Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Match coverage: France v. Argentina

Everything is ready!

Argentina with:

CARRIZO
ZANETTI, DEMICHELIS, HEINZE, PAPA;
Maxi RODRIGUEZ, MASCHERANO, GAGO, Jonas GUTIERREZ;
MESSI and AGÜERO.

The Stade Velodrome will show a capacity crowd and there are already a bunch of Argentines ex-pats, singing and making his presence felt in a cold Marseille night (not like when I took the picture below, with an empty stadium and in the middle of an incredibly hot summer).

I'm watching Argentina's warm-up and Diego is talking to each and every players. I'm not an expert reading lips, but Diego just told GAGO: "Jugá como sabés" ("Play like you know").

I'll be looking forward to your texts in the comments' box.

Vamos Argentina!

27 comments:

Sebastian said...

Argentine players wearing a black bracelet in memory of Atilio DI PACE, who died earlier today. He was an AFA and Independiente director.

RIP

Anonymous said...

Yeah ,1-0 by Jonas in the very last minute of 1st half

Sebastian said...

1-0. JONAS.

After a good 10 initial minutes, France started to put the pressure on us, but Jonas forced a save from MANDANDA and one minute later he found the back of the net following a good chase and cross from the right by AGÜERO.

1-0 in 41 minutes.

Anonymous said...

very fast game. nice movement from the team. everyone is invloved and working hard. the last line of defence seems a bit weak but we got carrizo...:-) hopefully will be a good 2nd half for us...
vamos albiceleste

johnny said...

Entertaining first period and great to go up 1-0. France had us on our heels for awhile, but those quick counters are nice ! That Ribery is a dangerous little feller.

John said...

Sorry that I'm late. No electricity for the past 2 hours.

Glad to be here for the second half. Good goal from Jonas!

John said...

Plenty of great ball movement from our fellas. What they need to do is turn that into goals.

John said...

Looks like Diego is playing safe. He hasn't made any subsitution so far.

John said...

WHAT A GOAL FROM MESSI!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Another great strike from Messi

John said...

Carlitos sparks the fire and Lionel with a fantastic finish.

Sebastian said...

I hope MESSI will start to silence the nay-sayers who say he never plays for Argentina like he plays for Barcelona.

They don't realise he's just a kid (the best in the world!), but just a kid.

I ALWAYS want him on my team: ALWAYS!

John said...

Who said MESSI was like that??? Tell me who's that SOB??? Shame on that fella!

Sebastian said...

There are a lot of them in Argentina, John. Believe me.

But they will always exist. Negative people.

The kind that will never be happy.

2-0. Final whistle goes.

John said...

Final score. 2-0 to Argentina. Another clinical performance from Diego and his boys.

Now I'm off to work. Will talk to you guys later.

Anonymous said...

Its ridiculous to accuse messi he doens't play well for argentina. Seba, you said it right, they will never be happy. They just shouldnt support the team. He doesn't have to score goals to prove he doesnt play well for argentina. He could have just played from spain if he wanted. Can't understand some people. We should just not listen to them.

Very good game play. We were pretty good in basically every department. The guys played like it was worldcup and not friendly. Good work Diego. My heart is delighted with the Messi goal. Its ridiculous even to compare him with someone else in terms of a player.
Congrats to all of us guys.
Vamos Albiceleste

johnny said...

Wow ! A very impressive performance, particularly in the second period. The team played with confidence and strength. Of course, having that 1-0 cushion helped. Vamos Diego !

Roy said...

Quick breakdown:
-Carrizo did very well when called on.
-Heinze is still shaky as hell
-Papa is not the answer on the left
-Demichelis had a great game and Zanetti has still got it
-Gago had a freaking great game in defence and Mascherano is a beast
-Maxi had a very quiet game
-Gutierrez disappeared in the second but was lively in the first
-Aguero and Messi cannot play together. With that said, Messi magic. Aguero had a quiet game like Maxi but man did Messi torment France when he had the ball.

Maradona waited too long to make his subs even if it worked. Maxi should of been taken off around the time Benzema came on. I would of had Maxi off for Lopez and Aguero for Tevez with Messi playing on the right(like he does for Barcelona).

Anonymous said...

Great game. Fast exciting pace. Nice golazo from Jonas and Messi magic with the help of Tevez. The backline done a good job.

Vamos Diego! Vamos Argentina!

messidona19 said...

great game although we are not dominating play as we should and not creating as much chances as i would have liked... carrizo was surprisingly good. zanetti is consistent , demichelis was good! heinze kept on slipping and i would replace him with the wall samuel ... mascherano did well and gago was good too. maxi was very quiet! and jonas is still not my type of a player although he scored but the way he runs and moves around makes u feel that he's a basketball player! aguero were a bit quiet in the game although things would be different with riquelme bak in the team instead of jonas .. i would have loved to see di maria play for a while on the flank though... and i just wonder if higuain will ever play for us!

johnny said...

