Saturday, November 14, 2009

Spain 2-1 Argentina. Dave's player ratings

I didn't watch the entire match as I missed the first half because of work. Therefore, I don't feel like I should write a report about this game as it wouldn't be fair.

But there is someone who did watch it and he is here to share his player ratings with all of us.

Dave, amigo, this space is all yours...

Was looking forward to this game ever since we qualified for 2010 last month. My initial impressions are that we are reverting back to the style of play that was going to get MARADONA fired before last October. We were playing Spain, which is no doubt one of the most talented, if not the most talented team in the world, but we definitely were lacking world class quality today. In the first half we created a few chances with HIGUAIN and DI MARIA both being off the mark. But other than that Spain ran circles around our midfield, we had no pressure on them and they were free to hold possession and attack the entire half. With the amount of pressure we were receiving, our defense did surprisingly decent, even though we were reckless. In the second half we came out with more intensity and fight, probably because XAVI was taken out of the game, but anyway it was a slightly more convincing performance from our players. Again, the defense and ROMERO were the only things keeping the score from being 4-1 or 5-1.

Anyway here are the ratings…

ROMERO (7.5): A good performance from our young keeper. Was confident in coming off his line to save many attacks from the Spaniards. On the first goal unlucky to have the deflection come out to an unmarked Xabi ALONSO, but Spain’s build up was beautiful. Towards the end of the game he had 4 goal saving saves. The only bad part of ROMERO today was his distribution, which seemed forced and reckless. Can’t do anything about ALONSO’s PK it was rocketed into the upper right.

COLOCCINI (5): Really shaky performance by Colocho all game, playing out of position at right back. As the game went on he settled in a little more, but was caught out of position too many times and would make reckless tackles like many of our other defenders tonight. He did save a goal of the line with his neck, but other then that proved not to be efficient enough as a defender and should not be on the NT. ZANETTI, ZABALETA, or Jonas should play this spot

DEMICHELIS (6): Demi was a brick wall the majority of the game. A solid outing versus a start studded Spain team, he would slow down VILLA, SILVA, INIESTA and XAVI all game. Made many key tackles at the last second and was confident on the ball. Very unlucky to get a hand ball in the box to allow for ALONSO to hit his PK. After the PK was scored in the dieing seconds we had another chance to score and Demi put the header over the net. If he let it go to CAMBIASSO maybe it would have been a tie. But other then 2 very unlucky plays he was the best defender on the night for us.

HEINZE (5): He always seems to impress me with how much passion he plays with, but today he was out of control more often then not. He would always be late with his tackles and was caught out of position on Spain’s first goal. Much like COLOCCINI he was made to look silly by SILVA and VILLA, he got very angry at how good Spain were and got a yellow card for making very silly tackles. Still HEINZE did have a few saving tackles, but I don’t know when MARADONA will see that his days on the NT are over, bring in SAMUEL or GARAY.

ANSALDI (5): Played well with his first International start against Spain. He had a quiet performance and was rarely out of position except for the ALONSO first goal, but could not do anything with such a lucky deflection. ANSALDI showed strength in holding up the midfielders and would push forward sometimes. Every time Spain would attack it was either at HEINZE or Colocho so ANSALDI did not have as much intense defending to do but when he was called upon he did well.

Maxi RODRIGUEZ (4.5): Was completely irrelevant in the first half, was nowhere what so ever to help the forwards and did little to no defensive work. However, in the second half he woke up a little bit an played with more intensity, he got involved with some runs forward and got the PK called for him by attacking ALBIOL. Other than that not much to say about Maxi, our entire team was lacking any offensive creativity or chemistry, we were all content sitting back.

MASCHERANO (5): Helped out in the defense the entire game like he was supposed to do. Did not have the most dominant game and allowed for INIESTA and XAVI to make runs around him all game. Was terrible in the distribution aspect of the game, and could not seem to break up any passes from the defense to the midfield which halted any of our attacks. Played well but with not much hope in attacking.

