Thursday, June 17, 2010

THREE-PITA HIGUAIN sends us to the next round

VAMOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

What an offensive performance from the whole team!

That's the Gonzalo HIGUAIN we all want to see. He started off really cold but when he caught on fire, he jumped all the way to the top of the scoring charts in this World Cup.

If he is going to stay like this in front of goal, then I'll have no problems if Diego MILITO doesn't start every match, even though you know I'd still pick him and as I said regarding Gabriel HEINZE v. Nigeria, one performance, good or bad, doesn't change all my convictions.

"Don't expect a walk in the PARK", I said before the match and inside the first 20 minutes, we were already up 1-0 courtesy of an own goal by a player called: PARK (Chu Young) and the final result was 4-1. So...what do I know about this game? I wonder!

"MILITO is the present. HIGUAIN is the future", was another of my remarks. Well...I guess I was right anyway. I was writing before the match took place so I guess the future has arrived.

I'm taking this on a light note and I don't care if you rub it on my nose right now because I'm thrilled we won and I'm delighted we are almost guaranteed of a place in the eight-finals and we could even clinch it today (if Nigeria and Greece draw).

We opened the scoring again rather early and again through a set-piece play. We were helped by PARK Chu Young, yes, but it was the first ever own-goal we were benefited from in the history of the World Cup (fact courtesy of 2010MisterChip -who you should all follow on Twitter-).

It was relieving, but we were already seeing how Argentina were taking control of the game and South Korea were sitting back and hoping for the best. They weren't even trying to counter-attack us during those first moments. Whenever they won the ball back, they were just kicking up and as far as they could.

Right after that we lost SAMUEL for the entire match. Nicolás BURDISSO came on to replace him and he did a great job. Especially when he flicked that ball into the area and towards an unmarked and completely onside Gonzalo HIGUAIN. A good header and 2-0. It looked like the party was just starting.

I was talking to some friends before the tournament started and we were all in agreement (for a change!) when saying we were worried about our defence. I told them..."It'll be a matter of having to concede four goals in a game because we have the potential to score at least three goals a game".

Today, with Walter SAMUEL getting injured, my worries and that of my friends increased and they reached the highest point when Martín DEMICHELIS gave South Korea the chance to score and to be back in the game for a while.

Before that, even one minute before that, we were doing whatever we wanted. I want to watch it again and count how many passes there were before Lionel MESSI tried to chip it over the keeper only to send it wide to the right.

I mean it...it had 'CAMBIASSO v. Serbia & Montenegro' written all over it! One or two minutes later, from a sure 3-0 lead for Argentina, we went to a 2-1 up and half-time.

Conceding without even being under real pressure.

My heart almost stopped when KIHUN fired a shot that hit ROMERO's side-netting on 58 minutes. It could have been 2-2 and it would have been the most unfair result in the history of the World Cup since 1930!

We couldn't find our feet in the second half and then we were brilliant again.

It took a while, but the third goal. The clincher. Arrived after a great move from our speed demons up front.

Kun AGÜERO came on for the immense Carlos TEVEZ and made an immediate impact in the game. His chemistry with MESSI is undeniable and it showed early on after the Atletico de Madrid forward changed the direction of that attacking move and unleashed MESSI on the left. The Flea, still looking for his first goal of the tournament was denied by the goalkeeper and then by the post, but Gonzalo HIGUAIN, with the true nose of a striker, was there to capture the rebound and make it 3-0.

'Game over and stop scoring now' were the shouts of many superstitious who wanted the match to end 3-1 like when we beat South Korea in 1986.

They were denied, because the team had other plans. Another great collective action upfront. Pipita gave it to MESSI, MESSI chipped it over a couple of defenders to find AGÜERO and Kun crossed it for Pipita to get his hat-trick.

Mission accomplished. Great offensive performance and a lot to work on in defence.

Vamos Argentina!

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

VAMOOOOOOOOOSSSSSS

rey said...

