I don't have much time to write a full report now (and honestly, the match was not worth it!), but I will say a few things that left me happy and unhappy. Let's start with the happy things:
A HAPPY SEBA SAYS:
- It's always good to get a win. Beating the African champions in their own backyard surely means something.
- AGÜERO got another goal with the Albiceleste and is proving to be a great striking option.
- We didn't concede a goal (though it was more due to Egypt's inability to score rather than Argentina playing good defense)
- GAGO looked like he has 50 or 70 international matches under his belt.
- Maxi RODRIGUEZ is Argentine!
- We won plenty of headers in the opposite box.
- CRUZ and HEINZE should never be called up again. Unfortunately, HEINZE will get more calls and CRUZ could still be around in the future.
- BASILE: Why do you take a friendly match with the approach of a serious and competitive match in the sense that you made only 3 substitutions (all of them coming in the last 15 minutes -with two of them taking place in the last 5-)?
- We didn't test more players. Why we didn't see Lisandro more than 5 minutes? Why? What's the point of playing friendlies if you keep your 11 players for 90% of the match?
- We played boring, boring, boring football for most of the match.
- We failed to send any of the many headers we won in the Egyptian box on target.
Did you watch the match?
What made you happy or unhappy?
Here's the link to both goals:
Posts
13 comments:
Happy Johnny says:
1. Aguero will menace opposing defenses for years to come. Ranks up there with Messi.
2. The midfield play of Gago, Lucho and Masche was decent.
3. Pupi still has it.
4. Burdisso is becoming a very good header. Very active in the box.
Unhappy Johnny says:
1. Yes, Coco is starting to irk me with his conservative approach to playing other players. I like Coco, but would like to see someone other than Pato. I also like Pato, but....My guess is that Coco feels (or maybe knows) that if he starts someone else Pato will call it quits and no more Pato forever. Maybe Coco is not ready to bid him a final farewell just yet.
2. The officiating was pretty lousy, but you wouldn't expect the best in this situation.
Anyway, a win is a win, and the offense "worked" without JRR.
Happy John says:
1) Argentina won!!!
Unhappy John says:
1) Damm it!!! I had no electricity throughout the whole night, so I miss the game.
Thanks Seba for posting video.
Kun was a perfect finisher. I guess looking from what you've guys just mentioned, I guess I did not miss that much.
Like many, I was looking forward to see more of Lisandro LOPEZ but that wasn't to be.
I hope we use Aguero more often than the tried, tested and failed Tevez. I think he will link up with Messi better.
But I really think that we still need a centre forward like Batistuta/Crespo. Cruz was a good man to try but let's move on.
By the way, do we have two Argentina teams now? Are Riquelme and Messi concentrating on the Olympic effort and will not be on the proper national team until after Beijing?
Allan..."Failed TEVEZ"???? I'm sorry, I'm on a completely different page there.
How can you say TEVEZ have been tried and tested and that he has failed?
He led us to our very first Olympic gold medal in football and he had a sensational Copa America back in 2004 -coming in from the bench- and then he was superb everytime he played in the World Cup in 2006.
I think AGÜERO may have more talent in store and will probably become a better player than TEVEZ, but until he shows the resilience and the spirit Carlitos shows week in, week out, he is still behind TEVEZ in my pecking order.
As for the two different teams...it's not like that. MESSI didn't play in Egypt because he is recovering from injury and RIQUELME was not called up because COCO only used players based in Europe this time. And he is injured anyway.
Nothing to do with the preparations for Beijing.
I watched the last 30min of the game and it seems like it was the best part of the game. I never been a fan of Julio Cruz just like I am not a fan of Diego Milito,I would take Luciano Figueroa ANY ANY day over Cruz and Milito, he is a prolific goal scorer for us, 9 goals in 15 games! he is a big guy as well stands 6 feet tall, and would of been on the WC side if he did not get hurt right before and GOD knows what would of gone down, but that day will never come so I will move on.