GAGO (3.5): What can I say? He played horrible. In the first half was just aimlessly running around and getting yellow cards and fouls. He did little to nothing in spreading balls out wide and distributing to MESSI and HIGUAIN. With a performance like this I can safely say that he is not NT quality. In the second half he came out with more hope to play better but it only made him play more clueless. In the 75th min he was subbed out for CAMBIASSO.

DI MARIA (5): Played well in the first half when we had no attacking combination at all. DI MARIA was the only player, that would make a chance out of our attack, he set up the first ball to HIGUAIN, which he missed, and when he had his chance he took it poorly and over chipped the goal. Still had good spirit and wanted to push forward all night. In the second half he pretty much disappeared when Maxi started playing. We could not get both our wings playing well at the same time tonight.

HIGUAIN (4): He made some good runs in the first half but probably touched the ball 4 or 5 times the entire game. Two of those touches were missed chances, the ball that DI MARIA played him he should have kept low into the corner. Later in the second half before he was subbed out he made a good individual run and almost powered the ball into the corner but missed. Good efforts but it was not his night tonight, and had no combinations with Messi all game, poor performance.

MESSI (4): Much like HIGUAIN, MESSI could not get anything going, partly because he could not combine with anybody because when he would look back to the midfield GAGO and MASCHERANO were never there. They were playing defense. He got very frustrated as the game went on and tried to do things himself. He made some individual runs but after beating 2 players he would get stopped or run into a wall of PUYOL or ALBIOL. All his passes were picked off or sloppily played. Good PK but that finish was expected of him. Another poor attacking performance in general by Argentina.

Subs

TEVEZ (4): Came on for HIGUAIN and added his typical work rate to the game, however his first touch could have been a pass that put DI MARIA in and it was horrible as he kicked it over the end line way to strong. Made some combinations with MESSI but could not get anything else.

CAMBIASSO (NA): The player we were all excited to see get called up only ended up playing 10-15 mins of the game. He really did not get settled into the flow of the game. He made some good tackles while he was in, and did make some good passes to MESSI. However, its unfair to rate him for only playing so little. I hope to see him starting in our next friendly if he keeps his form up.

LAVEZZI (NA)

PEROTTI (NA)

Overall in this game we saw more of what we usually see. Terrible midfield-forward combination, there was absolutely none of it today. We needed AIMAR or VERON to get involved so that MESSI and HIGUAIN would have a partner to play with. This is the main reason why we had no attack, GAGO and MASCHERANO are both DM. Our defense was solid against the ever-attacking Spain and played with good intensity but it was reckless intensity. MARADONA needs to stop calling up players like COLOCCINI, GAGO, HEINZE, and Maxi and get better defenders as well as midfielders that can get the attack involved if we want to score goals and get the best out of MESSI. Why call up PEROTTI and CAMBIASSO and only give them 10 mins of play time? Some names that should be considered by MARADONA for the next friendly are SAMUEL, ZANETTI, BANEGA, ZARATE, GARAY, ZABALETA, and INSUA. New tactics need to be tried because this 4-4-2, which is basically a 6-2-2 is horrible.

Hopefully, he will figure this out after witnessing today’s game. Our spirits were high and we worked hard but in the end it was an amateur football experience tonight. No one seemed to be in tune with each other, our work rate, along with ROMERO’s great hands was what kept the score from being 5-0.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

let spain win all these meaningless friendlies so everybody will expect them the world cup. they will fail like always when it counts.

argentina is allowed to do mistakes now. what else are these games good for if not make test different players, systems, make mistakes and learn from them?

Vitalij

Anonymous said...

Quite harsh ratings no? Gago I get, but giving Micho a 6?

Dave P said...

Demi played well, really well, but on the whole he can play even better...i have seen it out of him.

Anonymous said...

Are we playing Wend vs Nigeria.

Anonymous said...

U should base it on this game not what u have seen in the past. If that was the case u should of given messi a 2.

LM10ARG said...

I m not too sad to see
Argentina lose but I m disgusted to
see Argentina playing on
counter-attacks like cowards...This is
not the Argentina I know plz
maradona i used to think u were god
but now i wish u die soon u simply
can't destroy my beloved Argentina
              

p2bn said...

Had to goto work guys so couldn watch the match!!

