more, but the keeper denied him. Not easy to jump to the field and adapt to the game flow. 6/10

Lucho GONZALEZ: Replaced VERON and provided the team with some fresh air, chasing Colombians as they tried to equalize. Didn't play too much. 6/10

TEVEZ: I saw that killer eye. He is obviously frustrated by not starting or having enough playing time. But that doesn't interfere. He assisted Diego MILITO and looked good on the ball. Couldn't do much because time didn't allow 6/10

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i wouldent penalize roman for not being overjoyed, he still knows that people hate on him as soon as he hits a slump.

Anonymous said...

I think Riquelme did not go crazy because he knows it just the start. Remb when he scored those two goals away in Brasil a couple weeks back? That was the final and he helped/GUIDED Boca to another title. So when or if he scores in the final look for him to run around. Ahhh I am still waiting for Messi to blow up in this tourney, he has been the "silent"(If I dare to say that) killer for Argentina. Just unstopable when he gets the ball, and his pace has been right on. I will do another prediction( I have done a lot so please bare with me lol). I see MASCHERANO as the captain for the next WC.

Jack,

John said...

I still have a lot question for our defense. This is not how it should be. In Germany 2006, we were solid both in defense and offense.

VERON and CAMBIASSO had a much better game and ROMAN was simply marvelous.

However my personal opinion on who should win the man of the match award is JAVIER. I do echo your prediction Jack; he is a PRIME for the future.

Asil said...

Do you think Cata Diaz will make a difference to our defense?

Don't worry about Riquelme. We will see his joy when we are the Champion!

johnny said...

Cata is taller, faster, meaner. More height for corners on either end of the pitch. Plays with confidence and calm. I sing his praises every chance I get.