Yes!!! A great game. Our defensive was a concern, better teams will take them chances. We are through to the next round. It will give us a chance to put on players who haven't yet started..

I am looking forward to greece.

hugo said...

Hey, I just wanted to say "I dreamt it so"...see my comment to the podcast....from now on, I'll be selling the numbers I dream every night :)

Daniela said...

VAMOS ALBICELESTE! I can't WAIT for Greece!!!

Anonymous said...

aguero clearly the secret weapon his vision and link will be better than tevez its scary what ag,messi,hig could do in the nock out stages

this training game like low gear argentina are always guna be open at the back that will change when we hit the big sides look at uragauy and germany games thel step it up ,think samuel will be fine at least he got a rest out of it veron will be fresh ,we are looking seriously good aguero for me could be a wc super star and i think messi will step up once out of the group

johnny said...

Great, great performance today. Too many great performances to single out anyone in particular. For the future let's hope Samuel only mildly strained that hamstring !

johnny said...

Messi "stepping up" !!?? He's already stepped up. He's been fantastic ! If he keeps playing like this and doesn't score 1 goal I'll be happy !

Fadi Dagher said...

Actually this was a much tougher game than that of Nigeria (though the score doesn't say that). We were good in attack, but on the defensive side, we were not that good. If we want to win the WC, we have to enhance the defence. I just hope Samuel is fine, because if Samuel is there, even Di Michellis becomes better. Today, the defence was bad, especially Di Mechillis & Heinze. Korea really were threatening from Heinze's side, and could have easily scored a goal.
Looking forward to Greece match, hopefully Maradona will use this match to improve the team and test some players like Pastore & Millito

Argentina_fan_from_India said...

Priceless !!

http://u.goal.com/101300/101383hp2.jpg

Argentina_fan_from_India said...

Goal.com player ratings:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2010/06/17/1981380/player-ratings-argentina-4-1-south-korea

Messi – 8.5
Higuain – 8.5

Rune said...

We are through to the next round if only Greece doesn't beat Nigeria.
This was a really good game by us. We created many chances again, and this time we took more of them. Some sloppy moments in defence, like always, but over all we should be very happy. VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!

Vedran Agovic said...

Excellent and dominant effort by the team. Just gotta tighten down the defensive formation. Argentina will score 3 goals in that game but I pray they do not conceded those 4 goals in return. I will take that performance all day against any foe.

Anonymous said...

Demi struggled because he did not have the support of Samuel.

Sunil said...

Ready for next the round. Messi will score eventually and it will be in key match. Good, the forwards are clicking together as a team and it will help tremendously when they play good / great teams in the coming rounds.

Kasem Alam said...

This team is less tight than the 2006 squad, especially in defence. But there's an air of belief and palpability about them. I think its something to do with the presence of Maradona in the sidelines. If God be with you, who be against you? Plus we have the Messiah and Maria's Angel on our side as well.

Anonymous said...

what do u guys think of this formation? do you regard it as 4-3-3 or 3-4-3?

Anonymous said...

So much for resting the key starters (and yellow carded) - Greece is going to win 2-1 over Nigeria.

Stupid Nigerians.

BATIGOL9 said...

the team is so much faster Without veron!!

BATIGOL9 said...

the team is so much faster Without veron!!

Anonymous said...

I think Mascherano should try to get his sencond yellow at the end of the game and miss the next match. He is a combative midfielder and such a crucial figure in the team. Now we have to worry about him pick up a yellow card down the road (almost certain will happen at some point) and miss a playoff game. Heinze's yellow today is just dumb.

blue&white

Anonymous said...

start burdisso in place of demi please. A mistake like that could get us knocked out... also please give some minutes to milito and pastore

hugo said...

My understanding is that yellow cards do not carryover from the group stage to the round of 16. Everybody gets a clean slate "borron y cuenta nueva". They do start to count again, so someone may miss a game in the knock-off round for having two yellows in the preceeding games of that round. Example: Caniggia missed the 1990 final due to this

Anonymous said...