I think is good that we lost!!:-P

At least hopefully we will know our weakness and its not Bolivia and it was a respectable score to loose..Just my opinion...

Anonymous said...

what did we learn today,nothing new just the usual service from our leader.
the defence scares me when spain felt like it the could have scored 3 or 4, great decision by dm to have no rb.
gago,maxi,coloccini on current form should not be part of the nt and masch is also not playing well and could be replaced.
diego again gets it wrong with players like benger,samuel,garay not in the squad, aimar,cambasio,perotti given either no time or next to no time and could end up just like milito.
messi needs to be on the right with hig and either saviola/milito beside him up front.
their is nothing good about loseing and i do not accept an argentine loss-end of story
but worse is with the current management i cant see any good coming from them and the wc 2010.
we have the players but not the management, i think peckerman deserved a chance at redemption.

Batigol9 said...

the midfield was terrible Gago,Masche and Maxi were invisible.If Maradona is gonna keep on giving them chances with this idiot Tevez then we are going nowhere.

Mohd said...

seriusly, this midfield is the worst i can remember for argentina in recent times. Gago...omg what a usless horrible player he is.
Maxi, i like his spirit but he should be no where near the starting lineup.

on top of that again back to the no system of maradona. if messi do not come up with something special (which he rarley does with the NT) then nothing can happen.

Samuel, and specially Banega and Zarate are a must. Banega and Zarate have the creativity to create somthing. even this will make messi play better because opposite team will have more players to look after.

msi2 said...

It's clearer and clearer as the time passes on, we need to get rid of the niembro-bilardismo (to paraphrase Angel Cappa) of argie football. Those guys are literally ruining our football with their thinking and nasty influence on how the football should played (basically like we saw against Spain except we're missing a player like Batistuta to put those chances in). Just look at what the 86 generation brings us on:

Senior NT, the worst level of play ever seen. Maradona brought us the worst defeat since Czechslovakia in the 50' (6-1 against Bolivia), brought us our first loss at home in 16y in a WCQ against Brazil in another pathetic display of football. In general, the team is playing like shit and barely made it to the WC. Wait until we will get the death group again!


Batista's fiasco with the sub-20.

Brown's incredible loss Colombia in the WC sub-17.

and the icing on the cake, another poor showing of one of our youth NT, this time the sub-15 who wont make the second round of the South American tournament, after losing to Uruguay 3-1 and losing against Eciador and drawing against agaisnt Colombia.


La mistica ganadora de la generacion ochenta y seis... que mentira por favor.

msi2 said...

Oh yes and it's obvious without a clear project (long-term), there is unfortunately few chances we will something anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

i have been saying this for long time and i will say it again and again, untill ROMAN comes back we will be keep suffering again,because we dont have nobody to link up and put the team forward propley in midfild.

by the way,why didnt AIMAR start the game ton8?Why GAGO started ahead of CAMBIASSO?

it makes me sad to see spain play such nice passing game that no long ago we used to be master at one touch pass football.

Untill i c anyting like this line up,i wont be conviced.

ROMERO

ZANETI,SAMUEL,DEMICHELIS,MONZON/INSUA

MASCHERANO,(CAMBIASSO/BOLATTI),(D MARIA
/JONAS)

RIQUELME

(MESSI/LISANDRO),(MILITO)

Anonymous said...

here is intresting article after the spain game.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/290475-with-seven-months-til-south-africa-seven-observations-of-argentina

Mohd said...

i honestly believe if we get the things right, Riquelme is not needed.

with formations like (more attacking):

------------Romero--------
Zanetti-Samuel-Demichelis-Ansaldi
----mascherano---Banega-----
Zarate/Aimar----Messi-----Dimaria
-----------Higuain/Milito-----------

or like (more balanced)
------------Romero--------
Zanetti-Samuel-Demichelis-Ansaldi
----mascherano---Cambiasso-----
----------Banega-----------
--------Messi------Zarate/Dimaria
-----------Higuain/Milito-------

we can play some great football...if only we have a coach that have a slight brain!!

Riquelme would slow things down and would make the whole team rely on him. the above formations will be far more dynamic and speedy.
there are no team better than us in this case.

ZiggY said...

