Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Player Ratings for Catalunya vs. Argentina

As always here on Mundo, following every match we have Dave send in his player ratings for the match. But for this match, we had GK give us his player ratings. So without further-a-do, here are the ratings!

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I am not any kind of journalist or writter, just a die hard Albiceleste fan....

We end our terrible year with another terrible performance. We had our chances and our time to shine but we didn't finish and the end result was another defeat for the Albiceleste.

4-2 DEFEAT

Player ratings (by position more or less)....

GK - Pozo
Really? Who is this guy? He was absolutely terrible, embarassing even. He failed to handle a routine cross early on and let it slip through his hands. He looked like an ameteur more than anything. Why didn't one of our potential backups for the World Cup start this match? Andujar should have got the call over Pozo to get more minutes in just in case Romero goes down with injury anytime before or during the finals in June. He did come up with one big save late in the match and that is where he scores his ratings points.
Rating: 4

DEFENCE
Again, terrible. If Argentina plan to compete for glory this coming June they really need to take the time and sit down and work on our back line. Demichelis was really the only one of the four who looked like he knew what he was doing and where he should be during the Catalan attacks. He bailed out Otamendi with a beautiful tackle and really controlled the defence. He is the man we want starting in the middle of our defence come June. Papa was more than terrible and I continue to scratch my head 'why is this guy called?'. He was bad in the defence pretty much all game and blew an open net oppurturnity. Otemendi was decent though far from impressive and Alvarez could have done much better in my opinion.
Rating: 3

MIDFIELD
Pastore. What a pleasant surprise for the Albiceleste. He only was called up because Messi couldn't make it and he really did his best to impress Diego. He set up a fair amount of attacks and finished one himself with a beautiful opening volley goal for Argentina. What made his volley especially nice is that flicked up the little volley for himself and finshed it beautifully.
Pastore personal rating: 8

Gago. Where to start? We just discussed Gago's terrible performance in the Mundo chat room with Roy and others. I really don't know what to say about him. He is, or was tonight at least, by far our weakest link on the national team. Did he even touch the ball in the first 45? Did he even want to be on the field to begin with? He showed no motivation and no passion what so ever. I have my fingers crossed that he won't be apart of our 23 man roster come June but if he is, let's pray that he is moved during the January transfer window and goes to a club where he will see minutes as a starter rather than a sub, or in his case not selected at all.
Gago personal rating: 2 (is that too generous?)

Bolatti. To be honest I didn't really notice him out there or knew why he was out there to begin with. He scored against Uruguay to secure our place in the finals. Does this justify his place in our midfield? I think there are plenty of other Argentines that can fit into the middle other than Bolatti and I know I'm not the only one telling from the comment boxes of previous Mundo posts. (Cambiasso anyone?)
Bolatti personal rating: 6

Di Maria. Sure he blew quit a few chances and I know its frustrating as a supporter but there is no denying that he was great out there tonight. He was the best player out there on the field tonight (you can argue Pastore was superior). He scored the second goal for us and should have been awarded a penalty kick before that which could have changed the entire outcome of the match. Great game for Di Maria, I am convinced he will drop jaws in South Africa.
Di Maria personal rating: 8

FORWARDS
Lavezzi. Like Pastore, a pleasant surprise. I know alot of us here a Mundo (including myself) have complained about his call up on the national team. He seemed so energetic and ambitious out there tonight that would start him over Tevez or Aguero in a heart beat. We can keep calling for Lisandro and Milito but until they are called, Lavezzi might be our solution up front. I know he didn't score but he is definatly capable of scoring or setting up chances for us.
Lavezzi personal rating: 7.5

Higuain. Another player who just couldn't finish for the life of him tonight. Missed a header early on and had a few other chances afterwards and couldn't do anything with them. I don't think he took this friendly lightly but maybe he took it a little too personal being a Real Madrid star? Overall I was happy he got the start, although the mediocore performance and hope to see him in the starting 11 come June.
Higuain personal rating: 7

Not sure if any sub had any kind of influence other than Datalo who seems to score or create chances soon as he is subbed in. You don't really look at him as national team material but once he is on the field and playing for us he tends to impress. Like I said this is my first player rating but if I had to rate him I would give him a 7.5
As for the rest of the subs, I can't really come up with a player review or rating for them other than Palermo. Did he touch the ball even once with his time on the field? Did we even see him on the screen? Again, like Bolatti,he scored a heroic goal in qualification but you can't use that as justification to be on the national team.


I hope this was a decent player rating for fill in for Dave P.

VAMOS ALBICLESTE!!!!!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey man where is sebastian? everything is allright with you?

it's not the same without your articles/comments!

Vitalij

Nicholas said...

Good ratings. Pastore was awesome. I really hope he finds his feet in Italy, Zenga threw him straight into the first 11 when Palermo were losing a whole pile of matches. But this new coach (forget his name)has steadied the ship and has been introducing Pastore in the 60th - 70th minutes. Hopefully that way he can become more and more adjusted. Reminds me of Socrates a little bit, so graceful and languid on the ball.

Dave P said...

Hey GK good work with the ratings. Roy I also wrote up my player ratings and sent them along to Seba and John.

LM10ARG said...

Come on are you freaking kidding me? 7 for higuain is absolutely ridiculos...How many sitters did he miss? If gago got 2 then higuain deserved 3 at most...One thing is very annoying is that some people just want higuain in team even if he does nothing. Otherwise fair ratings and Di Maria was the most impressive and Pastore was second best after him.

Pulga said...