I have to agree with Allan NG about Tevez, he does not mesh too well with Messi, and it seems Tevez is upset being second fiddle or coming of the bench. I love Carlitos and he was amazing for Boca&Corinthians but going to West Ham and Man United ahh, I would of loved to see him@ Sevilla and team up with Kanoute or go to some club that needs him. I am sorry I am not a EPL guy, and I think Augero and Messi will be a lot better then a Tevez-Messi. BUT we need a true#9 and that should a major priority. A
Seba you are right Gago brought flash backs of Redondo(only if he had played in the 98 WC) from time i saw him play and watched the first half@ home.
Now I heard the next friendly is vs Jamaica? in London, come on! Can I see a Holland-Argentina or Portugal-Argentina something good! I am tired of all these pointless games, Algeria,Guatemala and etc. Then they do a US tour then a few days later plays in wc qualif vs ecd and bra, dumb dumb dumb1
Jack!
Also they have a friendly vs Belarus???? in August! What right does Belarus have to play in Argentina? Do the people@ the AFA close there eyes and spin a globe and say lets play this team! or something.
Jack!
I don't know about Belarus. I believe it's Hungary and you may be confusing between those two countries.
The match against Hungary will be played as an excuse to celebrate the 30th anniversary of when Argentina faced them in the WC at home in 1978. It'll also mark the return for MESSI to Budapest after seeing the red card in his absolute international debut after only 40 or 45 seconds.
Here are the details of that match (Argentina won 2-1 in Buenos Aires).
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=50/results/matches/match=2199/report.html
I just hope when Argentina faces Hungary, that Akos Buzsaky will be on the host's team as he is my favorite QPR player!
Here goes the link according to FIFA seba. I know FIFA sometimes do not put up correct but I do know Minsk is in Belarus.
http://fifa.com/associations/association=arg/fixturesresults/gender=m/index.html#
Jack!
I have to agree with some of you here about the quality of our future friendly opponents.
We do need to test ourselves against teams with big names.
With all due respect, I'm not saying anything negative about Egypt or Guatemala. I'm sure they have fans who are passionate about the Albiceleste, just like us.
But lets face it, they will come to a point that during the WC, we will end up playing Italy or France or Portugal for that matter.
Those guys have Euro's to test themselves but what about our team?
Time to ponder my friend....
The game was boooooooooring [confessed I dozed off a bit in front of the comp. cause it's like 2 am here] well, until Kun scored. That was a beauty. Then Burdisso. That was beautiful too. The header looked like it wasn't gonna go in.
No disrespect to Pato but Carrizo or Caranta deserve their chances. Pato said he wanted to be in the 2010 team, didn't he? Coco might just let him have his wish.
Cavenaghi for less than 10 mins.? Geeze. I was so looking forward to see him cause I don't get to see French football much.
Yes, Tevez played well in 2004 for us, but he has not played so well since. I don't remember him doing a lot against Brazil at Copa America 2007 & who got sent off in our WC qualifier against Columbia? He is a fine player but unless he can work with Messi I don't see him continuing as our first choice striker.
My first choice is Saviola but he is not seeing any action these days...
So there is still just one national team? Will the Olympic team come on its own nearer the Games? I hope Argentina Olympic Team will visit Hong Kong for some warm-up games before August.
The things is about about our pairing at up front is currently divided into 2 groups.
One is the short, skillful and speed. For example, KUN, MESSI & TEVEZ.
The other big, lethal and great ability on the air. This is where the likes CAVENAGHI, LICHA, CRESPO, CRUZ etc are best known for.
So I feel that Coco should select the best from this two groups to form a lethal partnership up front.
Having said this, I'm pretty much confidence that this will never happen. From this game itself, we can say that Coco is never going to try and test something new.
Still I'm not going to be biased here. It's never going to be easy for any coach to select just two out of the many choices that he has.
The main simple reason is that each of this players have their own strength.
All I want is what is good for the team because at the end of the day, the team comes first then the individual.
I think Riquelme will enjoy playing with a centre forward like Cavenagi, Crespo, Cruz or D. Milito. It will give him someone to aim for when he takes the freekicks (provided he is not shooting for goal).
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