Monday, June 21, 2010

MESSI to captain ARG v. GRE with this starting XI

Time difference kills me every now and then. I'm doing my best to watch every game of this World Cup and I'm still 'undefeated', but some press conferences are scheduled so early it's impossible to watch them!

Diego had another press conference really early today and he hinted his possible starting XI with MESSI included. But the most surprising development is that, even with VERON set to start too, Lio would very likely be our captain.

Oscar RUGGERI, in his new role as a journalist with privileges, said that MESSI was going to be our captain v. Greece and Diego, though he didn't confirm it 100%, said:

"Back in the day, I went to Barcelona to tell him not to be worried. And now his time has come. Yesterday (Sunday), when I told him what I told him, he got emotional. It's something beautiful".

Diego admitted he was forced to make some changes in his starting eleven but he also said:

"MESSI wants to play every match and I love that. I was thinking of giving him some rest, but to have a player of his talent, the best in the world and with a big difference over the rest...it would have been a sin not to give his team-mates and the fans the chance of seeing him play again. That's why we are using him. He was super happy".

"If he is in a bad scoring run, but he keeps giving me and the team these kind of performances, let him stay in a bad run! I'm absolutely pleased with what Lio is doing. He comes out to play and he makes his team-mates play. He is creating chances, though his goals are still refusing to come. And anyway...in 1986, against South Korea our scorers were RUGGERI and VALDANO. Against Bulgaria VALDANO and BURRUCHAGA. I scored when we needed it the most and MESSI will do the same".

The starting lineup that is almost confirmed?

ROMERO

OTAMENDI, DEMICHELIS, BURDISSO, Clemente RODRIGUEZ

Maxi RODRIGUEZ, BOLATTI, VERON

MESSI, AGÜERO

MILITO

Your thoughts?

47 comments:

Sebastian said...

My first reaction?

An absolute mixture!

On one hand, the tremendous joy of seen MILITO will not only have the chance to start, but he will do it together with MESSI.

And on the other hand...do you realise just under how much pressure I am at the moment???? hahahaha!

Most of you would 'kill' me if MILITO fails to score. Some of you would say he is not national team material and who knows how many more things and no matter what happens, I will still be arguing that he is and that he would start of any other team in this World Cup and also in all the teams that failed to qualify.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Lets wait for the game as patiently as Diego MILITO has waited for his chance.

Come on, football. You owe me this one! ;)

Anonymous said...

I think Diego should play Di Maria. He has had a slow start and another game would give him a chance to gain some rhythm.

Anonymous said...

I agree - give Di Maria more minutes that he needs to feel comfortable.

Also, start Pastore - Veron might still be hurt, and let Pastore get some touches on the ball. Not to mention that he plays well with Bolatti.

johnny said...

Nice move to have Messi as the captain, whether or not he has earmed it. That will go a long way to continue the "let's make Messi an argentino" movement.

Nice to see N Korea getting their butts kicked today.

Sebastian said...

Regarding DI MARIA...I think Diego has taken into consideration that DI MARIA was one of the players who ran the most in the first two matches. But, the most important issue here is this:

Just as we did in our first match v. Nigeria, when we had Jonas playing a double function (RB and RMF), we are now going to see Clemente do that but on the left. Therefore, and in order to keep three attacking players from the start, DI MARIA had to be dropped.

Plus...that day against Nigeria, the midfield was not as balanced as against South Korea and without MASCHERANO you need to have three players like VERON-BOLATTI and Maxi who are not as offensive-minded as DI MARIA.

I see nothing wrong in dropping DI MARIA for this match. If anything, he'll be more fired up for the next one, knowing that he is not guaranteed of a place and that he has to improve on what he has shown so far.

Sebastian said...

Regarding starting PASTORE over VERON?

Not the same kind of player. VERON can help in winning the ball back, PASTORE has a different mentality and is more offensive. You need to have a balanced midfield if you have that much scoring power up front.

And VERON is ready to play. He wouldn't be sent to the pitch if he wasn't.

Anonymous said...

hey what the hell!!! where is di maria?

GK said...

I was expecting a starting 11 of 4 in the back and 2 up front with a diamond midfield....