Impressive debut from Pastore!!Di Maria as usual was awsome.Even Lavezzi impressed me. What a silly mistake from Pareja, very clumsy. Also Pozo shouldn't hv played. Get Samuel, Zanetti & Cambiasso back in the formation, kick Papa, Otamendi, Pareja, Gago out, then we're good.

LM10ARG said...

I can accept Argentina losing but I CAN'T accept Argentina playing on counter-attacks like a bunch of cowards. I am not Argentine but the only reason I always loved Argentina is for their beautiful football. This is a disgrace having just 30% possession against catalonia. People might disagree with me but I think Argentina have the most talented players on earth and there is no way they should be playing on counter-attacks. Only lesser nations do that when they play against a big team. Is Argentina a minnow??? If it was a game in high-altitude that's a different story but it wasn't. I will be watching next WC but I don't expect anything from Argentina. Winning 2010 WC is out of question. The sooner maradona resigns the better for the NT. But unfortunately that's not happening at least until next wc.

Sebastian said...

Vitalij, don't worry, I'm OK. Just incredibly busy, but I'd say more than OK!

Because of work, I couldn't watch the second half today. Just the first half that ended with that Sergio GARCIA header going to the back of the net for Catalunya to go 1-0 up.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the final score! Should I say 'surprise'? Am I really surprised? No I'm not!

I said a long time ago this friendly was ridiculous and now the result is even more ridiculous than the match itself!

It's a shame, but I think MARADONA will keep his job even if he turns up for our next match wearing the Brazilian yellow shirt!

Not a good sign. Not good at all.

Will try and catch the highlights somewhere.

I promise I'll be back posting as soon as I find some time.

Seasons greetings to all of you!

Mohd said...

this sick SICK! what the hell is maradona doing? Otemedi, gago, Bolatti, Papa....?? even in this silly match Banega got no chance. he must have had a heart attack watching the horrible gago playing instead of him.

Do anyone really still thinks we even have to chance to get past the second round in the WC? I sure don't.

This is the lowest the NT has gone ever!

ARGENTINIAN 777 said...

What is happening to Argentina?? passing,counter attack was like sm1 was playimg school match!!! bt in the end this was the last match of the year thats means we have successfully ended our horrible year with the horrible result. N eways i m nt feeling too bad coz in my opinion this yr by any means wasnt our year so this year did it's part bt i m really hoping 2010 will b awesomw for our Argentina n all argentinian players!! bt yes i want to share sm thing. i was really impressed by Lavezzi coz of his pace n ability to score long range shots!! i know he didn't scored bt ya we can see he's pace n ability to score long range shots. bt sadly how can u guys say Di Maria was our best player in this match???? he wasted so many scoring opportunities n moreover his free kicks were out of his planet!! i hope he converts like this opportunities in the wc!!! n yes really happy for Pastore. hope he will get his chance at 2010. n DEMICHELIS was mind blowing. wow he defended solidly. it looked as if we were playing one man in defence!!! i m hoping demichelis will b our captain in 2010!! AT LAST HOPE ARGENTINA CAN FORGET 2009 N WIN THE WORLD CUP IN 2010!!!! VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!!!

GK said...

Sure we didn't play to our potential (we never really do) but like Seba said, it was a ridiculous match. The starting 11 at the finals isn't going to look like it did this afternoon. This match couldn't even be taken as a real friendly, it was geared more towards entertaining the fans. I got to watch the pregame on the TV and before the game there were dancers and music and singers and balloons and plenty of fireworks.... just eye candy for the paying fans, nothing like yoou would see at a normal FIFA friendly. Now I'm not using this as an excuse for our performance but what if we were the team that won 4-2? Wouldn't that give the national team some confidence back? Maybe some confidence that isn't deserved? I think in the end the loss will do us better than a win would have done us. Sure Maradona is far from the greatest manager around but the point is HE IS our manager and a national team can't perform without their regular manager. Not to mention a few key starters we did without (Messi, Mascherano, Aimar etc.)

I agree its frustrating to see Argentina continue to lose and rarely win but in this case I believe that a win today would have done us more harm that the loss.

bring back roman said...

like i have been saying 4 long time and i will say it again,untill ROMAN comes back and see anything like this below line up we will be keep suffering and losing.


ROMERO
ZANETI,MICHO,SAMUEL,(ANSALDI,MONzON)

MASCHE,CAMBIASO,DIMARIA

RIQUELME
(MESSI,LICHA) , (DIEGO MILTO)

GK said...

GOAL HIGHLIGHTS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJqnXgN8wRI&feature=player_embedded

Anonymous said...

Guys take a chill pill, no need to jump the gun with this. This was a dumb friendly that I feel nobody on the pitch gave a shit about. Lets face it ,we knew the backline was bad, why is everybody up in arms? Just relax and quit bitching over spilled milk. The attack looked awesome, there just should be a control to the game. The backline was horrible and the GK just as bad. There is room for improvement, so no need to cry over a game that nobody in the world watched besides people from Argentina and the people from Catalonia.

MaxiLopez said...

Pathetic ratings as usual. When will you understand that ALL our players are pathetic under Maradona? They are not suitable to counter attacking futbol. Except, Higuain, Lavezzi, Di Maria who have your highest rates. Why are we spitting on our players? What about Maradona?

THINK COLLECTIVE TEAMWORK INSTEAD OF INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES PLEASE.

Anonymous said...

chilll

Anonymous said...

I'm not an argentinian but a die hard argentinian fan . i would say throughout the whole year it was really disappointing for argentina. don,t knw wats happenin with the team with da best players in the world. hope next year it gets some improvements to win the wc.

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