What's needed is a coach... we simply dont have one! My only hope is today... Maradona will know his fate from FIFA. If he gets that 5 match ban, then there's no point for him to be at the WC and he should be replaced. THAT is our only hope...

salvio supporter said...

Well, I couldn't watch the game, but I guess nothing changed. It's true that our problem is the coach -- it's been obvious SINCE HE ASSUMED CHARGE. Anyway this is just a friendly. We won against France, and then lose to Bolivia; then Ecuador, Paraguay, and anybody else. I hope this makes the spaniards happy for now... because beating us 2-1 means they aren't so good (hey, same score against France, wasn't it?).

Ziggy, remember that FIFA does not really wanna lose Maradona's presence in the WC. It means money. As much as I would love that happening, money matters more than rules.

So if I have to say anything about the match, it will be: Messi as a forward? Again? Stop it! He should be in the midfield!

Batigol9 said...

Agree,I have never seen Argentina with such a weak midfield before.We used to have players to fill 2 midifleds before.Our only hope is that we get an easy group to start with.How is the team gonna jell if Maradona keeps on changing the formation and the players.I have no idea why aimar did not play and Gago and Maxi started.Nothing makes sense.

MaxiLopez said...

How can you guys judge & rate the players, when you know that they are thrown out there by clown Maradona?

Unknown said...

There is only one hope left: superstition!!

Every time Argentina plays great BEFORE the WC they go out. When they arrive with a horrible team, they get far or at least play great football.

Let's hope this happens again...

Abs said...

1. Argentina shouldn't play 4-4-2 anymore. And if it is up to me, then I would go with 3-5-2 to 3-4-3

2. Coloccini schouldn't be a RB, if Maradona really want him in the NT on the first place.

3. Di Maria is one dimentional player, he really need to step uo his game and start playing off the line sometimes.

4. Argentina really need a play maker, so if you aren't convinced with Aimar, then bring back Roman plz !!

5. Messi...

6. Is Higuain the player that we want to be our number 9 in the world cup, I personally doubt it.

7. Maybe we shouldn't play wings anymore.

8. Demi was so solid, and if he didn't mistakly touch the ball with his hand he should easily got an 8 of 10 in that game.

9. It is about time to get the like of Zarate, Banega, Garay, Insua and let lose of Coloccini, Heinza, Gago, Maxi.

johnny said...

I wasn't able to watch the match but it seems like business as usual. To echo some of the other comments, what is Maradona thinking when it comes to midfield play ?! What purpose does it serve to play without any kind of enganche at all ?! Where the f**k is Aimar ?! Does the greatest offensive player in the history of futbol think that Argentina should play every match the way they did against Uruguay ??!! Befuddling ! Perplexing ! Infuriating !

Roy said...

This is really becoming pathetic. As much as we all talked about Coloccini starting and everything, when I actually saw him step onto the pitch, I wanted to cry. Here's a guy playing in the second division in England, being picked over an absolute legend like Javier Zanetti. But what's even worse than that(I didn't even think it was possible), Lady Gago started ahead of Cambiasso. Again, here's someone who hasn't been getting regular minutes(barely any minutes at that) all season long, playing 70 minutes over the best DM in Italy and arguably in the world; Esteban Cambiasso.

But wait kids, it gets better! Gabriel Krueger gets called-up(yes, I read about Heinze's agent with Maradona) over Walter Samuel. The one they freaking call THE WALL. There's a reason why they call him the wall.

Last night, I felt bad for Demichelis. The guy was covering his position and 3 other players' positions at the same time(Ansaldi had a mediocore game, but he was still better than Krueger and Colo). I felt bad for Mascherano because he was getting outnumbered in midfield, because Lady Gago wasn't able to do his job properly. Surprisingly, Maxi wasn't as shitty as he has been lately, but he still wasn't good. Di Maria tried, he really did. He sent in a few good balls into the box, but he also missed a 1 on 1 with Casillas. Higuain had no service what so ever, yet still almost scored.

Messi had to drop back to midfield(literally, the midfield line) to get the ball. He took on a few players, made some good passes. In short, the kid really stepped it up and gave a shit unlike a few other players.