Romero
Burdisso-Otamendi-Demichelis-Clemente
Bolatti
Maxi-Di Maria
Pastore
Milito-Aguero

I guess I was wrong but why is Otamendi going to play as RB and Burdisso as CB? A little backwards no?

I was looking forward to seeing Pastore play but hopefully he will come on as a sub at some point. Messi will find the back of the net, more than once.

Maybe we will also win 7-0 tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

A.T.:
Seba, your first comment is hilarious... and soooo very true hehehe

as to my reaction, I would have loved to see someone other than Veron play (Pastore, since you guys are raving about him, I would like to see how he would do) and I hope Bolatti does well, other than that, I think it is all good, and can't wait to see Messi leading our traem as captain!!

Anonymous said...

great team either way..... im also banking on milito just for you seba... its great that they are not resting messi, let him get his goal then take him off..

cnt wait for the game vamoss...

Lucas

johnny said...

Another silly red card for a Swiss player. At most, deserving of a yellow. I never thought I would say this, but the referring in Argentina is better week in and week out than what we have seen from all these hotshots at the World Cup. An absurd shame.

rey said...

remember we are still not through to the next round. we need a point to finish top!

so am am glad to see this offensive line up.

p2bn said...

Nice! If the news about making Leo the captain is true; I can clearly see Diego trying to make him more of a leader as he was. North Korea absolutely made blunders after blunders and gifted Portugal a super easy victory. Portugal played some good football but I bet they are going to get a spanking by the Brazilians.

Anyway what do you guys think of Brazilian fans? I had a massive discussion with a hardcore Brazilian fan which started when I posted some facts of Arg-Bra head to head record. He had posted some "facts" which showed Brazil hammering Argentina and I just corrected him and man he went absolutely ballistic. He was using expletives at Argentina and Messi such as hoping Brazilian defence stops 'ass' Messi. I was totally stunned. I replied and he started patronising saying, Argentina fans are covetous (jealous) of Brazil inside. I just didn't expected that. So just sharing with you guys.

Vamos Argentina

And Seba; now that is clever, already defending Milito. I think if we score early, it could be a goal feast hopefully (fingers crossed) :D.

Rune said...

A terrible decision to let Messi play. Here we have Diego's first tactical miss in this world cup. If Messi picks up an injury now, Diego will get killed by the press. Greek players are dirty players and it's not unlikely at all that Messi will pick up an injury. This was very sad news indeed.

NINAN said...

Happy to see Milito in the starting 11. It is going to be a make or break game for all the Militophilics led by our captain Seba, hahaha! I guess Milito will be more relaxed than his die hard fan Seba! I predict two goals from Milito which will silence the Militophobics for ever.
I Would have preferred Pastore over Maxi.
My line up would have been a 4-2-3-1 formation
---------ROMERO-------
OTAMENDI----DEMI--BURDI----CLEMENT
-------BOLLATI-----VERON-------
PASTORE------MESSI------AGUERO
----------MILITO----------

Anonymous said...

It looks a good side, but I hope Pastore comes on for aguero or veron at some point. good chance for milito to show what he is capable of.

Unknown said...

imo, i think Diego shud give chance to every players in da squad to play especially if we r leading Greeze in da 1st half, actually i wanna c Martin play up front with Milito and Kun, here is my formation, 3-1-3-3....
GK-Romero, CB- Budisso, Demichelis, Ottamendi, DM-Bolatti, CM Pastore, Veron, Messi(C) RFW-Milito CFW-Parlemo LFW-Kun

I know it isn't gonna be real, just my wish, anyway whoever starting 1st eleven, we still can beat da Greeze by 2 goals up, thats for sure..

VAMOS ARGENTINA

lz said...

Rune, what's with you?

Earlier: Rune said...
The team we saw yesterday will be the world champions....sad but true. I hate Brazil, but they will win because of their defence.
5:24 AM

Now:
Rune said...
A terrible decision to let Messi play. (...) it's not unlikely at all that Messi will pick up an injury. This was very sad news indeed.
7:59 AM

Are you always this cheerful about your team? How can an Argentina fan have 2 such thoughts within a 2-hour period?! Geez... what's your point? Concentrate on the good stuff for a change: our squad has plenty of that too,
had you noticed? Hopefully reading the comments from the rest of people above this message will help you see the manager's rationale for his choice of players, especially of Messi in this particular instance. Trust--what about that?Cheer up!