Thanks Hugo. That is good news.
Messi and Hugian were excellent today. I wonder how many in the strating eleven Diego will use in the next match. Greece won, so it is not over yet. The Mexico-France game tonight could decide the second round opponent for Argentina.

blue&white

Anonymous said...

yes, we did it! i have so much on my mind, but i don't want to think so much about now.

and i think it is good that demichelis made this mistake! that means the probability it happens in the group-stage is pretty low (i hope).

i hope samuel recovers very soon, this injury is really a big setback. i hope mexiko defeats france, and we play mexiko or better uruguay.

Vitalij

Anonymous said...

ok i changed my mind, i will write what i think haha!

that shot from KIHUN in minute 58 was really a moment for me where i really became huge doubts if we really can win the wc. how is it possible that we nearly concede a goal by a counterattack, after we have a corner, and are 2:1 in front??? this was just awful tactical play and defending. thank god we didn't play brazil, and it was the group-stage.

and once again not enough players defended! even brazil defended with more men against north-corea. we really have a strong attack, but in germany people say:

"attack wins games, defense wins tournaments"

however, oliver kahn said on german television, that Argentina is a very strong and good balanced team. he said, they have genius players and also hard workers, he also rated tevez very high and said you need players like him. well, that was it. VAMOS ARGENTINA!

Vitalij

Anonymous said...

(Seba, first of all one small tip for the future: the English for 'octavos de final' is 'round of sixteen'. We don't say 'one-eighth finals')

I'm not quite sure about the most unfair score in the HISTORY of the WC had that shot gone in to make it 2-2. It would have served as a further reminder that, yes, the defence is fragile. But they'd have still got battered.

Apparently (I'm getting this from a guy who lives in Seoul) the press in South Korea have been complaining since the weekend that the day after their win over Greece, South Korea started training to play against Nigeria, having already decided there was no way they were getting a result against Argentina. They got punished for that today (I don't know about you guys, but I didn't see anything that makes me doubt the veracity of what the Korean press were saying), but you've got to fancy them to beat Nigeria after all that preparation (even taking into account that Nigeria's goalkeeper is the best player in any position at the World Cup so far! Hahaha!), not that Argentina even need any help to get through.

So good on the ball, though, and Verón wasn't missed at all - as if anyone thought he would be! Di María again didn't do much after the first few minutes, but the fact that they can afford to carry one of the attackers shows how strong the others are.

Tevez's poor scoring record continues, but no-one even notices now because his performances are superb anyway! As for Messi, he might be in danger of winning the Player Of The Tournament award without scoring a goal! Haha...

And now Higuaín's finally got his mojo back, even if the rest of his play wasn't much to shout about. I still don't think Argentina are going to win this trophy, but however far they go I don't think South Korea will be the last team to get torn to shreds by them. But remember, baby steps - don't forget we were all saying the same thing after the second match in 2006...

Anonymous said...

By the way, Hugo: Yellow cards get scrubbed AFTER the round of 16, not after the group stage. So if Mascherano got a second yellow in the round of 16, he'd miss the quarter-final. But if he doesn't get a booking in the next two matches, he reverts to zero for the quarter final.

On which note, surely Jonás can't be used at full back deep into the knockout stages. I like him as a player but through no fault of his own, he's been booked in both matches, and although he got better protection from Maxi than he did from Verón in the opener, he's a risk there. I'd actually think about bringing him in for Di María in midfield, perhaps...

M3SS! said...

It is outrageous to even think that higuain is better than Milito coz of this hattrick. If we see last two games, higuain was easily one of Argentina's worst players. The three goals he scored yesterday were absolute freebies in my opinion. Even yesterday, he missed sitters like he always does. Now some smarta$$es are gonna compare a guy who played 160 minutes with a guy who played 10 mins. In this first 80 minutes, he was the WORST player of the team. Period.

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