Romero? There's no blaming him for either goal. The first goal was a blast from long range, yet he still saved it. It was just the joke of a backline that wasn't able to get to the ball fast enough. The second goal, what a penalty by Alonso. No saving that, I don't care who you are. Oh and he also made some key saves that actually kept this game close.

I don't understand why Aimar wasn't used. I don't understand why Gago got 70 minutes. I don't understand the exclusion of Zanetti. I don't understand the overshadowing of Samuel. I don't understand the reason to play 4-4-2.

However, on the bright side(if there is one), we lost 2-1 to the European champs, IN Spain. As physical of a game as it was(I was expecting a few reds before the game started, what with Sergio Ramos, Heinze and Gago on the pitch). Not only that, but a few Spaniards really went down easily at times. Iniesta got hacked tons of times, but there was atleast once or twice where there was verrrry little contact.

Maradona had a hearing with FIFA last night, we should know the outcome very soon(within hours).

Abs said...

I don't think there is a place for Zanitti as a RB in the NT. I don't care how many caps he played, and I don't care how much he is giving, but lately he sucks as a RB that even Inter start playing else where.

Samuel was a legend, but after his injured, am not sure if he could step up to the game as he use to be.

Cambuasso is one of the best mid-players but he was always cought out of position when played with Argentina.

I'm not supporting Maradona's decisions in here, and am not saying they shouldn't have there chances again. But sometimes what you see isn't always the right thing.

Diego has his own vision, while we like it or not, and we have to respect it. Everyone can say what they like and want to see in the NT, but not everyone would agree on the picks of the players or the game plan that Maradona is going to pick, or should pick !!

Give the man time and space and judge him after the WC. The last time we won something was 1993, so you can count how many came and left without winning a shit for us !!

Anonymous said...

agree with you mohd we only need a new coach .even if he calls all the players we're expecting to be called there will have anypositive change under maradona.abs ;after three game you start criticizing higuain he did well in a weak team wich is all time out of position .banega who i think is a promising player quiet confident he defends with his head and makes some assisst as well as cambiasso gago doesn't have to appear in the pitch niether in the bench

Anonymous said...

i really why he's calling only boca players who're not gifted when banega riquelme etc are ignored he's calling palermo battaglia gago d'atolo etc we need to build a strong team from now on .romero,assman,ustari,samuel,demichelis,zabaleta,heinze,ansaldi,gonzalo,jonas gutierrez;mascherano,banega,cambiasso,maxi,di maria,aimar,dominguez from rubin;messi;milito;higuain;zarate;aguero;lisandro

messidona19 said...

I saw the full game and realized that we were outplayed completely by Spain. There were times in the match that we couldn't even complete a couple of passes around our defence! That's why we need players who don't lose the ball easily and when they get the ball they either pass it around or get a foul. When Messi plays he either gets fouled or passes the ball.
We badly needed Riquelme who is that type of player who controls possession but he stabbed us Albiceleste fans in the back and didn't come to rescue us when we needed him the most in the last 2 matches in qualification so count him out. As for Mascherano, He's been really dissapointing me recently and he can't control his midfield alone by himself. He needs another one playing alongside him and I just can't believe how Gago can still play for us!! I mean he's no Redondo. Not even close! Cambiasso needs to rediscover his form or else put Veron instead where he really controlled the match against Uruguay. Other than that I'll say it for the 100000th time here, WE NEED Samuel to partner Demichelis (who was clumsy against Spain and could have easily gotten a red card). I'd stick with Higuain for the fact that he's a saviour for his teams and always has some magic in him. Di Maria is good too but he needs to be more prolific in front of goal (same goes for Higuain) and Aimar needs to play alongside Messi. It would be a real shame if he played 3 world cups as a substitute.
To Anonymous: FYI if you notice the WCQ, It was the Boca Juniors that made us qualify for the World Cup. Palacio's last minute Equalizer against Ecuador at home, Riquelme's goals early in the campaign, Diaz(Getafe) goals against Colombia and Palermo's historical last touch goal.

johnny said...

Hey Messidona19 ! Let 'em know about Boca ! Now if we can get prima donna Carlitos in gear !

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