Vamos Argentina

Happer said...

Completely agree with lz...

Maru said...

I keep my idea that I would have kept Heinze. Maybe it's a risk, but I would have done it since we are NOT yet classified. It's true that playing with Demichelis would have been more time for these two to get more comfortable playing together, and also it would mean we don't have a basically completely new defense against Greece. If we were guaranteed a spot in the round of 16 then fine, but we're not yet. I'm excited (/nervous) to see how the new defense will work though, especially Jonas' side. Hopefully it will be better.

I'm happy to see Messi there. Of course one never stops worrying until he's out of the pitch completely injury and card free, but we'll keep our finger crossed, and I think it's important to start the game with him there. Also happy to see Veron, I'm sure this means he's completely recovered, and it'll give Messi and Veron more time playing together, which I also think is important.

gebrihell said...

hehehe, is Rune an extremist Argentine fan? so scared and full of negative thoughts...maybe we should try to cheer him up.

Hey Rune, we will win the Cup, OK? And even if we don't, that has got nothing to do with your negativity. Take a chill pill, brother. Enjoy this moment. Because you'll never get it back (until 4 years time)

hugo said...

I like the team for tomorrow. And I like they are going out with a team with players hungry to score: Messi his first, Milito to prove Seba is right...:)
Another thing I am relieved: both Maradona and Tevez mentioned Carlos playing left back....Maradona praising him saying something like " he covers all positions, goalie, LB, etc" and Tevez said something like "I'll playe wherever Diego puts me, even #3"....well, I am glad it was just figurative speech...

@thinkingzombie said...

I wonder how come nobody spotted and cry foul over the two handballs of Luis Fabiano in his 2nd Goal of the match.
I wonder how the media, the analysts, the referees, the linesman and the fourth officials can be so blatantly blind to that.
Horrific !!!!

Anonymous said...

pastore should be starting, we need to know how good he is as we know what maxi or veron and bolatti can do (im not a fan of any of those 3) but would like to see pastore given the chance as i think he will add a lot to the team ie a quicker thinking player with more pace esp vs faster more mobile counter attcking teams.

Mohd said...

Sebastian-->
Veron helps in getting the ball back? the man run as slow as a turtle and any player can dribble past him. now you may argue that he is a player who knows how to position well, then i will argue that this was the veron like 7-8 years ago. not this veron.
Pastore is a playmaker, and a playmaker we need.

Rune-->
agree, Messi should not have played. i like maradona's comment that let Messi score in the matches that matter. plus who cares if Messi scores or not as long as he is playing well. playing him is not a smart move.

Anonymous said...

Honduras is awful. How can this team can play in this tournament. They can't kick proper, don't know how to pass, the defense horrible, their forward like less nutrition, lazy. Spain should score more than 4 goals actually. Spain miss a lot of chance

- charlie _

@thinkingzombie said...

Being an admirer of the beautiful game, I will want Spain and Chile to go through to the round of 16.
It really is now the group of death.
Swiss will in all probability win against honduras and if they can win by a margin of 3 goals, Swiss will definitely go through irrespective of the result between CHile-Spain.
Spain has a +1 Goal Diff Pts-3
Chile has a +2 Goal Diff Pts-6
Swiss has a -1 goal Diff Pts-3

so if chile lose and Swiss win by a 3 goal margin they Swiss will go thru.
If Spain lose, they are out,
If Spain draw, chile goes thru and in all probability Swiss will go thru (expecting Swiss to beat Honduras).
It really is the group of death now.
How I wish Honduras can kiss teh Swiss butt :)

Sebastian said...

Charlie, regarding Honduras, you may be right with a few things there, but I also think Spain can make a good team look bad too. Poor Chile...if they lose to Spain and Switzerland beat Honduras (both results very likely, they'll be out of the tournament with two wins! I think about Italy having a chance to advance with three draws and my stomach hurts).

Sebastian said...