Damn, my boy Jonas doesn't get much respect even when he nails a winner to get us up 1-0. Just because he looks a little unorthodox doesn't mean he can't play. He works his butt off ! Keep on foolin' em Jonas !

Dave P said...

Wow great game to watch considering I have been waiting to see Albiceleste since November.
Player Ratings

Carrizo: 8.5 - what can I say he played very solid had 2 or 3 good saves and that great stuff on Anelka in the first half that could have changed everything. I thought he was in bad form with Lazio but played great for the NT.

Zanetti: 7.5 - very solid in the back, not many if any mistakes and got up in the attack everyonce and awhile. Great shut down on Henry all night. Still shows that he can play with the most talented players in the game.

Demi: 9.5 - I don't care what anyone says, Demi was probably the best player on the pitch. Amazing defensive stops every time france would attack. Was a beast in the AIR on every set piece and always calm and collective. "They Shall Not Pass"

Heinze: 6- Looked shaky in the first half over comitted a lot which casued gaps in the back four luckliy Demi was there to stop everyone. Very clumsy kick on Gourcuff I think that could have been called a PK. Watch it Heinze. He seemed to be more calm in the second half however.

Papa: 7 - Again like Heinze, he was shaky in the first half but in the second half picked up his play and was able to get invovled with the attack. Ribery was tearing him up all first half, but in the 2nd half there was no ribery so he played well.

Maxi: 2 - ??? was he even on the field? He did absoulelty nothing all game except get a yellow card...I dont know, Maxi usually plays well but come on get more invovled.

Mascherano: 8 - Like Zanetti, a tank holding the midfield. He stayed further back then Gago, but still had a solid game as usual. Stopped the French midfield from being creative like they usually are. Great hustle all over the pitch

Gago: 9 - Wow great match, I was speculative of having Gago start but i take that back. Not too creative in the attack, but literally ran all over the field the entire 90 mins and took some rough hits just to get back up and hustle back to win the ball again. one of the main reasons why Argentina held more possesion and gained confidence towards the end of the first half. What a WARRIOR!!

Jonas: 8 - Like Gago, Jonas will scrap and run all game. not amazingly creative but will get stuff done. He would hustle back and help Papa with Ribery all game. And oh yeah great goal, Mandanda could have saved it but great settle on the left side of the box, good move on Sagna, and low and to the corner. great finish JONAS!!!. Keep him starting hes a beast.

Aguero: 6 - Very queit night for El Kun other than that one chip across the box that set up the goal to Jonas. Other than that he did not get invovled too often. would make a good run everyonce and ahwile and beat 2 players but to no avail he would get stopped. Again great work but would have prefered TEVEZ to start.

Messi: 8 - You could tell that messi wanted to play better tonight. There was a good 20 mins in the first half when he didnt even touch the ball. But once he got a touch he would always create, not run at players as much as i would have liked but still great work. Should have scored in the first half with taht slicing run with his right foot, but he went with his left foot. In the second half towards the end it looked like he was jsut starting to show his usual dominance. He hooked up with Tevez brilliantly and great FINISH.

SUBS
Angelerei: n/a: got in with about 10 mins didnt really do much good or bad so no rating needed.

Tevez: 9: give him a nine why not, he had about 10 or 9 mintues to play and his first touch was a sizziling run, great pas to messi, to a messi GOLLAZZOO. Reminding us all that this is Argentine football we are watching. I would have started Tevez over Aguero and I hope that he will start next match.

Anonymous said...

Just got watching the game(I DVR'd the game, I was doing a paper) and I have to say it was a good game for Argentina. I do admit I was a bit bored watching the game but a 2-0 win over France in France is a good thing. Now I hope this is the last time I see Papa on this team. He is way too short to be a defender, what is he 5'5? I would put Cata Diaz instead. Kun was OK, Messi had flashes of magic. I still say a #9 is needed. The team did quite well with Riquelme and a true MF. I wonder if this will play a role in Maradona's choice for the wc qualif.

Jack!

Sebastian said...

Dave P! I'm amazed! You were probably writing this one-by-one players' rating at the same time I was creating the latest post (which was mainly a one-by-one players' rating!).

Just take a look. Your comments look exactly the same as mine! You had the ratings in numbers (which I don't), but other than that and the fact you hated Maxi tonight, we wrote almost the same.

Good to find people who see football the same way I do. Thanks for your comment.

Dave P said...

responded to your ratings post...

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