As for MESSI...what can I tell you, amigos? I think I'll go with the argument Maru has been using here since yesterday: We are not qualified yet. What if we don't play MESSI from the start and we lose and we're out? What would people say about MARADONA if that happens?

@thinkingzombie said...

Sorry I meant kick the Swiss butt :)

Sebastian said...

And Mohd, regarding VERON, you say it's the VERON of 7-8 years ago the one that would win balls back. Well...I still see him do that week-in, week-out in Argentina and South America. And Greece doesn't present us with a challenge that is much more complicated than what he faces when he plays in our local league or in the Copa Libertadores, where he dominates most rivals.

We'll see how it goes. Of course I won't rely on him to be our main holding midfielder for the rest of the tournament. That's MASCHERANO's job. Tomorrow, I think he can do a decent job.

PASTORE, on the other hand, with this kind of formation and with as many forwards as we will be playing, won't be a suitable option to play instead of VERON. He could do a job coming on for MESSI or AGÜERO as the game progresses (depending on the score), because he is much more offensive than VERON and he can't do a job defensively (or at least he never showed me that because he was never asked to play in that position as far as I know).

Sebastian said...

Apocalypt Creator: I hear you, brother! I'm on the same page with you. It got difficult for the two teams that want to play football from that group to progress. It looks like the Swiss Catenaccio will advance, which will be a disgrace as they are the most negative side I've seen in this tournament.

Chile would only have themselves to blame because they only won 1-0 both of their matches when both of them should have been 4-0. Now their goal-difference is so poor that they are leading the group but in my eyes they are the team that is more compromised to advance. They can advance with a draw...but they have to keep Spain at bay. Will they be able?

All I can say is...COME ON HONDURAS!

Alex Camacho said...

I'd love it if Spain gets second and Chile 1st, though it is hard to imagine how that happens since the Swiss only have to beat Honduras. But if it it did then Brazil would have Spain and then the Netherlands before even reaching the semifinals.

Anonymous said...

how some people can really believe that we can miss the 1/8? we can play even with only 8 men from the beginning and will definetey progress and get the 1. place.

i mean, greece must defeat with a 3 goal margin and corea must defeat nigeria with a 3 goal margin to throw us out of the wc. this will never happen. ok, there are also other possibilities, but come'on, even the biggest pessimists must understand that we are safe.

i believe maradona knows what he doas, but still it is a risk to play messi, and i don't see how this risk can be rewarded.

Anonymous said...

take a look at:

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.11freunde.de/img/artikel/113513_huge.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.11freunde.de/bundesligen/113513&usg=__fTfKkrIEMzlqJck29cEukaRRAlA=&h=294&w=530&sz=28&hl=de&start=7&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=yEAUdXAOOCGVGM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3DEwald%2BLienen%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1G1TSEH_DEDE367%26tbs%3Disch:1

otto rehhagel, current coach of greece, was coach of the player who injured this guy. rehhagel was accused that he wanted that his player kicks this poor guy out of the game (29 years ago). so you see, it is a risk to play tomorrow.

Vitalij

Lopez,India said...

Seba please tell me if we loss this match thn still we eligible to qualify ..

Anonymous said...

oops, wrong here:

http://icache.20six.net/myblog/de/squiddy/img/Lienen--Ewald.jpg

again: coach rehhagel was accused to tell his players to kick this guy out of the game.

Vitalij

Anonymous said...

how some people can really believe that we can miss the 1/8? we can play even with only 8 men from the beginning and will definetey progress and get the 1. place.

i mean, greece must defeat with a 3 goal margin and corea must defeat nigeria with a 3 goal margin to throw us out of the wc. this will never happen. come'on, even the biggest pessimists must understand that we are safe.

i believe maradona knows what he doas, but still it is a risk to play messi, and i don't see how this risk can be rewarded.

Vitalij

Maru said...

Anonymous, I understand that the odds are clearly in our favor. There are many chances of us going through, and not that many of us staying out of the WC. BUT there ARE chances, as little as they are, the chances are there. And unfortunately this is a WC and the second you start getting too confident about yourself and underestimate the other team, you end up being shocked by a team that doesn't seem good at all. We can't get too confident because the truth is that there are chances we won't qualify, even if they are small chances, so we have to go out, give it our best and get at least a point from that match. I think that one of the important things in World Cups that a teams must have in order to advance is the right mentality.
Remember how Rooney said that even playing badly they could beat Algeria, and look what happened now. Clearly that's a lesson learned for everyone.

So I too am nervous about the risks on Messi. Of course, I think we will all cry if something happens to him, and KNOCK ON WOOD but it would definitely be the WORST. But it's important to at least have him in the start to secure us that qualification and eliminate those SMALL chances of us not making it through. Greece has chances of qualifying so they are going to go all out here, and I think they would be much more intimidated, and approach the game different if they know Messi is there.

I don't know, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But until we are not mathematically qualified I won't be getting too confident. There were already too many disappointments in World Cups lol.


I really annoys me some of the mathematical stuff. Like CHILE being in real danger of going out, having won 2/2 matches! And England or Italy both having very clear chances of going through having won NO matches and drawn both... Really annoys me.

p2bn said...

Man you guys! Don't scare me saying Greece will play super dirty on Messi and reading the Greek coach saying we have plans for Messi, I sure hope there will be a super strict refree now. But Messi really seems to want to play and score a goal. And the Greeks best chance is to try to score goals rather then focus on stopping Argentina as that might be the best possible outcome for them if South Korea loses against Nigeria. Here's hoping for the best tomorrow.

Vamos Argentina!!

Maru said...

I'm hoping Nigeria will do us a favor and pull out at least one win against South Korea... Though from the football they have shown so far I don't except too much. But wouldn't that be great?

Most referees this World Cup have been pretty bad. I'm still mad about Mascherano's yellow card, he clearly didn't make it on time because the ref was IN HIS WAY!! And he had to take a 2 second detour so he was late and ended up clashing with the Korean player. And let's not talk about the ref that stopped USA from taking 2 points that were theirs! And yesterday against Brazil... Ugh, I hope FIFA does something about this, some of the refs decisions in the world cup have been very pathetic.

Argentina_fan_from_India said...

Veron is too slow for this fast paced team.I hope he doesn't spoil the rhythm that we had in the last match.

Anonymous said...

I do not like the FIFA qualifying rules used to determine the team which advances to the second round in case of a tie in points. Below are the FIFA rules:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/standings/whatif.html
a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria,
their rankings will be determined as follows:

d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the
teams concerned;
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams
concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams
concerned;
g) drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.

I believe if two teams have equal number of points then the team which has won the head-to-head record should advance. The second criterion should not be the overall goal difference.

If the criterion I suggested was enforced Argentina would have already qualified now. Chile also would have qualified. But now there is a real danger of Swiss or even Chile going out.

I would hate to see Swiss going out after winning against Honduras (they get 6pts) due to inferior goal difference to Spain even though they have beat Spain in the group game.

PJ
----
PS: Of course, if England and Italy make it without winning a single game it is pathetic.

Sunil said...

Starting Line up

ROMERO

OTAMENDI, DEMICHELIS, BURDISSO, Clemente RODRIGUEZ

Maxi RODRIGUEZ, BOLATTI, VERON

MESSI, tevez, higuian

subs

tevez-> milito
higuian -> kun/aguero

Anonymous said...

veron is too slow since wen was veron a slow player he passes qiuckly and inteligently and he plays deep i for the life of me do not understand what you are saying

wen he out passed zaxi in the club world cup for a hour and a half solid was he to slow

he aint roman and stop calling pastore a veron replacment he is a messi replacment or a playmaker in the 10 position messi could go front 2

bolatti is more like veron and bolatti plus veron can still cover the back line

pastore in a deep midfield position please stop airing your opinions there dumb

Majumdar said...

Hi, I am from India but have been a big Argie fan since 80s (basically since my started following soccer.

Seba, what wud ur team be if our team reaches qtrfinal onwards and faces real oppn like Germany, Spain, Braz etc.

Mine wud be

GK:Romero
DF:Burdisso (RB)- Heinze/Demichelis- Clemente Rodrigues (LB)
MF: Maxi, Masch (Holding), Pastore (Attacking)
FW: Messi, Higuain, Tevez

What do u make of it?

Regards

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